My sister and I recently treated our mom to a cruise for her 70th birthday. We set sail from Miami on Feb 16th for a 5 day cruise to the Bahamas, Coco Key and Key West, FL. This was the first time we sailed on a Royal Caribbean cruise and I had heard good things about this cruise line. The weather was beautiful at the beginning of the cruise and our first 2 days including our port of call in Nassau were delightful. The trip took a nose dive when the weather got bad and the seas became so rough that we were unable to make our other 2 ports of call. We were forced to remain on the boat for the remainder of our cruise sailing at a crawl to kill time sailing down to Key West and back to Miami. The communication from the captain during this time was minimal. Each morning we heard we weren't going to port and that our safety was their primary concern. However, when the seas were particularly rough and my sister, a first-time cruiser, became sea-sick, the captain remained quiet. There were no words of comfort as we were tossed about on the seas. The staff was left to apologize to us on the last morning as the captain remained quiet as we disembarked in Miami. While I understand that the cruise line cannot control the weather, they can most certainly control how they respond to the situation. The captain should have been more communicative and comforting to scared passengers. The back-up on-board activities were pathetic. The ship has a large theater and 2 good size lounges; all of them remained relatively quiet while passengers were forced to stand and squeeze around the central atrium for a line dancing and cocktail making performance. I don't understand why the lounges were so under utilized. The night life, except for the casino was pitiful. There was an excellent piano bar player but he only performed 2 of the 4 nights. The ship had a talented staff who could have been much better utilized. Why not open a dance club with a DJ; one in each lounge for different ages of dancers. My sister and I spent our evenings walking back and forth on the ship. Of course our bar bill was much higher than planned but the cruise seems fully prepared for extra drinking time. Although cruises are considered a bargain vacation, it was a lot of money for us to spend and it was a gift for my mom. It was a miserable vacation and I will never cruise again.