My experience

I have been on 3 Carnival cruises prior to this Royal Caribbea cruise.

I heard from many people that the RC was overall better.

Well the first two days onboard, our cabin toilet did not work.

I notified the steward & maintenance who were "working on the problem."

Was not fun having to use a hallway bathroom each time we had to go.

Another downside is that the small refrigerator in our cabin was not turned on to cool.  I was told by the steward that they are all always room temperature.

Odd to say the least. 

I would say the buffet food was the same as Carnivals. 

The main dining room food quality was quite a bit worse than Carnivals unfortunately.

We ate at Giovanni's Table one night.  The food was just so-so for a premium.

We also ate at Chop's Grille which the food quality was much better but the service was lacking.  My food sat under a visible heat lamp for almost 9 minutes after the Chef placed it for pick up before anyone brought it.  The wait staff does not assist each other here which I find disturbing.  How can a restaurant flow properly without everyone working as a team?  Mind you I saw 5 waiters and 1 manager literally standing by our food leaning around while our waiter was at a computer terminal putting in another table's order.

I talked with the cruise director while he was getting food at the buffet one night.

I asked him why there were no magic acts on the lineup.

He says they rarely bring them onboard.

Johnny Rockets was pretty good if you can go when they are not slam busy.

$6.95 for all you can eat minus the shakes & ice cream.

The service there was very slow too.  Most of the staff looked miserable to be working there.

Another downside is during certain ports where we had to tender from ship to boat to pier, there was no signage directing people where to go.

My party & another 60+ guests were struggling to find out where to go to get off the ship.  Two different RC gave us totally different directions with the last one directing us to a table at the rear lounge. No one was at this table once we arrived.

Luckily the cruise director was walking by & finally directed everyone where to go.

We "barely" made it aboard the tender boat in time.

A plus to this RC ship is there is ALOT more shopping & things to do than on the Carnival ship.  

Be prepared to spend a lot more on soda packages on RC.  They were $8.50 per person per day.  Carnival was a flat rate of @ $30ish for the whole week.

If you have done the Cat in the Hat breakfast on Carnival, stick with that.

The Dreamworks Breakfast on RC S-U-C-K-S.