We will never sail with Royal Caribbean again.This was our 40th anniversary celebration and they ruined it ! Horrible service,horrible food,lied to many times by staff,ship was dirty and worn,pools were cold,pool music hurt your ears,2 islands were disaters even though RC told us all was restored,they kept our deposit after we cancelled 3 days later our next cruise.Royal Caribbean- you should be ashamed of yourselves putting profit over passenger satisfaction.Hope all of you think twice before sailing with them.We saled on Independence of the seas 4 years ago and it was great,good food,completely decorated for Christmas (only one tree on ship this time,no lights or decorations,only those put up by staff on their own time).
Embarkation
2 out of 5
We were let onto ship by 11AM,seated and told we would board by noon,it was after 1PM before we boarded,then sat again waiting for room.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
1 out of 5
Food was plain awful ! Windjammer food was horrible,hot food was cold,cold food was warm,same menu over and over,had to chase attendants to get skim milk,was told they didn't have egg beaters (found egg beaters in main dining room on 4th days breakfast and promised it would be in windjammer cafe next day,showed up 4 days later)Tables in Windjammer were sticky even though flu problem on board,desserts were store bought and stale,never saw meatloaf or spaghetti or salsburry steaks,only spicy curry dishes and tasteless food.Waffles were cold and soft,had to ask for butter or jelly.Only had stale store bought cookies,asked for fresh baked cookies and were told all they had were the cookies on display,found the fresh cookies in the coffee shop on deck 5 if you asked for the secret cookie stash behind the counter.The penny pinching has made the food terrible in main dining room,windjammer,horrible pizza at the pizza shot,only a few cold sandwiches at the coffee shop and food in windjammer and main dining room available only a few hours a day.Tried lobster in main dining room and it was so tough you had to cut it with a steak knife,the chicken dishes were too dry to eat,the steak was tough and even the desserts were tasteless.We will never sail on Royal Caribbean again !
Onboard Activities
1 out of 5
The music at the main pool was so loud you could not talk to others,the adult pool was ice cold and not usable.When we asked to have the music turned down they said only the cruise director could turn it down.We found the cruise director several nights later and had to corner him to talk to him and he told us the life guard could turn it down or the pool attendant,and he promised to fix problem.The next morning the main pool (which was warm) had softer music for about 2 hours ten it went back up and stayed that way,we found cruise director next day before belly flop contest and asked him why the music went up after he promised to lower it and he told us he never promised to lower volume and that the loud music was normal at the main pool.The main pool,was drained several hours later and filled with cold water,now all pools were cold and had loud music,so much for relaxing time by the pool.
Entertainment
2 out of 5
We got to see 2 ice shows,but not able to see the grand finale show (Grease)as the theatre was completely full and they only scheduled one show,yet they had 5 viewings of each ice show and comedy shows.What kind of cruise director would only have one showing of "Grease" knowing all 7000 passengers would want to see it,we got there 30 minutes early and it was filled beyond capacity and no one offered to bring in extra chairs or help with all those people saving hundreds of seats for others even though you are not allowed to save seats,so the rude passengers only made a bad situation worse and no staff member did anything to help.
Service and Staff
1 out of 5
The staff was horrible,rude and would lie to you just to get you off their back.Only found one customer service rep at customer desk that tried to help,but was not able to,suggested we write to cruise line when we got home and complain,but was told they don't seem to care as a fresh batch of 7000 people would be coming on for next cruise and only profits matter.
Ship Quality
1 out of 5
The ship was not well maintained,was dirty,sticky and not clean even though they claimed to be stepping up cleaning due to flu virus,yet windjammer cafe was not being cleaned between passengers,tables and chairs were sticky,attendants were only making vane effort at wiping off tables with dirty rags they carried all shift.Our room had hair and dirt on windowsill,sheets are only changed every 5 days,had a stale smell and had plumbing leaks in hall and next door.
Cabin / Stateroom
1 out of 5
Cabin had worn out carpet,dirty windowsill and was very dated.Took us 5 days to get 2 fluffy pillows,brought us 2 flat old pillows even though suite cabins had gotten fluffy pillows on boarding and it took us 5 days to finally get decent pillows.
Ship tip
Best advice,never sail on any Royal caribbean ship,they are only interested in turning passengers and profits,even the help were quitting faster than they could hire new ones.We booked a new cruise on board,but cancelled it several days later after all the problems we had,and they refused to return our deposit to this day.They offered to let us switch ship reservations,but would still charge us $200 to do so.No one at RC has even offered to help,guess the passengers are not important !
Had a great time on island,went zip linig again and had a great time.Our parasailing was canceled when we got out on ocean due to high waves.Really love the lunch on the beach,almost made the whole cruise worth while !
This island was also a waste,terrific amount of damage here too.Why not change our ports of call to nice places,guess the cruise lines have too much invested in these ports,after all profits are more important than passengers.
Had a nice time on train tour of island and spent hours shopping.Went back through customs to get on ship and were told we could not get back on ship without our passport,yet the ship told us we only needed our cruise card,finally let us return to ship after a big argument between a crowd of passengers and security.Why does the ship security not inform us of passport problem on this island ?
Went swimming with the stingrays and had a great time,the stingray staff and the bus driver and tour guide were great ((Romeo & Dorie) and even brought us back T-shirts when we realized they were sold next to dock at stingray excursion when we got back to town,so they had us meet them at dock an hour later and we paid them for the shirts,Thanks Dorie for your help !
We got out of cabin 30 minutes early to get in line for self walk off only to find a line and hour long,but lucky to find 5 customs agents at unloading dock,went fairl well after they got things organized.
So sorry you didn't have a good time. We had a fab time on indie, food was out of this world, can't fault staff apart from one but this didn't spoil our experience whatsoever! I have read your review & it sounds like you was on a different ship to what we experienced. Maybe you would be better cruising with a more upmarket cruise ship like regent seven seas? Maybe they can cater to your more 'upmarket' expectations? The carribian islands you visited need the tourist trade to recover from the horrible hurricanes so they need cruise ships to enable to do this. Your post is not only insensitive but condescending to the great people who are trying to make their lives get better. You really need to think before you post such a bitter post. Think about others
I agree with these other responses to this post
Because, if you have a bad experience on a cruise, why would you keep going back?
And on other posts, these same people are complaining about EVERYTHING, including the hurricane damage!
Maybe they work for Carnival!
We LOVE Oasis, and Royal Caribbean!
Don’t believe a word of this review
This person sounds very fake or is just one of those impossible people who are angry with the world and will never be satisfied with anything. If she did sail and got bad service from the crew ....... perhaps they were responding to her rude and abrasive demeanor. Sounds like an awful person.
Think this is a fake review have sailed with RC 13 times 11 on Indy never had a bad word to say about ship, crew or food and we have 2 booked this year also on Indy
Sorry that your cruise sucked. My wife and I just sailed on Independence of the Seas January 27th and it was great. They must have cleaned up the ship and got a new crew. We were so impressed with it all that we booked a cruise in October on the Oasis of the Seas RC. We thought it was awesome!!😁
Gee everyone else raves about the ship, good food and entertainment. Could you maybe have had an attitude this cruise? Your review just doesn't fit that ship. Sorry you didn't enjoy it.
We have sailed rcl 13 times and have done Disney and carnival and by far rcl is the best
Always fun and attentive staff never an issue
This is an older ship so expect. Not as much beauty as newer ships
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