diff --git a/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/ClusterActorRefProvider.scala b/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/ClusterActorRefProvider.scala
index 0d56418b18..aa5151c282 100644
--- a/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/ClusterActorRefProvider.scala
+++ b/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/ClusterActorRefProvider.scala
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ class ClusterActorRefProvider(
   _dynamicAccess: DynamicAccess) extends RemoteActorRefProvider(
   _systemName, _settings, _eventStream, _scheduler, _dynamicAccess) {
 
-  override val deployer: RemoteDeployer = new ClusterDeployer(settings, dynamicAccess)
+  override val deployer: ClusterDeployer = new ClusterDeployer(settings, dynamicAccess)
 
 }
 
diff --git a/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/package.scala b/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/package.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2db1790362
--- /dev/null
+++ b/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/package.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+/**
+ * Copyright (C) 2009-2012 Typesafe Inc. <http://www.typesafe.com>
+ */
+
+package akka.cluster
+
+import language.implicitConversions
+import akka.actor.Props
+import akka.routing.RouterConfig
+import akka.actor.Deploy
+
+package object routing {
+
+  /**
+   * Sugar to define cluster aware router programatically.
+   * Usage Scala API:
+   * [[[
+   * import akka.cluster.routing.ClusterRouterProps
+   * context.actorOf(Props[SomeActor].withClusterRouter(RoundRobinRouter(),
+   *   totalInstances = 10, maxInstancesPerNode = 2), "myrouter")
+   * ]]]
+   *
+   * Corresponding for Java API is found in [[akka.cluster.routing.ClusterRouterPropsDecorator]].
+   */
+  implicit class ClusterRouterProps(val props: Props) extends AnyVal {
+
+    /*
+     * Without this helper it would look as ugly as:
+     * val router = RoundRobinRouter(nrOfInstances = 10)
+     * val actor = system.actorOf(Props[SomeActor].withRouter(router).withDeploy(
+     *  Deploy(routerConfig = ClusterRouterConfig(router, totalInstances = router.nrOfInstances, maxInstancesPerNode = 2))),
+     *  "myrouter")
+     */
+
+    def withClusterRouter(router: RouterConfig, totalInstances: Int, maxInstancesPerNode: Int): Props = {
+      props.withRouter(router).withDeploy(
+        Deploy(routerConfig = ClusterRouterConfig(router, totalInstances, maxInstancesPerNode)))
+    }
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/routing/ClusterRouterConfig.scala b/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/routing/ClusterRouterConfig.scala
index 945497677c..7af2bfd185 100644
--- a/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/routing/ClusterRouterConfig.scala
+++ b/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/routing/ClusterRouterConfig.scala
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ import akka.routing.Router
 import akka.routing.RouterConfig
 import java.lang.IllegalStateException
 import akka.cluster.ClusterScope
+import akka.routing.RoundRobinRouter
 
 /**
  * [[akka.routing.RouterConfig]] implementation for deployment on cluster nodes.
@@ -75,10 +76,18 @@ class ClusterRouteeProvider(
     throw new ConfigurationException("Cluster deployment can not be combined with routees for [%s]"
       format context.self.path.toString)
 
+  /**
+   * Note that nrOfInstances is ignored for cluster routers, instead
+   * the `totalInstances` parameter is used. That is the same when
+   * using config to define `nr-of-instances`, but when defining the
+   * router programatically or using [[akka.routing.Resizer]] they
+   * might be different. `totalInstances` is the relevant parameter
+   * to use for cluster routers.
+   */
   override def createRoutees(nrOfInstances: Int): Unit = {
     val impl = context.system.asInstanceOf[ActorSystemImpl] //TODO ticket #1559
 
-    for (i ← 1 to nrOfInstances; target ← selectDeploymentTarget) {
+    for (i ← 1 to totalInstances; target ← selectDeploymentTarget) {
       val name = "c" + childNameCounter.incrementAndGet
       val deploy = Deploy("", ConfigFactory.empty(), routeeProps.routerConfig, RemoteScope(target))
       var ref = impl.provider.actorOf(impl, routeeProps, context.self.asInstanceOf[InternalActorRef], context.self.path / name,
@@ -152,3 +161,19 @@ class ClusterRouteeProvider(
 
 }
 
+/**
+ * Sugar to define cluster aware router programatically.
+ * Usage Java API:
+ * [[[
+ * context.actorOf(ClusterRouterPropsDecorator.decorate(new Props(MyActor.class),
+ *   new RoundRobinRouter(0), 10, 2), "myrouter");
+ * ]]]
+ *
+ * Corresponding for Scala API is found in [[akka.cluster.routing.ClusterRouterProps]].
+ *
+ */
+object ClusterRouterPropsDecorator {
+  def decorate(props: Props, router: RouterConfig, totalInstances: Int, maxInstancesPerNode: Int): Props =
+    props.withClusterRouter(router, totalInstances, maxInstancesPerNode)
+}
+
diff --git a/akka-cluster/src/multi-jvm/scala/akka/cluster/routing/ClusterRoundRobinRoutedActorSpec.scala b/akka-cluster/src/multi-jvm/scala/akka/cluster/routing/ClusterRoundRobinRoutedActorSpec.scala
index 5cfd9aabf4..3173984f68 100644
--- a/akka-cluster/src/multi-jvm/scala/akka/cluster/routing/ClusterRoundRobinRoutedActorSpec.scala
+++ b/akka-cluster/src/multi-jvm/scala/akka/cluster/routing/ClusterRoundRobinRoutedActorSpec.scala
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ import scala.concurrent.util.duration._
 import akka.cluster.MultiNodeClusterSpec
 import com.typesafe.config.ConfigFactory
 import akka.cluster.Cluster
+import akka.actor.Deploy
 
 object ClusterRoundRobinRoutedActorMultiJvmSpec extends MultiNodeConfig {
 
@@ -41,8 +42,8 @@ object ClusterRoundRobinRoutedActorMultiJvmSpec extends MultiNodeConfig {
         /service-hello {
           router = round-robin
           nr-of-instances = 10
-          cluster.enabled = on
-          cluster.max-nr-of-instances-per-node = 2
+          #cluster.enabled = on
+          #cluster.max-nr-of-instances-per-node = 2
         }
       }
       """)).
@@ -60,7 +61,12 @@ abstract class ClusterRoundRobinRoutedActorSpec extends MultiNodeSpec(ClusterRou
   with ImplicitSender with DefaultTimeout {
   import ClusterRoundRobinRoutedActorMultiJvmSpec._
 
-  lazy val actor = system.actorOf(Props[SomeActor].withRouter(RoundRobinRouter()), "service-hello")
+  //  lazy val actor = system.actorOf(Props[SomeActor].withRouter(RoundRobinRouter()), "service-hello")
+  lazy val router = {
+    import akka.cluster.routing.ClusterRouterProps
+    system.actorOf(Props[SomeActor].withClusterRouter(RoundRobinRouter(),
+      totalInstances = 10, maxInstancesPerNode = 2), "service-foo")
+  }
 
   def receiveReplies(expectedReplies: Int): Map[Address, Int] = {
     val zero = Map.empty[Address, Int] ++ roles.map(address(_) -> 0)
@@ -83,11 +89,11 @@ abstract class ClusterRoundRobinRoutedActorSpec extends MultiNodeSpec(ClusterRou
     "deploy routees to the member nodes in the cluster" taggedAs LongRunningTest in {
 
       runOn(first) {
-        actor.isInstanceOf[RoutedActorRef] must be(true)
+        router.isInstanceOf[RoutedActorRef] must be(true)
 
         val iterationCount = 10
         for (i ← 0 until iterationCount) {
-          actor ! "hit"
+          router ! "hit"
         }
 
         val replies = receiveReplies(iterationCount)
@@ -110,7 +116,7 @@ abstract class ClusterRoundRobinRoutedActorSpec extends MultiNodeSpec(ClusterRou
       runOn(first) {
         val iterationCount = 10
         for (i ← 0 until iterationCount) {
-          actor ! "hit"
+          router ! "hit"
         }
 
         val replies = receiveReplies(iterationCount)