All in all, excellent cruise. It was made excellent by the extra effort put in by Ariano, Dio and Joel. They are the ones that smoothed all the rough spots and are a credit to your establishment! Their empathy and understanding of travelers are innate, and should be rewarded.
Embarkation
3 out of 5
All Embarkation experiences are about the same, hurried, rushed, lots of lines etc. I do wish I had gone ahead and purchased the "key" as I feel it would have helped tremendously. Getting to the cruise line was very hard, and trying to keep within the window you had set up was equally hard, but Royal Caribbean must have know that, because if you missed your window, you were allowed to enter into the "next" window easily.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
I have to give "kuddos" to our wait staff. Ariana, table 726 and his assistant Melroy were top notch! They are the main reasons we ate at the dining room every night!
I must also include Joel Correira, There was an incident at a breakfast in the dining room, he handled it great! He also told us to try and come back for breakfast again (which after the incident, I was unwilling to do!) and he would personally see that we were treated right. He was true to his word. Great staff!
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
I did not try any of the pools, or rock-climbing walls (I am 68 years old!) but it looked like anyone who was participating was having a ball.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
I lowered the score on this one because of the adult comedian. He was more interested in giving a political speech rather than comedy. Perhaps it was because he lived in New York (which he told us numerous times) even for adult comedy this show was tasteless, vulgar, and outside the boundaries of adult. We walked out within the first ten minutes. Perhaps a comedian that is less political would have been great? Otherwise, 5 stars for each of the other shows: hairspray, Celene Dion impersonation, ice-skating show, Hiro all tops and entertaining!
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Our room steward, Dio, was the top!, Room was clean, towels refreshed daily, he brought ice to the room every day, and was personable to talk to, always cheerful. He is definitely an asset to Royal Caribbean.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Everything was clean and well-maintained. The Central Park was especially relaxing, clean, and peaceful. What a great addition to a boat! Elevators were surprisingly easy to use, especially with so many people on the boat. There were definitely enough venues, restaurants, bars, etc. for them all to be well cared for.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
The bed was comfortable. I especially liked that the bed was not next to balcony doors. We could open the curtains and still have a sense of privacy. The sofa was comfortable and the extra space on the balcony was a welcome addition.
Ship tip
Use the "key". I wish I had and will from now on, it is definitely well worth it. Also, use the free reservation ability (if you have the Key you can skip this step), it helps with getting into the venues early and not having to wait in long lines.
Our tour guide was more interested in selling us real estate than showing us the interesting sites of Malaga. After an hour of driving around and he showing the various apartments that were available and what they cost, he allowed the people to exit the bus and he would continue with his discussion, the only problem was that the people in the front of the line heard what he had to say (perhaps they were interested in buying an apartment?) and the people at the back of the line were left to their own imaginings. I did want to see the church, the amphitheater, and the castle, even if we got to do this in passing it would have been nice. As it was, they were only mentioned as a passing remark and we were back on to the cost of real estate.
In comparison to the tour of Malaga, this one was top notch! Our tour guide made sure everyone could hear. She explained what each site we were passing was and the history. We did exit the bus two times, each time she took the time to make sure everyone could hear her and explained about everything we were seeing! I learned more about Valencia, than I ever knew and her love of her city was evident. She knew the history behind all the sites, and her english was excellent!
I only rated this as okay because of the problems we encountered at the airport. Could the cruise director take the time and advise those travelers that were unfamiliar with the Barcelona airport some hints. I know there were shopping classes, but did not see anything about embarktation. Also, waiting until the last day to allow people to see when they would be leaving the ship was a little out of the excellence expectation I had for Royal Caribbean. It seemed that everyone we talked to had a different opinion as to where we would be picking up our luggage, when we were leaving, if we could leave early etc. A little more training on this aspect should be encouraged.
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