(Royal Caribbean Diamond Plus with 30+ cruises on RCL)

We booked this cruise 6 days before the sail date of 11 December, 2021. Booked a large balcony cabin and very surprised to find one available and the reasonable price so close to departure Once on board it became obvious why. They were excited to get 4200 people, the highest number since the shutdown, on board a ship with a capacity of 6400+. No one would answer whether the number of passengers was due to CDC restrictions or if that was all they could sell. From all indications it was the later, as they were bragging that their next sailing had 5,000 booked. Also the Next Cruise booking venue appeared to not have the normal rush during the at sea days and most evenings you could walk right in even though there were only two agents there to talk with about booking another cruise.

The ship was spectacularly clean. Allure did not get the complete overhaul I believe she was scheduled for so her age shows a little but one could not but notice the fantastic conditions of this ship. Of course Covid may be credited for the constant cleaning we observed however we have almost always been impressed with the effort RCL puts into keeping their ships clean. Read more