After all the rave reviews I had heard about Royal Caribbean, I decided to take a short vacation prior to Christmas on this ship with some friends. I was disappointed with several things. This is the 4th cruise I have taken and by far the worst. It turned out to be a frat party for university students, which is great if you're 21. The friendliness of the bar staff was lacking compared to other cruise lines. They seemed short staffed and rushed off their feet. Perhaps that was because they were catering to the "frat" party. There were some bars that didn't even have staff working. You would have to get a drink 2 bars away from where you wanted to sit and if you wanted a refill you had to get it yourself at the bar. With the size of the ship, there is no personal service except in the dining room. Every other ship I have been on has had hand sanitizing stations set up outside each restaurant and elsewhere throughout the ship. The only place I found one of these was when you reboarded the ship from port. The food variations in the Minstrel dining room were not as good as other cruises, and the portions were smaller. Of the 4 nights, 3 featured lamb on the menu. And the other options were not as varied as other cruise lines.

Disembarkation was a nightmare to say the least. Of the 2100 passengers on the ship, about 300 decided to do the Express Walk off (take your own luggage). The disembarkation was to start at 6:30 for this group. We waited in line for an hour. The Express walk off was to start at 6:30 and end by 6:45. At 6:45 they started calling other colors to the same meeting area. By the time we got off the ship there were about 500 people crammed into a small area. People were getting hostile about being cut off. This is something that RCL needs to work on. They should limit the amount of people getting off the ship in each group. No other disembarkation I've had has been this much of a nightmare. Overall the ship is okay, but I think that anyone who is looking for more personalized service and friendlier staff should look at Celebrity or NCL.