Awful Experience! Avoid At All Costs

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 13

Review summary

My wife and I wanted to see the Mediterranean area as a nice second anniversary trip. In the past, we have traveled on land tours and have enjoyed seeing many countries in Europe, Asia, and South America. This time, however, we felt that a cruise would be the best option to see these coastal areas. Upon arrival in Rome, Italy for our cruise, the problems started. Royal Caribbean reps told us to get our bags and wait for further instructions. Our transfer ticket stated that we would get a orientation tour of Rome if we arrived early (which we had). So, we were looking forward to that. The agents promised us that the tour would begin as soon as we got outside the airport. But, after we were herded into a pack of our tourists, we were informed that the "traffic" would prevent us from doing a tour. This is a strange and unbelievable excuse. We rode on a bus to Civitavecchia. At the "holding tank" area, we sat for at least 30-40 minutes without being told what was going to happen and when. Suddenly, we were informed that the ship would be opened and boarding could commence. People rushed to the entry way and we were again herded onto the ship in a tiresome manner. Once inside, our rooms were not ready and we had to wait in the WindJammer cafe and eat. The food in the main cafe (as we found out throughout the cruise) is similar to going to a Golden Corral buffet or perhaps some other American style buffet restaurant. While palatable, the food is mediocre and tiring at best. Rooms: The rooms are VERY small and uncomfortable. My college dorm room was FAR better and cleaner than the room we had on the ship. I had trouble sleeping every night and the walls creaked, crackled, and popped all night. Also, the ship turns off the A/C at night and it gets REALLY HOT in the middle of the night. I woke up sweating many nights. Also, there is no water in the room (or nearby) except for expensive bottled water. The shower was VERY small and the curtain was ineffective at keeping water off of the floor. My wife and I constantly had problems with the shower curtain. Excursions: The Royal Caribbean excursions were hit or miss. The ones to Egypt, Turkey, and Capri/Sorrento/Pompeii were fairly good. The ones to Rhodes, Cypress, and Athens were awful. In fact, the one to Cypress actually omitted a scheduled activity because we were supposed to visit a castle. Incredibly, we did not get to see this even though we paid for the tour. The guides on the bad tours were also rather bad. They rambled at a consistent monotone as if they were doing a lecture for the 1000th time without concern for whether we could hear. One guide in Rhodes, for example, lectured about everything under the sun to kill time while we waited 50 minutes for people to use the restrooms. So, a good chunk of that tour was outside the restrooms of Rhodes! When we complained about the bad tours to Royal Caribbean reps, they just said to fill out a form and they'll get back. I thought this was a poor response and asked to see a manager. They were VERY reluctant to even allow us to see a manager. The manager merely parroted corporate policy and seemed to interrogate us as to why we would be upset! The deal is that if you don't like something, you can file a complaint and you won't hear the result until THE LAST DAY OF THE CRUISE. The reason, I think, is so that you won't cancel any other excursions and won't get any more upset. On the last day, they refunded us 20% of two excursions for our troubles. This amount seemed arbitrary and was part of a form letter attached to the refund. Overall, I must say that the tours were well below what you'd see with something like Globus, Trafalgar, Cosmos, Brendan, etc. Facilities on Board: The ship itself does not have all that much to keep you occupied for days at sea. The golf course is very small and has a few holes. It might keep you occupied for an hour. The climbing wall was interesting and took maybe

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Pros: Itinerary; Wait staff

Cons: Everything else.

Recommends Legend of the Seas? No.