It was a return to sailing cruise for sure…

Having done Ovation in October we knew the procedures and to only show up at our specific boarding time. It was very efficient. We went from the car to the bar in 12 minutes.

We LOVED the specialty dining! Wow! They really spent that $115 million (or more?) on deck 11! It’s like they chopped the top of the ship off and put an entire new ship on top. The windjammer was beautiful, I only walked through here twice, it was extremely busy and over crowded (social distancing signs were thrown onto a server station and disregarded on Ensenada day - more later on this) but the design and furnishings were beautiful. Jaimie’s Italian on deck 11 with beautiful big windows was a great idea, better than lower decks with windows that’s are obstructed. Hooked - possibly the hottest and freshest food I’ve ever had on a cruise ship, incredible. Playmakers - great concept, great food, not great back of house service - food took a very long time to come out (45 minutes for a burger? Twice!) but it was so good once it did come out- and playmakers had a $20 inclusion amount per person on the ultimate dining package, servers did their best, but slow kitchen service really brought this experience down. Izumi was INCREDIBLE, our server was so friendly and so knowledgeable, great first night dinner here. The ship was on day 8,9,10 of its return to service, was everything perfect? Nope, no way, but as you’ll see, it wasn’t unexpected and they obviously are working through a ton of new procedures and new crew. If this is how it was this early in return to service I am excited for then it gets to full service again.

So many things to do on this ship, if you are bored on here I’m sorry for your friends and family. Water slides, rock climbing, sports area, casino, sports bar, tiki bar, shows, comedy, pools, events, shopping. If you can’t find something to do… you shouldn’t leave your house.

There were DJ’s at the pools, loud music around the sports deck and water slides - appropriate for the energy level of the area, theater shows felt like the exact same as ovation just jumbled around order, but still entertaining and nice to see, singers were great, dancers great. The ice skating - how unexpected! I went along because husband wanted to go, wasn’t expecting anything… wow I was wrong, started with a drone show on the ice - wow! Then the 8 skaters did incredible things on the ice and all seemed happy to be there, it was a really good show, 45 minutes flew by and we almost missed dinner reservations because we didn’t even really take a breath during the performance and boom, time was gone! Again, if you can’t enjoy this… 🤷‍♂️

Now, please keep in mind, I’m saying all of this with THIS cruise experience only, and realizing it was only day 8/9/10 of return to sailing, having worked at brand new resorts and opening new flight routes, so I get it is new/return to service and I can see it will get better… but, this is my experience on this ship on this sailing. Guest services desk, husband inquired about a more central room due his motion sickness that sometimes happens, we only went to the desk because no one was there and there was no line and we knew the ship wasn’t sailing at full capacity so we figured there was nothing wrong with asking, and by no means did anyone act like it was a problem to ask. The man who assisted at the desk Amy have been on this desk for the first time, he was very slow on the computer, he needed assistance from others and after about 10 minutes told us that we could come back after sail away and see if a room change was available, we thanked him and went about our day. Shortly after we noticed my husbands name was changed in the app and on receipts around the ship. Later that night after dinner we returned to the desk seeing no line and a guest services manager was at the front of the line, we quickly said we inquired about a room change and he called the guest services agent over to assist us who had helped us earlier, the guest service agent looked to be shadowing someone else and looked genuinely nervous to help us again, but did, he looked for about 7 minutes at the screen and an unmasked young unmasked teen ran to the desk and interrupted us asking where an event was taking place and the guest service agent looked even more lost and stopped looking into our issue and looked for a cruise compass to tell him where to go, the guest services agent didn’t ask the teen to put on a mask and we ended up finding the event in our app and told him where to go. The guest services agent then told us we could room change to a virtual balcony room on deck 2, gave us the room number, and we asked if it was more central, he just looked at us confused and we pulled up our app again and found the room and it was actually central and a window room, so we accepted gladly. He printed a key for the old room, the new cards for the new room and we walked away and realized that the key had the wrong name (spelling) on it. We asked the manager working the line what to do and he first asked why we moved from floor 9 to 2, then said that it was just a system glitch and not to worry as long as the keys were printed with the right name…. Which they weren’t, he ran into the back office and came out within 30 seconds and told us it was because of the spelling of the name on my husbands passport… but his passport and sail and sign card from original room were correct, he told us sorry but we would need to return with the passport to have it corrected, we didn’t go further, but it was clear to us the error occurred when we first asked for the room change, but we were just happy to have the central room and didn’t dig in. When hubby went back for the name correction that took about 5 more minutes and confused looks again. - ALL OF THIS basically to say that easy things were hard for the crew still, they’re all getting back into their job duties and this was a simple thing that took a long time. The new room had clearly had a previous issue that had been repaired, but room steward wasn’t notified so there was some black water spots around the sink and old dried glue and dust on the floor that we just cleaned up ourselves and Clorox wiped everything, it was just easier to do ourselves on a short 3 day cruise. The server Peter in Hooked was incredible. We got to talking with him and he was celebrating his 20th year working for Royal Caribbean and he was probably the star of our sailing, knowledgeable, friendly, interested, and recognized us the next day and continued the friendliness as if we were still seated at his restaurant. Day 1 Jaimie’s Italian lunch server told us we must be mistaken thinking we had been to a Jaimie’s Italian before on Ovation because it was only on Navigator and Harmony… it set a weird tone for the rest of the meal and he really rushed our service and we saw him speak over others and it just wasn’t the Jaimie’s experience we loved from Ovation in 2019 and 2021 sailings to Alaska. Izumi dinner night one server Russel was fantastic, he saw that I wasn’t really a seafood person and my husband was so he made sure hubby got the best sushi and I had a great meal still with other items. Never could finish a water glass without it being refilled, and he just was so quick. But night 3 Jamie’s Italian (yes, we love it that much) we had server Alex who was so friendly, they had had a Jamie’s Italian chef from the actual restaurants in the UK onboard to teach them about pasta making and the service and food and he shared that with us and it was very nice, he also shared some of his experiences and it was genuine. The staff around the ship didn’t enforce mask rules at all, people either wore them because they knew the rules and followed them or they didn’t wear the masks and no one told them otherwise. Comparison to Ovation in October, if you didn’t wear a mask in a mask zone every crew member from officers to room stewards to maintenance team doing upkeep would remind you you needed to wear a mask, and they did it appropriately and not aggressive… on Navigator I think of only 2 times I saw anyone ask a guest to put a mask on and it was only the servers at windjammer scanning cards going into or out of the area. I witnessed security on the promenade watch several guests unmasked not eating or drinking walk through and they didn’t ask for masks to be put on. - I understand everyone (except kids) is vaccinated, everyone was tested… but, sailing is only just coming back, the public perception is still that cruises are dirty and unsafe, people have been out of work from work on ships in some cases for over 18 months, if the crew doesn’t enforce the guidelines and something happens they’ll lose jobs and we’ll lose cruising. Hopefully the crew get told they need to all enforce the mask guidelines and they all do, I’m so excited to have a Royal ship in LA again, and I hope to be back onboard often, so this will hopefully just be an adjustment return to service issue.

The pool area on night one was a mess, the trash and dish receptacles were all full / over flowing - again return to sailing, having staff in the right place at the right times. Otherwise, the ship was always being wiped down. The hull was freshly painted. There were some lightbulbs out here and there. Coming from sailing on a brand new Quantum class ship like Ovation, the pink hallways and guest room doors were a surprise, but that was about the only outdated thing, everywhere else, the shops, theaters, public spaces all really got a nice refresh during the 2019 refresh, money very well spent. The layout was so simple, and although it wasn’t a huge Quantum or Oasis class ship, it was still huge, but felt much more walkable, it was never a dreaded moment to have to go somewhere distance wise. Elevators were very efficient even at busy times, I was pleasantly surprised by this coming from carnival ships of the same age that I would never dare use the elevators because they would just never come, so love Royal elevators.

We started in an inside cabin and it was fine, if it wasn’t for the husbands motion sickness request the room would have been fine. This ocean view room 2318 we ended up with was great! I was disappointed at first hearing 2nd floor, always thinking higher was better, but this location was actually great, the room was just behind the elevators which you can not hear at all. We didn’t notice any guests noisy from the door. Yes the pink doors and walls in the hallways are a bit Golden Girls Miami dated, but that’s about the only thing I can say is dated on the ship, and it was kinda a cool throw back. The room has light wood furniture from the early 2000’s that was expected, the couch and the bed spread and curtains were all updated to that gray blue white color scheme from newer ships. Bathroom was typical Royal, sliding shower door, not curtain, door so that’s good. Mirror shelf unit is beat up a bit from 20 years of use, but new faucets. It was a fine room. Cleaning was good after the first night. Would happily take this room again,

Wait in your stateroom or in the windjammer until you are called. There’s no need to rush the departure and mess up everyone’s day by creating lines. We stayed in our room and leisurely debarked close to 10am and only had a brief 5-10 minute wait for border protection lines.