The Good: ship staff, the ship itself, the food and drinks, Coco Cay.
The Bad: too crowded......sometimes we couldn't even get a seat for breakfast in the Windjammer buffet, not enough pools, Cape Liberty is awful, Florida and Nassau stops should be replaced.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
The Royal Caribbean staff is excellent. The Cape Liberty employees and system were absolutely awful.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
The staff works so hard and are all very friendly. We were not able to use our Specialty Dining credits we had from . I tried multiple times and was repeatedly told that there weren't any reservations available. This was so lame because you are not allowed to book any specialty restaurants before the cruise with this promotion, but then there weren't any spots available at Chops or Giovanni's Table......I even asked to use the credits at the "specialty" sports bar, called Playmakers.....I was denied there too. So, the 4 stars rating reflects the hard working buffet and bar staff throughout the week.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Pools were so crowded that it was tough to enjoy. Nearly 7,000 passengers with only 3 full-sized pools. The water slide and other giant slide was fun.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
Illusionist, Jason Bishop, was excellent. The comedians for the adult show were pretty good. The Aqua80 show was amazing...it was so good that my family even watched the performers rehearse on the days following the live show we watched.
Children's Programs
I have teenagers, the children's program were not for them.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
The staff on board was excellent. Pablito was a bar waiter in Boleros, what a great and hard working person. Our room steward, Chris, was fantastic too.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
The ship is visually stunning and very clean.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Our balcony room was very comfortable. Nice balcony overlooking Central Park. The air conditioner did not get as cold as we wanted, but I don't want to post fewer than 5 stars in case that would reflect poorly on our excellent room steward.
Cape Liberty in New Jersey is absolutely awful. Over one hour in traffic to drive about 1 mile to park. The cruise porter was so rude. The parking situation is so poorly run. Just very nasty employees. When we returned from the cruise, some nasty female employee was just yelling at everyone and asking them if they wanted her job...what a loser.
Port Canaveral gets a neutral rating because we did not get off the ship. There was not enough time to do anything meaningful based on our arrival time and scheduled departure...it was not worth it to us to get off the ship. We heard from people who paid for a Disney World transfer and were only able to be inside Disney World for 2 hours......that is a very expensive 2 hours.
Nassau has definitely changed. It is now very sketchy and we did not feel safe walking around there. The deeper you walked into Nassau, the more you felt you were going to get mugged. Even a worker tried hustling us to pay more for the sweatshirts we were buying compared to the prices other workers were telling customers walking by.......and this was a shop very close to the ship.
Coco Cay was awesome. The giant pool was so much fun. Giant bar near the pool and a DJ keeping everyone entertained. The bartenders did work a lot slower than the bartenders aboard the ship......poor guys just seemed exhausted....not many smiles from them. I wish we could get 2 days at Coco Cay and just skip the Florida and Nassau stops. Even a longer day at Coco Cay would be an improvement. I would trade a stop to add some hours to the Coco Cay day.
I agree Nassau is not a good port. We like port Canaveral, NASA and cocoa beach are fun. I also agree the ships in carribbean are too crowded. The cruise lines count full occupancy as 2 per room. In the carribbean, in the summer many rooms have more than 2 passengers. The last 2 RCL ships we were on felt very overcrowded.
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