I was travelling alone on this cruise. As mentioned the ship is very impressive, and great for family’s and groups. As a solo traveller I think the whole experience was lost on me. Usually I would meet up with fellow cruisers, or at least constantly bump into someone I’d previously met. Due to the vast size and venues on this vessel, that was not the case and never saw or spoke to anyone more than once.
This has not put me of Royal Caribbean as this was my first time cruising with them, but I, personally, would steer clear of any mega ship in future if travelling solo.
If anything needed looking into it would be the quality of the food, other than that it was really a great week and I have no regrets going.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Easy to just drop of bags before returning rental car and quick shuttle back to the cruise port. Lines were quite long to go through security at around 12.30/1.00, and then to check-in. Just over an 1hr to get onboard after arriving at the terminal
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
2 out of 5
Main dining: Food lacked taste, and unless you had more than one item on the menu the dishes were rather small even for me that doesn’t really go for large meals. The main thing that got my me in the main dinning area was the constant, and I mean constant push to give good comments and rate them highly in the cruise questionnaire at the end. Also, don’t think about this being a cozy evening meal as they’re always interrupting with song and dance routines to the point where your made to stop eating and get up and join in🙄 Not for me, I just wanted to eat my dinner, it is a restaurant after all.
Buffet: I only had breakfast or lunch (burgers mainly for me). Again, the breakfast was disappointing, lacking in any taste. Dry pancakes, rubbery eggs. Although pastries were good and plenty of fruit options.
Solarium Bistro Buffet: Really nice salad in here.
Park Cafe & Outlet on the promanade deck: OK tiny sandwich rolls if your peckish.
Sorentos Pizza: OK if you like pizza, but usually long lines to grab a slice.
Speciality Restaurants: I personally didn’t go in any with a supplement of $35 upwards (except Johnny Rockets, which was around $15-25 for a burger). We had a Facebook page set up for this cruise, and most of the comments on the speciality restaurant experiences wasn’t very good!
Café Promenade
3 out of 5
Nice for a quick bite. And I mean bite. Tiny, almost finger sandwiches.
Park Cafe
3 out of 5
Another place advertised as 24hrs to get food, and again another place that just offers the smallest of small sandwiches, and unless you ask, you will only be given 1.
Pool Bar
5 out of 5
Never crowded and again amazing bar staff.
Boardwalk Dog House
5 out of 5
Nice, clean, does what it says on the tin. Different varieties of Hot Dogs😊
Champagne Bar
5 out of 5
Great atmosphere and really great bar staff.
American Icon Grill
2 out of 5
Food was really average, lacked taste and small portion sizes even for me.Constant hounding by staff about leaving good reviews at the end of the cruise.Too much entertainment and noise going on, this is a restaurant after all.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
So much to do, but so many people wanting to do them!
Casino Royale
5 out of 5
Huge variety of gaming machines and tables. All of the staff, especially the bar staff were awesome in here.
Michael Kors
5 out of 5
OK, so I didn’t buy myself a handbag, however, my niece asked me to check out what they had, and the assistant in the store could not have been more helpful. Even down to modelling the bags for me to send pictures to my niece so she could gauge sizes etc.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
I’ve marked this as three stars due to the fact that most of the entertainment has to be pre booked which can be done before the cruise. As this was the case I missed a number of shows as I’d forgotten what I’d booked and for what times!! If the app sent reminders that would have been helpful.
Children's Programs
2 out of 5
OK. I don’t have kids, but obviously many other cruisers did!!!!!! There were so many venues on the ship set up especially for kids of different age groups. However, the 12-17 yr old didn’t seem too bothered with what was onboard for them, but instead run riot in large groups everywhere, screaming and shouting. This got particularly bad running into the evening/night. Anywhere from deck 15 upwards. Thinking of having a relaxing drink in the evening on an open deck.... forget about it!!! And nobody said anything to them.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Cabin Attendant: awesome, couldn’t fault her, she was amazing and so helpful.
Bar Staff: again really friendly, always remembered my name and what I was drinking (although I’d throw a curve ball in there and change my drink every now and then to keep them on their toes 😁).
Everyone I came into contact with would always smile and say hello in passing. Couldn’t fault anyone on this ship.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Considering the size of the ship, it was really easy to navigate around, although at quite a distance between each place😁
Every area was clean, and constantly being cleaned. Can’t fault this area of my review.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
OK, so this was an interior facing balcony overlooking Central Park.
The cabin itself I cannot fault. It was spacious, plenty of storage. Bedding was really nice. The only issue I had was the bed was a bit lumpy!
I didn’t really use the balcony at all, it was a nice to have I guess. Not spending much time in the cabin, an oceanview is usually good enough for me.
The only reason I knocked one star of is because of the location. This was on deck 14 and above, deck 15 is the pool deck. So early in the mornings the was a lot of banging and scrapping of chairs going on where the staff were preparing the area for the day.
Ship tip
Make good use of the interactive screens that are dotted around. They will give you the fastest route to your destination on the ship.
I love the Bahamas period. Not necessarily Nassau, so booked an Beach Escape to Pearl Island. Really nice, but took a while to get there, therefore only had about 45mins there!!!
Another port I really like, St.Thomas. It’s a shame that there is still so much visible devastation from the Hurricanes in 2017.
I did the Secret Beach escape excursion. Well worth the money paid. Only a set number of visitors allowed as it is an eco area. Great snorkelling, turtles, iguanas etc. Spent around 3-4hrs here. FABulous.
OK. Hmm. The port area was really nice, as was Phillibsburg when we drove through.
I did an excursion to Rendezvous Beach. A total waste of time and money. To start there were 4 big coach loads of us on this excursion. We were told there was a section of beach exclusively for us with chairs and umbrellas (but you had to pay extra to keep the umbrella!). It was first come first served as to whether you got a lounger at the front and then obviously working back, from the sea. When we arrived we were told we had to get punch first before going to get a lounger, but of course this was ignored by most who just ran for the sun beds, only to find all the best ones occupied by Celebrity Cruise guests!!!!
By the time I got a lounger, it was in the back row, and all I had was a view of sun umbrellas, couldn’t even see the ocean!!!!!! I could have been anywhere in the world with the view. However, the sea was really cloudy, lots, and I mean lots of seaweed, I came out of the ocean looking like the creature from the black lagoon!!!
I thought about turning my bed around to face a nice palm fringed beach, but was faced with a waste and dumping ground of broken chairs etc.
Not good, avoid this excursion like the plague.
I complained to shore excursions as soon as I got back on the ship and was given a refund.
This tour was operated by a third party, I cannot believe that Royal Caribbean would even endorse it, and I told them so.
Really disappointed as I was looking forward to St.Maarten. Back on
Board I overheard others saying how gorgeous it was, so it was just my experience of this island that was marred on this occasion 🙁
I was the last group to disembark. Could not have gone any smoother. Straight off, straight to my case, through immigration, off to Alamo and on the road within 20mins.
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