This was a family cruise for 17 people with children, grandchildren and some cousins. We sailed on the “Allure of the Seas” from Port Everglades on a 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise.

The Allure is a beautiful ship with something to do for people in all age brackets all the time. It is a destination in itself – a good thing since my wife and I have done Eastern Caribbean at least 6 times and so we stayed aboard most of the time. This was out 33rd cruise mostly on RCCL , Celebrity, and Holland America Lines. This was also a Thanksgiving cruise so I am sure all cabins were booked, and many held 3 or 4 people since there were a lot of school-age kids aboard.

The boarding process went well, although some in our party experienced processing delays since the computer system in the terminal was apparently overloaded. The food was OK. There are many venues available for breakfast and lunch but they offer a subset of the menu in available in the Windjammer. The food area in the Windjammer was too tight, and led to people bumping into each other. Although they surprisingly only opened one half of the windjammer (starboard or port), finding a place to sit was usually not a problem. I had to make good on my promise to eat steak for Thanksgiving dinner. So to do it right, I ordered my steak, a 9 ounce Filet Mignon, from Chop’s Grill, for an additional cost of about $20. That was a mistake. The steak was not very good, and it delayed the service for everyone at our table until we forgot why we were there. (My time Dining, American Icon dining room). Read more