Embarkation was a breeze, barely any wait.

We had sailed on Allure before and were still impressed with the ship, despite it's age. There were some areas that needed some attention - Freestyle machine outside Sorrentos, men's restroom on pool deck, but overall well maintained.

This was our 9th Royal Caribbean cruise and have to agree with the common trend in reviews that service and quality are in a downward trend. We sailed Anthem last May and saw significant cuts on this sailing both in amount of onboard activities as well as food in the MDR. If you're a fish/seafood lover, you'll be very happy with MDR menus, if not, you'll probably get quickly bored. Both starters and desserts only had one or two changes each night. We have always enjoyed the MDR in the past, but will most likely start frequenting specialty restaurants. Our dining staff was also very slow for just a table of 4. We were seated right inside the door and could see that the majority of diners arrived after we did (traditional seating) and the majority left before we did an we aren't slow eaters and ordered as soon as waiter arrived. Read more