If you are thinking of booking....DONT

Having cruised with RC before on both the Liberty and the Oasis, we decided to change from the Caribbean and opted for the 7 night Arabian Cruise, which was to celebrate my sisters birthday. There were 7 of us in total, including my 2 year old nephew. We didnt bother to look at reviews etc before booking as we have always been impressed by RC...but wishing we had done some research before handing over all that money for what was one of the worst holiday experiences I have ever had. On approach to the boat, it is noticeably smaller than the others, and once on the boat you see how dated it is. There is basically nothing on board other than the cabins dining rooms and a tiny deck with the smallest pool I have ever seen. The majority of the sun loungers are broken and the towels are stained. The rooms are tiny and cramped, and the furniture is tired and stained, and we were given two single beds pushed together. We had to ask for towels on a few occasions. The rooms are so noisy that I barely slept the whole week. My sister and her partner had asked to booked a larger room as they were travelling with an infant, but were in fact greeted with a smaller room, and there two year old was given a top bunk to sleep in...!!!! After making complaints, the best option they were given was to be provided with a cot, but it meant you couldn't actually move around the cabin. We would have had more room and comfort in a caravan. The public restrooms were constantly blocked and you would have to queue to use these. You have to pay for absolutely anything decent including bottles of water in the room, even though there are no other drinking provisions within a reasonable distance to the room, and you couldnt drink the tap water as it run brown some days. In fact one day we had no water in the room at all, which when I move on the the next part you will see why this is an issue. Both myself and my partner got food poisoning from the Main Restaurant (calamari) which ruined the last two days of our trip, and when we complained to the "Guest Services" we were basically greeted with "what do you want us to do about it..if you are that ill you will need to be quarantined". No apologies or advise. I heard a few people approaching the desk with complaints and they got nowhere, or were greeted with attitude. They just seemed like they couldn't be bothered with anybody. To be honest ive had better treatment in a Premier Inn. Going back to the food, the food quality and selection on this ship is far poorer than I have ever experienced with RC. I am not a fussy eater by any standards but some nights I struggled to find anything on the menu that I wanted, and the food that was served was always a bit too cold and packed full of garlic to give it any flavour so everything just tasted the same. The meat quality is very poor compared to before, and the food just seems to be the same things but presented slightly differently. Leftovers of the night before seemed to appear the next day in the Windjammer as "specials". previously on other RC ships on the Formal dining nights you could order Fillet steaks and lobsters as standard, however these are now optional extras you have to pay for which is really disappointing. The Windjammer is an absolute free for all which you have to fight past people and queue, its like being in a soup kitchen. The food is the same every day and very little healthy options. The deserts are mainly inedible. The drinks are very expensive and i dont know who trains the staff on mixology but the cocktails are all vile, and ive never had a gin and tonic thats tasted like chanel no 5 before. I ended up sticking to bottled beer and wine as it was the only thing that you could drink. I think its disgusting you have to pay $70 for a weeks soda package, surely water down coca cola should be part of the package??? We tried to onboard entertainment and walked out of both shows as they were so bad, and the poolside entertainment made me cringe so much my teeth hurt... bell flop competitions and sexiest man in 2017..seriously??? Sunbeds are as rare as hens teeth and I witnessed a few fights breaking out over reserving them. On sailing days you have to be up at 7am and sat on your sun lounger if you have any chance of getting one. The area around the pool is so crowded with sun loungers you cant actually get near the pool. My 2 year old nephew was also told on day 2 he was not allowed in the pool as he was not toilet trained...even though he had on swim nappies/diapers. We had to take him out of the pool for the rest of the holiday. When we made a complaint about this we were told it was in the booking details so tough. We have since been through all pf the holiday spec and there is nothing that says he cant use the pool, and this was not brought to our attention when we made the booking over the phone. This ruined his and his parents holiday. They ended up PAYING $390 for WIFI for the week so that he could watch movies on the ipad as there was nothing for him to do. The fast that in 2017 we have to pay for WIFI is baffling, but surely for $390 you would expect superfast connection? No it was broken most of the time. Biggest waste of money ever. Surely there should be free WIFI at least in public areas??? The stops on the cruise are pretty pathetic also, there is NOTHING in Khasab its like a building site, and there is no way enough things to do in Muscat for 2 days. We were bored out of our minds. Ill move on to my last negative. On the second day of our trip, we were told the sad news that our grandparent (my Mums father) had died. My parents made the decision to leave the cruise early, however when the approached guest services for advise on how to do so, they were told "They dont deal with things like that". As my mum was distraught I ended up spending two hours on the phone for her sorting out travel arrangements and transfers etc. When they went to settle the bill, they were still required to pay for everything including the soft drink package and WIFI which has hardly been used. They had only been on two days. And to add insult to injury they were both charged $100 each to leave early!! How the person at Guest services had to gall to ask this of them is completely beyond me. By the end of the week on the Vision of the Seas we were all desperate to get off. I am trying to raise a formal complaint but dont seem to be getting anywhere either. So my advise...DONT BOOK!!!!