My son's wanted to try this really big ship. This was our first Royal Caribbean cruise. We just got off yesterday 11/24. Previously have done many on Princess, Celebrity, Carnival, and Holland. So I can compare. First, the good,Allure is a really cool ship. They have activities other ships don't have like the flow rider, zip line, and rock wall out side. The water theater is amazing and so was the show. They had to end it 10 minutes early because of the rain. But it was still awesome. Studio B has the ice skating show as well, very good. The Amber theater is large and had good shows as well. Our room was overlooking Central Park. Which I really enjoyed. It is a real garden. Generally, it is pretty quiet area which I like. The room was plenty big enough for 2 of us. We really enjoyed the Captain and officers questions and answers hour. Captain John was really cool. They are very efficient at managing a lot of people getting on and off the boat.

Now for the not so good. There are just too many people over 6200+. Crowds are especially apparent in the buffet, all the time, and on the promenade. There are 2 central elevator areas forward and aft. Each with 12. They are mostly full all day except very early or late in the day.The buffet food is just not that good. It is the same every single day! Windjammer buffet is also way to small for the number of people on board. Plus they have limited hours that other cruise lines do not have. The whole thing closes at 3 pm or sometimes at 330 and they don't open again until 6 pm. That's ridiculous.

We ate at 3 of the specialty restaurant. The best was 150 Central Park. Everything was delicious. Chops was very good. Steak was perfect. the mac and cheese was bland, tasteless. Side order of asparagus which they said was for 2 had only 6 spears. Izumi was only fair. for sushi. They do not know how to do the rice. It was mushy, looking more like cream of wheat, just not done right. The sashimi was not sliced properly. My son watched as he sawed it back and forth. Maybe we are snobs when it comes to sushi, but hey they are charging a sizable amount, it should be good. The dining room dinners were mostly good. Only liked 1 dessert there all week. Read more