As a seasoned cruiser, this was not a ship I would have chosen to sail on but as this was a group trip for a wedding held on board, it was the choice for weekend cruise out of Port Canaveral. I had been on the Monarch - its sister ship -- last trip before it was retired and don't remember having this much to comment on. It could use a refresh if they are going to keep sailing it, and charging the premium $$ when similar trips on nicer ships out of Miami are considerably cheaper. I personally think long weekend cruisers out of Port Canaveral deserve more from RCCL. The trip saves itself by long times in port in Bahamas and the private island -- which is the main reason to take this cruise.
Embarkation
2 out of 5
Embarkation had a couple of issues I've not experienced in my 30+ cruises. One, the agent did not associate the credit card nor ask to see the card used on line with our actual check in so at the end of the trip, there was no credit card associated with our room. She did not have access to the on board credit information (the little slip of paper with $13 she handed us was incorrect) -- said we had to see guest relations once we boarded. The gangway had come away from the ship and needed to be respositioned. We had to wait 45 minutes to board.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
The MDR food was good to excellent. Every meal had variety and offered a lot of things I wanted to try. Service was excellent. Breakfast in the MDR on the chocolate day was fabulous. The buffet, for me was a whopping 1 star but you CAN avoid the buffet on this ship by eating your meals in the MDR so issue avoided. Malcontent on the buffet included mislabeled fish (said it was swordfish or wahoo -- both times it was bossa), a very VERY weak salad bar offering. Chicken noodle soup with no noodles even though the urn was full. Long waits at the pizza bar since there never seemed to be pizza enough for those in line. The champagne brunch with the galley tour for $25 was a nice offering. This ship has no specialty restaurant except for Johnny rockets (and with burgers available on the buffet line why would one want to pay for this?) so the MDR needs to be good and it was.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Normal offerings - scavenger hunt, battle of the sexes, belly flop contest. Never did find bingo going on. No real dance floor on this ship but they did offer dance classes on the day we were late into the Bahamas. That was nice.
Entertainment
2 out of 5
The on board music entertainment was average at best. No dance floor near the area where they were set up and playing. The evening entertainment was weak and commonplace.
Children's Programs
No children on board.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
For the most part, the staff were friendly and helpful. Our room steward, Dane, was great. Very attentive and responsive. Our dining staff "superman" and Jin were also great. We took a liking to the pumpkin seed rolls and they made sure there were plenty in the bread offering each night. The dining room staff also accommodated our group of 14 at two tables after boarding....very appreciated thank you.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
Clean yes! Design is okay and easy to navigate once you figure out stern and bow. Could seem crowded at times because of the design with a central stair and elevator stack. Having an elevator out for most of the last day of the cruise also caused some backup.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
When we arrived, there was standing water in the bathroom, and we had to call maintenance to come address the issue (it was the shower head we were told). Fixing that gave us excellent water pressure so a blessing in disguise. We wanted the two beds together instead of set up like twins. Bed 1 was 2 - 3 inches lower than bed 2. I kept rolling downhill over the crack while sleeping and then had to wake up to move back onto my half of the bed. Rather irritating. These rooms have storage aplenty. Very small navigation space. One of the beds, when put together will be pushed up against a wall so you have to crawl out over the bottom of the bed on this side. The televisions in the rooms are smaller than my monitor at work. I had to put on my reading glasses (again small navigation space) to see TV. The sound on our monitor also worked only sporadically. Come on RCCL, if you're going to keep this ship in commission, upgrade the monitors to something big enough to watch.
Ship tip
There is no real benefit to a suite on this ship. One of our group had booked a suite and it's marginally larger than a normal cruise ship balcony cabin. We were on the 6th floor ocean view and the picture window was nice as compared to the porthole window on some of our group located on floor 3.
Because we arrived in port late (3 p.m. instead of morning), there was not a lot of reason to take a beach excursion or a sailing excursion. Even using the $100 credit offered to us to visit Atlantis by our cruise agency would have been a waste as the beach water park closes at 5. So we visited the straw market and walked around the shopping area. We have been here many times so a island tour was not necessary. We spent about 2 hours on island and then went back to the ship to get ready for formal night dinner.
Coco Cay is THE reason to take this weekend cruise. The island has been enhanced (probably to accommodate the larger ships like Oasis and others) and offers a lot more seating than when I was there in 2013. Sadly, there are no more adult only areas and the quiet hammock areas were surrounded by DJ's playing music and the limbo contest. Many things on the island are "fee only". I would like to see them add a few "free" to use things -- kayaks, paddle boards, bikes, etc. The lunch bbq was plentiful and drink prices were good as they ran specials. The water was spectacularly beautiful and warm. This island is a gem.
Except for the part where our credit card was not ever attached to our room card keys and we got the big red X over our faces while trying to disembark, there was no issue. Bags were ready and waiting as was our off site parking shuttle. Disembarkation was timely (they said 9:30 for our tag # and it was right on time).
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