We got back from the Allure Christmas sailing (Eastern Carribean) about 3 weeks ago and had an overall good time but will probably stick with Disney in the future.
Tips:
1. If you're on My Time Dining, definitely make your desired dining times online as early as possible. Secure your character breakfast reservation on line as early as possible as well.
2. For My Time Dining, if you have to switch to another time while you're on board, you will be told to come as a walk-on. To shorten your wait, upon check-in, tell them that you'd like first available table, otherwise they try to place you in the same dining area and same server(s) from your previous night(s) and that resulted in a wait of 25 minutes for us for one night before we wised up!
3. Be sure to ask about the ice cream and sherbert flavor of the day. We love their ice cream and tropical sherbert and most of their sugar-free dessert while the regular dessert was just "meh" to us.
4. If you buy the soda package and are super thirsty, go light on the ice, since you have to wait 10 minutes for the next refill if you use their self-service soda machine. The machine keeps track by scanning information from the bottom of the soda cup.
5. For show reservations, don't stress if you don't get the times you want online. Although I did book all my shows online, I decided last minute to switch things around, so after embarking and settling in, I went to make reservation show changes at Studio B on Deck 4 and easily got everything I wanted. They do set aside seats for people making reservations on embarkation day.
6. Chicago and OceanAria were amazing and not to be missed!
7. The Move It Move It parade exceeded our expeectation. We showed up 20 minutes early and were able to get a good spot. If you can't find any spots along the two sides, you can sit/stand at some of the center islands where they have the merchandise booths. The parades loops around several times, so don't fret if you see Po on the other side...he'll loop around and come back to your spot.
8. We didn't discover the soft serve (it's actually frozen yogurt) self-serve machines on the pool deck (I think it's Deck 15) until Day 5. The spot is a bit hidden so ask for directions.
9. We love the Solaruim for breakfast because they serve mango, papaya, hot shrimp miso soup and the other fruits also seem to be more fresh and less "picked over" compared to the Windjammer.
10. When you turn off the lights at night in your stateroom, be sure not to turn off the "master" switch, the big square button outside the bathroom. Otherwise, you will not get any air conditioning while sleeping at night.
Have fun!