Moldy Honeymoon

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 22

Review summary

This is the letter my wife is sending to Royal Caribbean Int'l. On 3/17/2018 my husband and I embarked on what we believed would be a splendid honeymoon filled with pleasant memories aboard Adventure of the Seas out of San Juan, Puerto Rico. On a daily basis, my husband suffers from allergies and one of the few places and times he finds relief is on a cruise ship, so as you can imagine, he was very much looking forward to the anticipated relief from his respiratory symptoms. Almost immediately, we both began to feel the effects of allergy symptoms after checking into room 6588 on the cruise ship. It wasn’t until the next day, 3/18/18, that I noticed the abundance of green/black mold growing in the ventilation system in the shower. (See attached photo) Additionally, the same green/black mold was growing on the shower doors that folded onto one another. At this point, we realized the source of our respiratory symptoms. You see, I have never, in my life, experienced allergy symptoms from an airborne allergen. Not only was my husband suffering far more severely than at home, but now I had joined in the misery of upper respiratory allergies from the mold. In addition to the mold that now plagued our honeymoon, the shower did not drain. We reported this promptly on 3/17 to both our room steward, “Roy” as well as maintenance, only to be told this was “normal”. I can’t imagine how standing in 2 inches of water in the shower is “normal” by anyone’s standards. Furthermore, the refrigerator in our room was more than room temperature. Since it was our honeymoon, we had purchased a very expensive bottle of Dom Perignon as well as a bottle of wine from the San Juan Port. The refrigerator only served to make the bottles warmer, not chilled in any way. So, again, we reported this to our room steward as well as maintenance. Maintenance arrived and said they would “fix the problem” but never completed any work on the refrigerator and it remained warm, as did our bottles. What proved to be the, “proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back”, was on the morning of 3/19. We awaited the arrival of our breakfast that we had ordered before 9PM the preceding evening. It was requested to be delivered between 7:30AM and 8:00AM on 3/19. By 8:05AM, when the food still had not arrived, my husband called room service only to find they didn’t have our order ready. More than slightly annoyed by this point, my husband explained we had paid for an excursion in St. Thomas and we had to be off the ship by 8:30! They offered to make the breakfast again but he explained we had to leave. After hanging up the phone with them, they immediately called back to say the food was on its way. It did not arrive, however until 8:15AM. At this point we knew we would be hungry if we did not take the time to eat, so we literally had to shove food in our mouths on the way out the door. This trip was quickly becoming a miserable experience! Upon our return to the ship from our excursion, we waited in line at Guest Services and reported all of this to an employee by the name of Liliia Radiuk at 1:10 PM on 3/19/18. Her only response was that she would, “look into it”. Eventually, we finally found the Guest Services Manager, Luca Iorio, who, after hearing our entire story, agreed to upgrade our room to a junior suite. We moved all of our belongings to room 13350 on 3/19 in the evening, before dinner. At first glance the room was very spacious and seemed to be better. It wasn’t until I was hanging up our clothing that I looked up to see even more green/black mold in the ventilation system than had been in the first room! (See attached photo and video). I literally couldn’t believe my eyes. My husband reported this to the House Keeping Manager, a man who asked to be called, “Spikey”. Spikey did clean the mold from the ventilation while we were at dinner. However, the mold allergies, and suffering continued for both of us for the entire duration of the cruise. I have to use the word, “duration” to refer to our honeymoon!!! Never in my life had I imagined our honeymoon would be so downgraded in our hearts, minds and health on a Royal Caribbean cruise. My family cruises frequently and we chose Royal Caribbean for its reputation. At this point I am so disheartened with the cruise line that I don’t know if we will ever purchase another cruise from this company. I am writing to request reparation for our honeymoon. Please contact my husband at your earliest convenience regarding our “honeymoon vacation” aboard Adventure of the Seas with details of how Royal Caribbean intends to make restitution for what should have been one of the most joyful, memorable events in our lives.

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

Basseterre, St. Kitts

Willemstad, Curacao

Oranjestad, Aruba

Disembarkation

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