dbabcock64

After reading many of the reviews, I booked a cruise.  This cruise was for me and my 9 year old son.  First impression, not impressed.  The ship looks a little dated, inside and out.  I read all the information I could on this cruise before I booked it.  The dining was the first problem.  You are to choose your dining package without knowing what is going on on the ship on any given day.  There was a night I wanted to change our diner time to attend the Captains welcome, but we were unable to do that.  I read the rules about the main dining room.  It clearly stated everywhere, no tank tops, no shorts, no flip flops.  On formal night it clearly states what is and is not allowed for dining.  I made sure my son and myself were prepared to dress for dinner.  I was hoping my son would get a great experience at fine dining.  What a joke.  You can eat dinner in your bathing suit with an large t-shirt over it if you want too.  The waiters were not very attentive.  The first night at dinner was not a pleasurable experience, no one at the table could understand anything the waiter said.  The waiter never came back to check on the table after the food was dropped off.  Silly thing, but my son wanted ketchup for his fries.  We moved to a different table the second night.  Same type of service.  The waiters/waitresses speak with such a heavy accent you don't understand them.  As the waiter was announcing the special reccomendations for the night, he was standing right on top of me, so I could not even hear him.  The food itself is tatseless, very bland.  The choices on the menu were not anything special.  My son was the only one at the table dressed appropriately.  I had heard the the waiter/waitresses dote on the children.  This did not happen.  I could see that other waiters/waitresses had made whatever out the the menus, but that did not happen one time at any table we were seated at.  It was like they totally ignored us, because my son was with me.  The rooms are crowded.  The bed was horrible.  Whoever said that two twin mattresses pushed together could ever be comfortable was wrong.  This is more like a cot than a bed.  Our room arrangement was to be two twin beds, one for me and one for my son.  Again, that didn't happen.  I never could get the speakers to work in our room.  Everytime they would make annoucements, we would have to stand in the hall.  This seems like a safety hazard, I this should have been repaired.  We took the excursion to Atlantis.  We were lead off the boat, to form a line along side the road, and wait for our shuttle service.  The Royal Caribbean employee left us to stand there.  After an hour and no shuttle, I took a personal taxi, at my own cost.  Once you get to Atlantis, you really only have about 4 hours to enjoy the place.  Overpriced everything.  The food was terrible.  The day spent at Coco was relaxing, again a overpriced and terible food.  They charge you for eveythinf, except laying in the sun.  You have to pay to drink per day on the boat, but you get stuck paying for drinks once you are off the boat.  It seems like Royal Caribbean makes a killing on the drink packages alone.  This cruise was not what I expected.  I have heard about how good the food and service was, I was dissappointed.