Really Bad Experience

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Reviews: 2

Helpful Votes: 9

Review summary

This was our 6th Cruise with Royal; all of it was memorable, but some not for good reasons. With the exception of how long the walk was back to the Ship in Puerto Plata and how overly aggressive the vendors were in Labadee, which are not really things that Royal can control, we had no issues with any of our Ports of Call. We loved Labadee and actually thought it was prettier than CocoCay; we anticipate going back and doing our excursions that were cancelled due to the political climate. Our excursion in Puerto Plata was the best one we have ever been on. Our issues were with the Ship itself. First, the bed was AS HARD AS A ROCK! On all of our other cruises, the bed felt like a cloud. I could literally feel the inside supports of the mattress every time I rolled over. Secondly, the activities seemed jumbled to us. For example, the first night of our sailing the live music and dancing (which was on the Promenade... how can you dance where people are walking around?) was Country Music. The show that night was a comedian... the next night it was The Nashville Tenors. 70s dress up night was the night before the 70s themed live music and dancing. Someone needs to speak with the Cruise Director about if you're going to have a theme, be complete about it! We did not have a great experience with Room Service. We asked for Doughnuts and Coffee with Creamer for 2 people. We got 4 doughnuts, 2 carafes of Coffee, and no Creamer. My husband had a problem with the level of service at the pizza place in the Promenade as well. We also had a concern about how Labadee was handled. 24 hours before we arrived in Labadee, there was a shipwide announcement stating they were monitoring the situation and everything was "fine". 12 hours later, we found letters on the bed stating our excursions, which we had really been looking forward to, were cancelled. What happened to everything being "fine"? I think it's important to say that I had deliberately filled up the day with excursions because I had been warned about the aggressive vendors ahead of time. They were REALLY aggressive. Our largest complaint is about the kids being allowed to run amok during the entire cruise. I am a Middle School Counselor; we generally cruise during school breaks. This is the first time we've ever had a problem with rowdy kids. They took over and ran up and down the hallways screaming and knocking on doors; they played in the elevators. At one point I had to correct a group of "mean girls" in the elevator because they were making the other adults in the elevator uncomfortable. I VACATION TO GET AWAY FROM WORK, yet I had to use my work skills to correct other people's kids! When I mentioned my concern to Guest Services, I was told Security can't do anything to the kids. How about instead of making announcements all over the place reminding parents to control their kids, holding the parents accountable? I don't really feel like I got a break on this vacation. We love Royal, and Adventure is the largest ship we've been on; we're thinking maybe there were more kids because of more onboard activities. As a result, on our next cruise we are going back to a smaller ship we've been on before and going to ports we've visited before in an effort to avoid rambunctious kids.

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Nassau, Bahamas

Labadee (Cruise Line Private Island)

Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

Disembarkation

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