Wonder of the Seas - 2022 Thanksgiving Nightmare

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 22

Review summary

Well, we just got off Wonder for the Thanksgiving Cruise. I will give you my absolute honest review. I was told there were 6700 passengers on board. 6700!!! So, knowing that number would probably push her limits, my expectations were already curbed considerably. First, the good: She is a beautiful ship. Embarkation was the smoothest I have ever experienced. Curb to ship in less than 20 minutes. That is phenomenal with that many passengers. Our room was ready on time at 1:00 and we had our luggage by 2:00. Kevin (the pub guitarist) and the Country Trio were must-see entertainment. Hooked Seafood was to die for! The Solarium seemed to contain kryptonite for the chair hogs. We always found chairs with ocean views. (more on the solarium later). MDR wait staff were exceptional. Royal Caribbean gave out very generous OBC for a missed port stop. (more on that later). Our 7-day cruise ended up being an 8-day cruise! (more on that later). Then, the bad: Ok, I said I curbed my expectations considering the passenger count. I got multiple different answers to how many staff were on board but, whatever that number is, it was nowhere near enough. On embarkation day, the Windjammer did not open up until after noon and when they did, they only opened one side. It was an absolute mad house! Ordinarily Royal has enough complimentary options to try and offset the buffet rush. We tried to go to Park Cafe, and the line stretched all the way to the elevators. El Loco Fresh? More of the same. It was a horrible start to the vacation. We all had drink packages (I had the deluxe/my wife & kids the refreshment). It was such a struggle to find a place to get a drink the first day, that I was ready to go to guest services and get a refund for the packages. The only thing stopping me from doing so, was that the guest services line was so long I was afraid I would still be standing there at the end of the cruise. The solarium is enclosed on Wonder and they must have given Satan the thermostat control! It was so hot in there that the whirlpools were doubling as the stew pots for the galley. Clearly the reason for the available chairs. We had the Chops +1 dinner package and chose Chops on night 1. Our reservation was for 5:30 and at 7:15 we finally got our steak! It took so long that my kids actually declined dessert so they could get the hell out of there. On top of that, the steaks were cold. If I didn't think it would take another hour, I would have sent them back. We absolutely LOVE Chops on every single ship but this was worse than the Golden Corral. We were supposed to stop in Coco Cay on day 2 but the weather did not cooperate and we were unable to stop. I know the cruise line does not control the weather so I was not at all upset about that. (as mentioned above, they compensated us generously for that anyway). However, the limits of the staff were once again put to the test and failed drastically! Only one side of the windjammer was open again and it was a repeat of day one. We followed up our marathon Chops dinner with a two-hour shitshow at the MDR. Of course, the wait staff was exceptional throughout and stayed on top of drinks throughout the all-night affair. By day 3, I had found enough open hiding spots to avoid the lines and get drinks. But when paying this much for a vacation, you shouldn't have to hide. There should be enough staff/seating at the popular locations to support the number of guests. Playmakers was completely inaccessible the entire cruise. The venue is already way too small and chair hogs apparently found a new way to reserve seats. There were bags, jackets, books, cups, etc. sitting on the chairs at Playmakers for hours during days when there were any sporting events (World Cup games every day!) People had to arrive at the Mason Jar Bar 1 1/2 hours prior to the band playing to get a seat anywhere. And those who couldn't find a seat were just standing in front of those who did. The bar stayed full with people slipping into every opening to try and get a drink and others standing behind them yelling at the poor bartenders. Zero table service anywhere except for the pub. Day 3 was formal night on our cruise. We had early dining with a set table. We show up to our table for formal night and there is another damn family at our assigned table! I spoke to the family sitting there and they said their table had been given away so they moved them to ours effectively starting the chain reaction which resulted in us being moved to another table on a completely different deck. Adventure Ocean staff was so overwhelmed that they just let the kids play dodgeball the entire time. None of the group activities that we are used to on Royal. My son said there were well over 100 kids in the 6-12 group every evening. Now, after day 3, things started turning around. I heard people in the FB group say that they were just staying in their rooms due to the madness. Whatever the reason, everything seemed to be less crowded (except for the Mason Jar bar). So I kind of break this up into two separate cruises: one was a 3-day cruise that I would never book again and probably would have accepted a helicopter evacuation to escape from its clutches, and the other a 5-day cruise that was extremely enjoyable and I would consider booking again. My wife and I had already decided we were cancelling this April sailing but changed our minds during the second half. Until...... THE UGLY: Things happen in life. There was a medical emergency on day 5 which required a passenger to be evacuated. We were well on our way back to Port Canaveral but had to turn around and sail full speed ahead to Puerto Rico to save the passenger’s life. This detour would cause our ship to get back into Orlando a day later. We drove to the port my wife and I have very flexible work schedules so we did not feel burdened by this at all. Our kids could stand to miss a day of school/practice. The majority of the passengers did not have this luxury. While everyone sympathized for the injured passenger and family and understood Royal's decision as the correct one, we all fully expected the cruise line to compensate its customers for this extremely large monkey wrench thrown into their travel plans. I was actually pretty excited for one more night added on to our cruise. Until we got THE LETTER! After providing generous OBC for a missed port stop, they make us pay for a day of packages!?!? The 50% is calculated based on the onboard price and not what you actually paid either. People who had to change flights had to pay extra for an internet package they had already paid for. This is so abysmal that someone needs to be fired for this letter. I know I personally waited in guest services over an hour that night to stop my packages. The lady at guest services assured me that our existing packages would not expire until 11:00 AM since that is what occurs during debarkation day. So I cancelled the packages and vowed to get more drinks by 11:00 than I did on any one day of cruise to that point. Nobody in the family purchased anything after 11:00 that day. Debarkation was another smooth, stress-free process. We were well on our way back to West Virginia by 4:40 AM. During the drive, I got my email with my cruise summary and guess what they charged me for? Yep. All the packages that I waited in that damn guest services line to stop.

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Children's Programs

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Port Canaveral, Florida

Perfect Day At Coco Cay, Bahamas Did not visit port

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

Basseterre, St. Kitts

Disembarkation

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