Not Doing Royal Caribbean Any Favors

We just got back from our cruise on the Independence of the Seas, March 2, 2017 sailing. This cruise ticked a lot of boxes. First, it was the “free” 4-day cruise for having 50,000 points on our RCCL Visa. Second, it was my husband’s birthday. Third, it was our Diamond cruise, we are now Diamond members of the Crown & Anchor Society. We had a small group of us travelling together for the birthday. For two of the people in our group, it was their first cruise. But, of our 14 cruises, this was our 12th on Royal Caribbean. We have always been proud to say we are loyal to Royal.

Things started off well. We got to the port and embarked in good time. The lady checking us in was pleasant and efficient. We got on board and met up with two members of our party in the Bolero bar who had arrived separately. We had cocktails and then went up for lunch in the Windjammer. Lunch in the Windjammer on the first day is always challenging because everyone is there at the same time. But we finally found seating and got our lunch. We explored a little after lunch and then went to our stateroom. Our luggage was already there, another plus. We had a junior suite for the first time, so we were excited. The room was spacious, well-appointed, and, we thought, clean. We met our room steward, Cora, and she gave us her card. After that, we hit a slippery slope of service that just went downhill.

At dinner the first night, our waiter and assistant waiter appeared, we got water and menus. Bread was distributed. Then nothing. Finally, the head waiter came and brought iced tea to those who wanted it and our orders were finally taken. The food was good, but service was lackadaisical. We were there for 2 hours. Since we had 8:30 meal, we left after 10:30.

Our first day was a day at sea. We stayed mostly in the Solarium. We noticed a real lack of pool waiters. We encountered more than 1 surly bartender. But overall, we made it work and it was a good day. That night at dinner, it was my husband’s birthday, so we celebrated in the MDR again – and it was formal night. Service was particularly absent. We are used to a level of service that we have received in the past. That service was noticeably lacking. For example, in the past, if we ordered iced tea on the first night, it would be waiting for us the next and every night afterwards. That didn’t happen. Again, dinner took over two hours again. People wanted more water, it was nowhere to be found. It was Friday and for those of us observing Lenten dietary rules, it seemed like the non-meat choices were slim. One of our party had shrimp ravioli with lobster sauce. Basically, it seemed she had some sad pasta with a few shrimp in it doused in leftover lobster bisque. She wasn’t amused. Someone must have noticed because the head waiter came over to apologize. Next, the dining room manager came over and apologized and both swore up and down that it would be better the next night. Another thing that was missing both nights was the preview of coming events that we got in the past. After the dinner, the waiter would usually come by and let us know about breakfast options for the next day. This wasn’t done here. So, we made plans to meet for breakfast before going in to Cozumel. Had he told us what to expect, we would have changed our time, but we met at 9:00 and the Dining Room was already closed.

When we arrived for dinner after Cozumel, I started to laugh. The table was full. We all had extra-large water glasses. A large bowl of lemon slices. Large glasses of iced tea. There were two cheese plates. Service was particularly attentive. But not overly so. It was to the level we were used to on previous cruises. They doubled their efforts only to bring it up to par. The main point here is that we didn’t like to complain. Complaining and then the fawning attention it brought us only made us uncomfortable. We don’t go on vacation to be uncomfortable.

In other areas, we were met with staff that seemed distant, surly, and disdainful. At one bar, the one bartender repeated over and over, “I’m hungry, let’s close up and eat.” He said this at least 3 times in front of me.

There were exceptions. Hannah on the cruise director staff, was particularly delightful. We had a blast with her. The rest of the cruise director staff was mostly absent and not very friendly. Our friends on the starboard side had a wonderful stateroom attendant. But overall, it seemed like they had a staff meeting and told everyone to keep their distance and be less friendly than in the past.

There were lots of places where little mistakes added up, maybe it is a lack of attention to detail. For example, we wanted to order room service breakfast for our first day at sea. But there weren’t any of the request forms in our room. We finally got them and ordered breakfast. I ordered one fruit plate, coffee and orange juice for two, two orders each of eggs, bacon and potato/tomato. When it arrived on time, it was just the fruit plate, coffee and orange juice. I called and they corrected it right away. But we weren’t the only ones who had spotty service with room service. Also, we put our tray outside our room and it stayed for hours.

We had lunch in the MDR on Sunday. The guys making the salads didn’t smile and seemed to make the salads begrudgingly. The wait staff seemed the same. I got the cream of asparagus soup since I really like asparagus. It was so extremely salty, I couldn’t eat more than two spoonful’s.

Dinner on the last night, service was still good. Food was generally good. We did notice that on this cruise, desserts were better than usual. In our minds, RCCL wasn’t known for their desserts. But the desserts on IOTS were better than usual, even though they were the same as the other ships in the fleet, like the BBB Crème Brulee.

We have come to the conclusion, however, that the quality and variety of the food in the MDR has suffered and we feel this is because of the specialty restaurants. If it ever comes that the only way to get decent food and service is to pay the upcharge for specialty restaurants, we will stop sailing RCCL completely.

The entertainment was generally good. We skipped the comedians, but the shows we saw were really good. The Journey tribute band was really good. The Royal Caribbean singers and dancers seemed to be a notch above the other ships we’ve been on. We would swear we’ve seen the Once Upon a Time show on another ship. But it was still fun. Grease was really good, even in spite of the fact the ship was bobbing on the water like a cork.

One rather disturbing thing happened when we were packing to leave. We were searching to make sure we hadn’t left anything behind. It happens. We found a lovely ring in the safe that wasn’t ours and we turned it in. But while we were checking, we found a shelf that we hadn’t use that was full of potato chips and potato chip crumbs. We hadn’t eaten a chip the entire cruise. That was disgusting.  Made us wonder how clean the room really was.

There is one final example I will give. While waiting in line to make a purchase in one of the shops, we were chatting with the people in front of us. The only lady had cruised before, but this was her first RCCL cruise. She asked us what we thought and had we cruised RCCL before, she was definitely having a lesser experience. I told her that that this was our 12th RC cruise and that she shouldn’t judge the whole line based on her experience with IOTS. Another woman in line piped up that this was her 18th RC cruise and she echoed my statement. I know they want Crown & Anchor Society members to be good advertisement for the ships, but we shouldn’t have to warn first time cruisers to RC that IOTS was not a good representation of what the line could do.

Overall, did we have a good time? Yes. A bad day on a cruise is still better than a good day at work. But we could have had a much better time if we hadn’t encountered rude servers and lacking service. I hope this isn’t a harbinger of things to come since we booked our next cruise while on this cruise.

We just got back from our cruise on the Independence of the Seas, March 2, 2017 sailing. This cruise ticked a lot of boxes. First, it was the “free” 4-day cruise for having 50,000 points on our RCCL Visa. Second, it was my husband’s birthday. Third, it was our Diamond cruise, we are now Diamond members of the Crown & Anchor Society. We had a small group of us travelling together for the birthday. For two of the people in our group, it was their first cruise. But, of our 14 cruises, this was our 12th on Royal Caribbean. We have always been proud to say we are loyal to Royal.

Things started off well. We got to the port and embarked in good time. The lady checking us in was pleasant and efficient. We got on board and met up with two members of our party in the Bolero bar who had arrived separately. We had cocktails and then went up for lunch in the Windjammer. Lunch in the Windjammer on the first day is always challenging because everyone is there at the same time. But we finally found seating and got our lunch. We explored a little after lunch and then went to our stateroom. Our luggage was already there, another plus. We had a junior suite for the first time, so we were excited. The room was spacious, well-appointed, and, we thought, clean. We met our room steward, Cora, and she gave us her card. After that, we hit a slippery slope of service that just went downhill.

At dinner the first night, our waiter and assistant waiter appeared, we got water and menus. Bread was distributed. Then nothing. Finally, the head waiter came and brought iced tea to those who wanted it and our orders were finally taken. The food was good, but service was lackadaisical. We were there for 2 hours. Since we had 8:30 meal, we left after 10:30.

Our first day was a day at sea. We stayed mostly in the Solarium. We noticed a real lack of pool waiters. We encountered more than 1 surly bartender. But overall, we made it work and it was a good day. That night at dinner, it was my husband’s birthday, so we celebrated in the MDR again – and it was formal night. Service was particularly absent. We are used to a level of service that we have received in the past. That service was noticeably lacking. For example, in the past, if we ordered iced tea on the first night, it would be waiting for us the next and every night afterwards. That didn’t happen. Again, dinner took over two hours again. People wanted more water, it was nowhere to be found. It was Friday and for those of us observing Lenten dietary rules, it seemed like the non-meat choices were slim. One of our party had shrimp ravioli with lobster sauce. Basically, it seemed she had some sad pasta with a few shrimp in it doused in leftover lobster bisque. She wasn’t amused. Someone must have noticed because the head waiter came over to apologize. Next, the dining room manager came over and apologized and both swore up and down that it would be better the next night. Another thing that was missing both nights was the preview of coming events that we got in the past. After the dinner, the waiter would usually come by and let us know about breakfast options for the next day. This wasn’t done here. So, we made plans to meet for breakfast before going in to Cozumel. Had he told us what to expect, we would have changed our time, but we met at 9:00 and the Dining Room was already closed.

When we arrived for dinner after Cozumel, I started to laugh. The table was full. We all had extra-large water glasses. A large bowl of lemon slices. Large glasses of iced tea. There were two cheese plates. Service was particularly attentive. But not overly so. It was to the level we were used to on previous cruises. They doubled their efforts only to bring it up to par. The main point here is that we didn’t like to complain. Complaining and then the fawning attention it brought us only made us uncomfortable. We don’t go on vacation to be uncomfortable.

In other areas, we were met with staff that seemed distant, surly, and disdainful. At one bar, the one bartender repeated over and over, “I’m hungry, let’s close up and eat.” He said this at least 3 times in front of me.

There were exceptions. Hannah on the cruise director staff, was particularly delightful. We had a blast with her. The rest of the cruise director staff was mostly absent and not very friendly. Our friends on the starboard side had a wonderful stateroom attendant. But overall, it seemed like they had a staff meeting and told everyone to keep their distance and be less friendly than in the past.

There were lots of places where little mistakes added up, maybe it is a lack of attention to detail. For example, we wanted to order room service breakfast for our first day at sea. But there weren’t any of the request forms in our room. We finally got them and ordered breakfast. I ordered one fruit plate, coffee and orange juice for two, two orders each of eggs, bacon and potato/tomato. When it arrived on time, it was just the fruit plate, coffee and orange juice. I called and they corrected it right away. But we weren’t the only ones who had spotty service with room service. Also, we put our tray outside our room and it stayed for hours.

We had lunch in the MDR on Sunday. The guys making the salads didn’t smile and seemed to make the salads begrudgingly. The wait staff seemed the same. I got the cream of asparagus soup since I really like asparagus. It was so extremely salty, I couldn’t eat more than two spoonful’s.

Dinner on the last night, service was still good. Food was generally good. We did notice that on this cruise, desserts were better than usual. In our minds, RCCL wasn’t known for their desserts. But the desserts on IOTS were better than usual, even though they were the same as the other ships in the fleet, like the BBB Crème Brulee.

We have come to the conclusion, however, that the quality and variety of the food in the MDR has suffered and we feel this is because of the specialty restaurants. If it ever comes that the only way to get decent food and service is to pay the upcharge for specialty restaurants, we will stop sailing RCCL completely.

The entertainment was generally good. We skipped the comedians, but the shows we saw were really good. The Journey tribute band was really good. The Royal Caribbean singers and dancers seemed to be a notch above the other ships we’ve been on. We would swear we’ve seen the Once Upon a Time show on another ship. But it was still fun. Grease was really good, even in spite of the fact the ship was bobbing on the water like a cork.

One rather disturbing thing happened when we were packing to leave. We were searching to make sure we hadn’t left anything behind. It happens. We found a lovely ring in the safe that wasn’t ours and we turned it in. But while we were checking, we found a shelf that we hadn’t use that was full of potato chips and potato chip crumbs. We hadn’t eaten a chip the entire cruise. That was disgusting.  Made us wonder how clean the room really was.

There is one final example I will give. While waiting in line to make a purchase in one of the shops, we were chatting with the people in front of us. The only lady had cruised before, but this was her first RCCL cruise. She asked us what we thought and had we cruised RCCL before, she was definitely having a lesser experience. I told her that that this was our 12th RC cruise and that she shouldn’t judge the whole line based on her experience with IOTS. Another woman in line piped up that this was her 18th RC cruise and she echoed my statement. I know they want Crown & Anchor Society members to be good advertisement for the ships, but we shouldn’t have to warn first time cruisers to RC that IOTS was not a good representation of what the line could do.

Overall, did we have a good time? Yes. A bad day on a cruise is still better than a good day at work. But we could have had a much better time if we hadn’t encountered rude servers and lacking service.