I have been on Royal Caribbean several times before but never on a ship the size of the Allure of the Seas. If you are used to smaller ships, it can take a day or two to transition to a ship that holds over 6,000 passengers, as the initial flood of people on the first day can make activities and meals challenging, but it is well worth it.

One area where I have to give Royal Caribbean credit is on the embarkation and disembarkation. Even with all the passengers, both processes went very quickly and smoothly. Our arrival time for embarkation was at 11:30 and we were on the ship and enjoying lunch by 11:55.

Dining on the Allure was excellent but the first day was a bit rough. We had My Time dining and for dinner the first night, as well as breakfast on day 2, the lines were extremely long to get into any restaurant. My suggestion: don't use My Time, go with a set time to eat and for the first night eat at a specialty restaurant to avoid the crush of people. We ate at Sabor twice and Izumi Hibachi once, and had an incredible meals in both places. Based on the price ($20/person), quality of food and quality of service, I would recommend Sabor slightly higher than Izumi ($45/person) but both were truly excellent. One tip we found is that the interactive screens on the ship can tell you the capacity of each restaurant so you can determine if you would, for example, rather eat in the Park Cafe rather than the Windjammer because of crowds (and eat in the Park, they serve some very unique and delicious stuff there) Read more