Along with 6,190 other guests and some 2,800 crew, my wife, son and I have just completed a magical cruise aboard "the world's largest ship", the Allure of the Sea's. Only mention the numbers because we also spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at Disney World with some 100,000 others on each day and could not move! When you then factor in the two days at Disney World cost me MORE than a week at sea, the "World's Largest Cruise Ship", (sorry, we were constantly reminded of this all week), wins my vote hands down!!!

OK, firstly, the shows! My wife and I are regulars on both Broadway and the West End in addition to taking in numerous shows on annual Vegas trips and the Allure offers many that are at least the equal. Chicago and the special effects laden, Blue Planet along with two ice-shows, (How to Train Your Dragon and the superb Ice Games), Aqua shows, (Madagascar, (a must for the kids), and the unbelievably breath-taking OceanAria are just awe-inspiring! You then take all the other on-board entertainment, (zip-line, flow-rider, a host of other sports activities, the music, the comedy), and the week passes at a very unfair pace as within no time at all, it's all over! The Activities team is awesome, even if Ken Rush was a little tiring by the end of the cruise - sorry Ken, just tone it down a little and you will be as enjoyable as many of your other RCCL peers - oh, and there is no "I" in team!

Albeit a little out of sequence, I wish we had had one or two US Congressmen or Senators aboard our ship who had to go through the same disembarkation process we did. As ever, RCL were superb the way they organised off-loading 6,300 people, but to US politicians, you should be ashamed as to the impression your hard-pressed Border Control folks left us with about the US. 6 poor souls who did their best to clear us, but given that they only looked at our passport photo-pages and then at us, why did it take 75 minutes from stepping off the ship to clearing immigration? Read more