Unfortunately disappointing experience for a first cruise

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 28

Review summary

This was our first cruise. I went with my 13 year old daughter. Unfortunately, the first night, we ate in the dining room. She had the Caesar Salad, Steak and Potato and Boston Cream Pie. I was fine, I had a different meal, but three hours later she woke up with food poisoning. I had brought covid tests with me just to be on the safe side, and it wasn't that. I never got sick, just her, with a low grade fever and threw up 11 times. Thought we would be safe by avoiding the buffet but I guess not :(. Because of this, she threw up the whole morning of Coco Cay and we could not visit this port. She was so excited, it was our first cruise and I had purchased the water park tickets(not cheap!!) but we missed out. We missed out on Taste of Royal the next day because she couldn't eat, and they didn't refund me when I canceled. Understandable I guess, but basically everything I had planned went out the window except for Nassau on the last day. The cabin was really outdated, only two plug ins in the whole room, across the room from the bed, which really wasn't a big deal, but if you use your phone as a clock at night just keep in mind you can't charge your phone next to the bed. Fridge stated it was a "cooler" and not a fridge, so any leftover food we were afraid to keep in it, mainly because of the previous sickness lol. I ended up getting ice and a cooler bag, which for the price we paid for a Junior Suite, seems kind of crazy. Arcade had less than half of the games working, so just keep in mind it is small and not much to play there. I feel stupid now, but I actually bought $100 worth of credits so that we could have a great time, but not much was working, and I don't think we went through half of them. Giovanni's was EXCELLENT and one of the best things about the cruise. Now I wish I would have bought the package for the specialty restaurants so that she didn't get sick maybe. Keep in mind, if you have younger teens(she's 13) at certain times it may be hard to go to the pool. They have a kiddie type area for young young kids, and the main pool, and a 16+ pool. When we went to the main pool on the third day, they were having a hot body contest for guys and it really wasn't appropriate for a 13 year old, so we asked the staff if we could go to the quieter 16+ area and got a firm no, so we had to leave and come back later in the afternoon after it had calmed down. I know I may sound like a Debbie Downer and I just hate that we weren't able to do anything on this cruise. I probably wouldn't go on another one based on the thousands of dollars spent to just sit in a room, or maybe would go with some girlfriends. I don't know. Bad experience....

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Children's Programs

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Miami, Florida

Perfect Day At Coco Cay, Bahamas Did not visit port

Nassau, Bahamas

Disembarkation

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