Royal Caribbean did their normal good job - with a few flaws.

This is my 4th RC cruise and I've stayed with RC because of what others have told me about other lines. Now, I get right thru checkin (JOIN the Crown and Anchor Society - it's free and it gets you extra benefits on your 2nd and later cruise). As usual, their dining service and food were impeccable. Granted, you may have not liked one dish, but RC ALWAYS lets you order whatever you want. So if you want both the steak and lobster for dinner, or 3 desserts, you got it. Don't ever hesitate to order two meals....the table stewards love to please (bigger tips at the end) and are happy to oblige. On lobster night, the whole table of 8 people (unknown to each other) each ordered TWO lobster tails each with no problems. We were such hogs! That said, THIS TIME we were somewhat disappointed with our cabin steward who seemed not to be attentive to our needs. Never came to make up the room when we asked, we always had to ask for towels, etc. Not normal for RC. My BIGGEST complaint about RC is that shore excursions are NOT for people who want to sleep in and relax. If you like to sleep past 7:30 AM, you will miss over 1/2 of all excursions. Sleep until 9:30 (which is the idea of relaxing and why you took the vacation), and you're left with VERY limited {maybe 1 or 2 } options. On this cruise, we took ZERO optional excursions - all we did was get off the boat, get a taxi (fixed rates to go places, so you won't get screwed) and go to the beach or into town. We did our OWN excursions. Also, why doesn't the ship stay in port longer.....the boat can do 22 knots but we cruised at 12 -13 knots most of the time. That's great - but having to be back on board at 4:30 is ridiculous. The ONLY time we could stay late until 10:30 PM was in Curacao, because the next day was Aruba which was only 70 miles away. That's my LARGEST complaint about RC. I love the ships and the service (most fo the time) but they are losing money by not having more afternoon excursions. If we wanted to snorkel, we had to be up so early, it didn't make sense. And the funny part is that when we were LEAVING the boat to go to the beach at 1 PM, most of the excursions from the morning were coming back onboard - so it's not like there wasn't time. They JUST NEED more afternoon GOOD excursions and they'd make so much more money. Oh, and if you're not a big drinker but would still like to indulge a bit, wait until day 4 and you can get a 10 drink package for $85. So instead of $10-15 a drink, you're only paying $8.50. Just don't use it on COLA...because a coke counts as a drink with this package. If you want a coke, PAY $3.00 for a coke. Use this deal to only buy a REAL alcohol drinks. Highly recommend and loved the Berry Lava-flows myself.....seven of my 10 drinks were that one type of drink. Yummy AND filling !!!    Finally, ship was big - no sea sickness at all. Slept like a baby, but remember....the bigger the ship, the more lines for everything. So think twice about egtting on that big 220,000 monster they are launching now - do you really need 19 decks? That's alot of stairs to climb when the elevators get busy. Stick with ships 135,000 tons or less. You'll be much happier. John Shvetz, Shvetz Insurance Agy,  Pennsylvania.