Day 1
Long security line but not unreasonable.
Check-in friendly and did not take long, but only because we had loyalty program. General guests had super long check in line.
Explored the ship after arrival, very "maze" like. Hard to find your way around.
Found the room. Balcony room. Little tight. Smaller than other cruise lines. Plate of chocolate covered strawberries. Great presentation. 2 bottles of champagne. 1 in ice. 1 not in ice, just cold water. Room attendant not sure if mini bar items are extra being we have a drink package.
Was hungry... only quick service restaurant immediately available was the buffet. Not any other eateries or diners on board that are not specialty restaurants. Multiple staff members did not know where to send us.
Muster drill started. We were on the 5th deck. Probably Covid protocol, but we had to climb the stairs to deck 14 (9 flights) to go back to room to watch the muster drill video on the in room TV. Then go back down the stairs to deck 7 (our muster station) in the casino, to have our ship card scanned to show we followed all directions. Elevators not allowed to be used during the drill.
Lunch
Still hungry, we finished the drill, we were then allowed to use the elevator to go to the top deck to the buffet. The buffet was closed until after muster drill. The staff did not know exactly when the buffet would open. So we were now hungry and frustrated. The buffet finally opens. The pizza was awful! Cheese pizza was paper thin (not exaggerating) and greasy. Margarita pizza also super thin and covered completely in sauce, no cheese on the this kind of pizza. Very weird. At least it was edible. The Alfredo pasta, over cooked and disgusting. Beef stroganoff was better but not great. Chicken sandwich was fried, but cold and greasy. Not good. The highlight of lunch at the buffet was the cheese burgers and French fries. Sad but at least we didn't go hungry. The deserts bar... the chocolate eclare, room temp. Mango cheesecake was flavorless, passion fruit panacata was OK. The apple crisp was in a metal tin, and was cold. That item should be served hot! Very disappointed. Also due to Covid, they have almost full glass windows blocking the food. Good to protect the food, bad for communication. The staff can barely hear you and you can barely hear them.
Dinner service in the dining room
Drinks-i had a beer, served in a can, the 3 of us asked for glasses of water. It was served from a bottle of Acqua Panna. NO ICE! 33.8oz bottle barely covered (3) 1/2 glasses of water, remember, no ice. I asked the waiter later for another bottle which was never given to us. A waiter should be looking for when your glasses are empty, you shouldn't have to ask. I ordered the grouper. I asked for it grilled and the waiter did not initially understand. When it arrived, it was over cooked, the flesh was dry and hard. The rice was flavorless. I informed the waiter that I didn't want the plate, but it stayed in front of me for over 30 minutes. Even after the waiter returned to take our desert order. Still waiting for our dessert. Might walk out. Very frustrated. Dessert finally arrived. I asked a 2nd time for water and it came right away. The brownie was OK, coconut pistachio cake turned out good. The waiter forgot my daughter's dessert, 10 minutes later still waiting. 15 minutes later we walked out. Daughter got fed up and didn't even want dessert anymore. Very pissed that waiter forgot the dessert of an 11 year old girl. No apology for poor wait service.
I hate to make it sound as though we are being too picky. But you pay a lot of money to go on a cruise. It's not out of line to ask for good food and service. Never had such a bad first day on Royal Caribbean or Carnival.
Casino
After wife and daughter went to bed I went down to the casino to play craps as I do on every cruise we go on. There is no craps table on board. What cruise ship casino doesn't have a bunch of people standing around a table, throwing dice and cheering loudly? Ummm... this one I guess.
Wifi
I usually don't care about wifi. I like to disconnect for the week. But the price of this cruise included the wifi so why not. Which is not working. I will be going to the desk to figure that out, and to complain about the poor dinner service explained above.
A/C in multiple areas of the ship are hot. Room A/C is turned all the way down. We are sweating in the room. Main dining room was hot, and lack of water to drink didn't help. Other common areas and exterior halls (glass enclosed) hot too.
Day 2 Sea Day
Breakfast
Just OK. Very bland food. Ham was terrible and tasted spoiled. Eggs were OK. Bacon was good.
Lunch
Buffet was packed. Not all areas were open causing longer lines. Passengers trying to cut in front of you and arguments ensuing. Staff attempted to stop line cutting. Cheese burgers and parmasean fries still the winner of lunch time.
Alcohol
The drinks are good. Not long waits.
Dinner (Captains Dinner)
Note: Found out from our neighbor in the next cabin that as Aurea class passengers, we are supposed to be eating in a special restaurant other than the main dining room. But due to staffing shortage, the restaurant is not open. Wish somebody would have mentioned that to us.
Arrived at dinner and waited in a short line to be seated. Once seated, we were greeted by our waiter. He got us water. 30min in, we haven't seen him since, did not take our order. This appears to now be a consistent problem, not a fluke like last night. As soon as I wrote this, a different waiter took the order.
Another waiter delivered some bread sticks and rolls. No butter. My roll could break a window, or knock somebody out if I threw it. Now that we are done eating the dry bread sticks and rolls, another waitress brings a bowl of butter. Not sure what we are supposed to do with that now.
Just watched a waiter serve a guest a bottle beer in a large wine glass
2 hours into dinner service and our desert orders haven't been taken.
Chef Ramsay would have shut this down by now.
Deserts
I thought last night that the dessert was a no bake cake. Definitely tonight I confirmed these are no bake deserts.
Room
So our cabin neighbors told us tonight that our room is considered a suite. When I looked it up, it's actually called a Premium Aurea Suite. This room is smaller than RC and Carnival regular balcony room. (Can't confirm accuracy of neighbors observation).
Day 3 (cozumel)
Getting off the ship, was notified by security that 11yo daughter had to have a white wristband to get off the ship. It identifies her as being vaccinated. Why did nobody mention this over the first 2 days? Had to go back to the room, get vaccine cards, down to guest services, get wrist band, back to room to secure documents back in safe, then exit the ship. A lot of run around for something that could have been avoided.
Dinner service (main dining room)
We ended up going to dinner pretty late around 9pm. The dining room was not as crowded. It did not feel as though the staff was as overwhelmed as the previous 2 nights. Dinner service also did not take as long as the previous 2 nights.
Day 4 (Sea Day)
Good day to relax. Saw that Master Chef at Sea show. Good concept idea for a cruise line afternoon show. Dragged out a little especially since the show was presented in 6 languages. Not bad.
Lunch service
Back to the buffet. Very crowded. Not all areas open. Passengers getting more frustrated by the day. The staff is doing very little to control the lines.
Trash pickup and bussing tables
So today we took our daughter to one of the pools. After sitting in the sun for a couple hours we moved under cover. The only sitting area we could find was where another group of passengers left behind a couple of finished food trays from the buffet. We moved them out of the way as we were about to eat lunch ourselves. Those other trays remained until after we left approximately 1 hour later. My daughter spilled her frozen drink by accident. I informed a crew member that there were excess trays and a spilled drink. He said he'd take care of it. My wife and I got another round of drinks and sat down again. The crew member came by, picked up the plastic cup and walked away, without the trays, and without cleaning up the spilled drink. He didn't even place a wet for sign (I'm yet to even see one of those on the ship). We headed back to the room for approximately 3 hours and went back to the buffet for a snack around 6pm. I told my wife I wanted to walk by our seating area from earlier to see if the drink was cleaned. It was still there almost 6hrs later. That area was still wet with red liquid! I can't believe it. Later we took a walk around the 19th deck before our dinner reservation. Cups, garbage, masks, sticky floors. I know they are short staffed, but somebody needs to be walking around with a broom and dust pan. Seriously.
Day 5 (Jamaica)
Off the ship for an excursion. The check in process was a little hectic and they did not tell us we would have to have ID's and vaccination cards to check in for excursion. So back and forth to the room multiple times.
Back onto the ship wasn't difficult. Wife injured knee while at waterfall. Ship security immediately offered a wheelchair. And staff member wheeled her all the way to 14th deck to room. I asked the cabin steward for a few extra pillows so my wife could prop up her knee. His response..."use the couch pillows." Only 1/2 the ship is occupied, you can't find any extra soft pillows laying around? Lost his extra tip with that comment!
Dinner service in main dining room. Again, food mediocre. Dessert was supposed to be warm apple strudel. Nothing warm about it. Food Temps still an issue.
Day 6 (Sea Day)
Breakfast
Don't be late for breakfast! We arrived 15 minutes before closing. They said they were about to close off all lines except the omelet station in the back. So if they aren't closed yet, we get in line. They serve my daughter then refuse to serve me. Why? So after a few choice words, i move to the back of the restaurant. I stand in line with about 20 other passengers for omelets. The chef makes my omelet with what i ask. I take it to the table and cut into it... raw egg comes flowing out of it. It wasn't even fully cooked.
Dinner (Kaito Teppanyaki)
Dinner was very good. The chef wasn't bad, I've seen better entertainer at US based teppanyaki restaurants. The green tea ice cream was a bit weird, but not terrible. The service was very good.
Day 7 (Ocean Cay)
Breakfast
Once again they started shutting down Breakfast lines 15 minutes prior to end to breakfast time. Very frustrating. My daughter was looking for a donut and they ran out, but one of the officers brought her a plate with 6 cream puffs, so that was a nice gesture.
Ocean Cay
Large island. Does have transportation service but only to a small amount of the island. A lot of walking to get where you want to go. Very little shade cover. They do have beach chair, umbrella, and floating mat rentals, but it was unclear how, where, and how much to rent these items.
Wheelchair access
As stated before, my wife injured her knee in Jamaica. They do have beach wheelchairs, but the guest services staff on board did not know that when we asked. They were first come first serve. Unfortunately most on them are in disrepair. Rusted bars, worn seats, deflated tires, and ripped foam handle guards.
Kids Club
We were told the kids activities would be at the South Beach. So we made our way to South Beach. Could not find the kids activities through the day. We were told later that the kids activities were canceled without notice.
The water
South Beach water was very deep very quickly within 25 feet of the shore it dropped off more than 6ft deep. The water was very murky with low visibility. This location was not a good spot for snorkeling.
Lunch
It was stated on the daily itinerary that the lunch facility closed at 2pm. Due to closed facilities on the island, everybody from the ship had to go to the same lunch facility causing very long lines for food. If you didn't get in line before 2pm, you were sent away by the staff. Why close food 4 hours before departure? Do you really think passengers around going to get hungry while still on the beach for 4 more hours?
There was a food truck available for those that didn't get the good lunch. That food truck has hot dogs and hamburgers. The staff at the food truck barely spoke English and was difficult to communicate with. Other food trucks across the island served food not covered by the cruise and you had to pay extra for.
Closed facilities on Ocean Cay.
Due to staffing shortage, 3 beaches and 4 restaurants and bars were closed. Even the kids club did not operate and there was no notice given on that. That also included less places to eat around the island causing very long lines for food at that main lunch location.
Closing out your account
We did not set up a credit card on file. We tried to purchase a photo and were told we can't. They can't add the price of the photo to the room account. There must be a credit card assigned. In order to assign the credit card, we had to pay the room balance off. When we did that, it closed out the room completely. We then had to reassign the card again. Guest services would not take our cash to pay off the balance (deck 5), you had to go to one of the cash payment machines (deck 6&7) so it was up and down the elevators between floors back and forth to get this done.
Purchasing photos
Once the credit card assignment was figured out, we again tried to pay for the photo. They don't take payment at the photo desk, you must add it to your Sea pass account (credit card must be assigned). Their system would not accept our Sea pass cards. They tried to tell me the card was deactivated. I told them I used it 3 times at the bar in the last hour. It's not deactivated. Guest services was unhelpful stating that "they are not IT"
Magically the card starts to work and the photo was purchased.
Luggage Prep for departure
Initially on the written itinerary the morning of the final day it stated all checked luggage must be in the halfway by 1am. They changed it on the final day to 10pm. It could have been a problem for passengers that wanted to go see a show or had other plans for the final night, instead shorting everybody 3 hours of leisure time.
Departure
Customs tends to be slow to begin with and a ship full of passengers that don't declare their items makes the process slower. However... they call your departure number and you get in line to exit the ship. I'm not joking when I tell you the single file line stretched half way down the length of the ship. I realized when it was out turn to get in line that because they matched our Royal points, we were their equivalent class, and they have expedited departure. So I walked up to the front asked the crew member, they confirmed, and I went back to the end of the line where my wife and daughter were. Thank God we did our e would have been on that floating disaster until lunch time.
