Background: My DH and I are both recently retired and enjoy cruise vacations for the cost, the entertainment, and my husband's favorite reason--he doesn't have to try to find a restaurant or entertainment venue in an unfamiliar location. We took Oasis on the western Caribbean in March this year, and enjoyed it so much we wanted to see how Allure on the Eastern Caribbean cruise compared to Oasis. We found that there are many more similarities than differences, but given how much we like these ships, that's a plus.

Travel to port/Hotel: We live in the south and have driven to Ft. Lauderdale in the past, but now find that flying is easier than the two day car ride. We drive to Atlanta and take a direct flight to Ft. Lauderdale so there are fewer worries about bags arriving when we do. On both our March and August trips, we stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn on 18th Street and were very happy with the hotel service and rooms. The hotel has a small restaurant with very good food that is reasonably priced for dinner. They also have a breakfast buffet but we chose to go across the street for a quick fast food breakfast. There is also a mall and restaurants across the street. We took the shuttle at 11:30 AM for $8pp and arrived at the port in about 10 minutes.

Embarkation: Although there were lots of passengers, there were also many RC agents providing service, so we were directed to an agent immediately and were quickly onboard the ship. Read more