I've been on two previous cruises, with Carnival. Friends had recommended Royal Caribbean and said that once I cruised with RCI, I would never go back to Carnival. Well, they were wrong. I will go back to Carnival in a heartbeat, and will probably never cruise with RCI again.

Our recent cruise on The Brillance of the Seas was a huge disappointment, for several reasons. One, there was a very large group of "Spring breakers" on the ship with us. Yes, I know that RCI has no control over that, but they certainly could have and should have taken control over the wild behavior of the group. They literally took over the lido deck every day/evening. They were loud, vulgar, disrespectful, and extremely drunk at all times. There was a definite presence of "Pool Patrol" (RCI staff) around the area, but they did nothing to control the annoying antics of the group, other than watch. The group even took over the tender which we had the bad fortune of sharing with them. With the language, behavior etc., I felt horrible for the families with young children....they had no choice but to sit there and listen/watch the ridiculous behavior.

We received horrible service from the wait staff that circled the pool area. At times, we were totally ignored and had to squeeze our way through large groups of the Spring Breakers to try to access the bar, not comfortable at all. We did not see any of the wonderfully cheerful attitudes from the staff that we had grown accustomed to on Carnival. Read more