The Most Disappointing Cruise Ever (Due to Weather)

The Royal Caribbean bus picked up at a different terminal than we were told to go to from our hotel. We wandered around the terminal for a while and couldn't find a Royal Caribbean representative. The unfriendly staff at the airport welcome center told us they didn’t work for the cruise lines and couldn't tell us where the usual pick up was. We called the person who’d confirmed our transport the day before, and Royal Caribbean sent the bus and the representative to our terminal. I'm not sure if that would have happened if we hadn’t called, and I'm glad we were able to push redial and reconnect. However, check-in at the port was super smooth and fast. It was honestly the best port check-in we've ever experienced, and if you exclude the airport pickup, this would definitely be five stars. Our cabin was ready by 1:00 as promised, and we didn't wait very long for our luggage to arrive.

MAIN DINING: Main dining food was excellent, as always. We never made reservations for MyTime dining, and our wait time to be seated was never more than ten minutes. WINDJAMMER: The Windjammer was only open until 8:30 in the evening. We were extremely unhappy we could not get a soft drink at the Windjammer without purchasing a beverage package, and no dispenser will work without a special beverage package cup. We rarely drink more than one soft drink per day between us, so it wasn’t worth it to purchase a package. We were also irritated that we couldn’t just fill up a water bottle with water - the water dispensers on the soft drink machines will not work without the special drink package cup, and we couldn’t fill a water bottle at the water dispenser due to the health warnings advising us not to fill our water bottles there. We ended up filling my daughter's water bottle by getting several plastic cups from the 4th floor, filling them with water, and then filling the water bottle from the cups. I noticed some guests asking the waiters in main dining to fill their water bottles, but the mouth on my daughter's bottle wouldn't have accommodated the ice cubes. The Windjammer was frequently out of bananas and Froot Loops and it’s not clear why these popular items weren’t regularly restocked since we weren't at sea for more than two days at a time. The "Wash Your Hands" song has been a running joke in our family for a long time because we started cruising with our daughter when she was small and she used to sing it at home. I'm glad that they've set things up at the Windjammer so it's not an option to avoid handwashing. Silas from Brazil was at the entrance to the Windjammer every day to sing the song and make people smile as they were washing their hands. The Windjammer food was as outstanding as we've come to expect. I honestly don't know how they manage to create such a variety of food that always tastes good, all day long. SOFT-SERVE ICE CREAM: The free soft-serve small ice cream cones near the pool were only available until 6:00, so we couldn’t enjoy our usual after-dinner ice cream runs. I was glad they had a person dispensing the cones when it was open to avoid the mess from the kids and help keep illness from spreading. ROOM SERVICE: Royal Caribbean has eliminated the hang tags for room service. We could see what’s available on the television or on a printed list, but we had to call in the order. This is probably easier for Royal Caribbean, but it’s not easier from a guest’s perspective because we couldn't double check what we ordered, and it wasn't clear if the person answering the phone had understood the order. However, we did receive everything we ordered the one time we used the service. BAR EXPERIENCE: There was no pina colada mix available in the bar that also served as our muster station after we boarded, but it was restocked by noon. The drink mix in the drink I received was extremely watered down (no pina colada taste at all). I didn’t say anything because we were due to go up to our cabin in a short while, it was really crowded by that time with everyone waiting to go to their rooms, and the waiters were really harried at that point. However, it happened again when I ordered a drink in the theatre. I sent that one back and asked for another, and it was cheerfully replaced. At $14 a drink, I think they should all be mixed in a standard way. The Bionic bar is interesting to watch but it was frequently down for maintenance.

BINGO: The Bingo jackpots were great, with generous prizes ranging from $490-$1,300, and most of the prizes weren't split. It was difficult to get a good seat unless you arrived an hour early (and that wasn’t enough by day 7). We would have preferred a coverall so that the event lasted longer. CUPCAKE DECORATING: The cupcake decorating class was fun, and we highly recommend it. The class was changed to a different location from the one shown on our app, and the new location wasn't pushed out to the app. We asked one of the staff members about it after we noticed no one else had arrived and were redirected to the new location. (It's a good thing we always arrive early.) The class started a little late and ran a little over, but it worked out OK for us. (This wasn't the first issue we had with the app. All of our boarding passes, health questionnaires, and most charges were assigned to only one member of our party.) SEA PLEX: Sea Plex is a really nice place for all ages, and families can have fun there. We loved the bumper cars and were happy the attendant was proactive and removed some teens who refused to follow the safety rules after being warned. NAPKIN FOLDING: We really enjoyed the napkin folding class. I think we learned four different ways to fold a napkin.

We listened to a jazz band and a brass band that played Christmas music. Both were excellent.

There were no children in our party.

DINING: We chose MyTime dining and had the pleasure of sitting with Dinesh/Nitin, Evelyn/Anak, and Nereo/Sagar. All were awesome. We missed having breadsticks at dinner and asked about them the first night. Our server told us Royal Caribbean hadn’t served breadsticks since the pandemic, but head waiter Valeriano made a lot of them appear. We were very impressed. Head waiter Vasant was also super helpful and kind. CABIN: Our cabin attendant, Jolistor, was wonderful. He went out of his way to make us happy every day. He also made an effort to work with our schedule, and we really appreciated that. BINGO: Raymond from South Africa ran the Bingo games, and he was entertaining and funny. OVERALL: I have nothing but unreserved praise for every single Royal Caribbean employee we interacted with on this cruise. They were all awesome.

The ship was clean and beautiful. Our cabin showed some wear. There was a missing stop for the toilet seat on the wall, a missing rubber plug on the bottom of the toilet seat, and chipped paint around the shower drain. We noticed similar wear and tear type issues through the ship, but all of it was minor. The elevators would occasionally miss selected floors or unexpectedly change direction, which was a little frustrating when we were trying to go somewhere.

STORAGE: We liked the amount of storage space in the cabin and bathroom, which was sufficient for three adults. (I didn't even need to bring out my shoe holder for extra storage.) There were five drawers, two closets, nightstands with storage, a narrow storage area under the television, and cupboards above the bed. BALCONY: I thought the balcony was small. There was only room for two chairs and a very small round table. There was no room for a lounge chair (and relaxing in a lounge chair and enjoying the weather and view is one of my favorite things to do on a cruise). It didn't matter on this cruise because it was either raining, windy, or chilly the entire time. OUTLETS: We were happy to see an extra plug outlet near the bed in addition to the plugs in the vanity area. SHOWER: The spacious shower magically seemed to keep the steam inside as long as the shower was short. The body wash was watery, and the toilet paper seemed thinner than the stuff we use in our RV. MISCELLANEOUS: We had a hot water pot, but there was no coffee or tea provided. I did have a couple cups of tea because I brought extra tea bags back from the dining room. There were no life preservers in the cabin.

Disembarkation was very smooth. We were sitting in a bus waiting to go to the airport five minutes before we were scheduled to leave the ship. Customs consisted only of a photo. It was the smoothest and easiest disembarkation we've ever experienced on any cruise.