We've cruised with Royal Caribbean (RC) many times and had a great experience. We've cruised on Oasis of the Seas and loved it. So my feedback is based on a comparison of Oasis and Allure. We booked a 10-night Eastern Caribbean holiday cruise on Allure December 23, 2016 through January 2, 2017. We celebrated New Year on both ships. The two ships are very similar in design, layout, services provided by the staff. However, it is the only similarity. We give overall rating to Allure as average compared to Oasis as high.

The good: great appearance, clean, lots of activities, great services provided by the friendly staff, good food. This is what you expect on a good cruise.

The bad: excursions are excessively expensive. We wanted to spend time on a beach so booked beach excursions at most ports. Well, we paid a lot for a public beach (!!!). We could have taken a taxicab to a public beach (for example paying $11 for a cab instead of paying $45 through Allure). On Oasis, they brought us to private beaches for the same money we paid on Allure. Very disappointing. Oasis has several unique specialty restaurants we enjoyed and had a great experience. That was a reason why we decided to visit again 150 Central Park restaurant to experience again the multi course set menu. It was a great experience on Oasis. Well, what a disappointment it was, the menu on Allure was a regular menu. Food was good but we could have a similar menu in any complimentary restaurants on Allure instead of paying $90 for two. In a Chops Grill restaurant, we were so rushed that we finished dinner within 45 min. Very disappointing. Our balcony glass was dirty so it was not pleasant to sit on a balcony. No parade and unique entertainment was on Allure at the New Year night compared to Oasis. The library was empty with few books compared to Oasis. Read more