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all 5 of us We booked Suite 7672 which was the last remaining cabin in that category. 3 of us left 6 days early and they would not give us ant money back. they charged 9000 just for three of us to saty on the ship or 6 days. ridiculous.
we spent 15000 dollars use in airs tickets this trip was not worth even a penny of what we paid.
The check in was relatively painless but entirely devoid of warmth. I was astounded by how unwelcoming the ground crew were. I felt like I was visiting a minimum security prison rather than embarking on a cruise. Paperwork, id, and bags were repeatedly checked and we all had the feeling that they were trying to ferret out stowaways rather than start us off on a grand adventure! the safety drill was horrible people had to stand there like soldiers for 30 minutes some people couldn't even stand so one there legs gave up on them.
Once we entered our room we were both happy and unhappy with what we found. The size of the room was GREAT. We had a very spacious living room and two nice size bedrooms, a small bathroom and a very large bathroom with a bathtub. Why were we unhappy? The furnishings in the room were beyond worn, They were brown with dirt, and worn out at all the edges.Having spent over $30,000 for the room for 12 days I felt this was entirely unacceptable. The deck had two chairs and a lounge chair that were all in deplorable condition. The floor of the deck was also very unclean.
We went out that first night to take a swim before dinner. The pool area is reminiscent of a Highway Best Western pool except for the hopelessly tuneless reggae band making a hash of Bob Marley standards. There was always so much noise around the pool that we never returned the rest of our trip.
Speaking of weight issues. The food on board is a travesty. We tried every dining spot. I was amazed by how unhealthy the food was in general. What was considered a healthy option (such as raw broccoli) was so unimaginative that no one would want it. A real lack of fresh appetizing diet options. An over abundance of brown, fatty foods. What a lazy approach. At least half the passengers but probably more seriously needed to lose weight, many of them chronically, and what are they serving? Incredibly tasteless high calorie foods. There were a few good things worth mentioning: the carrot bran muffins at breakfast. The lamb at Portofino, the beef carpaccio at Portofino, the Caesar salad at Chops. That is about it. And none of that was genuinely healthy. RCL must take a look at what they call their Vitality menu. It's a complete joke.
We felt that the staff were overworked and heard from one server that they are paid in tips not wages! I think this is appalling. We felt compelled to tip so many people beyond our pre-paid tipping plan after we heard this. So by the time we got off the ship we had easily spent $40,000 in total for 5 people for a terrible experience.
Would I ever go on RCl again? You probably guessed it- NEVER. I get that it can be a very low-cost way to travel for some but the way we did it makes no sense from a cost-quality perspective (the suite, dining in the specialty restaurants, buying wine package and so forth). If Oceania, Crystal, Regent or Seadream had been sailing at that time of year to the Caribbean we would never have considered RCL and now we realize it was with good reason. I spoke to several other passengers who said that for the same price the Princess line offers a far better experience. I am sure that we spent about the same or maybe even more for this trip than we did sailing SeaDream which makes no sense whatsoever.
DNEVER CRUISE WITH ROYAL CARRIBEAN THEY WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY AND TRUST ME YOU WILL NOT ENJOY YOUR VACATION.
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