We sailed on a 12 night from Bayonne, New Jersey April 12th. We stayed in a junior family suite that was nicely appointed and had two bathrooms! This was my 15th cruise so I have a lot to compare this to. I went on the ship with a very open mind about many of the changes and expected that things would be different. Overall, my husband and I enjoyed the cruise and were happy with the service and the staff. That is not to say that there aren't some areas for improvement as there are on nearly every ship we have sailed on. Embarkation was a breeze, the staff was visible and friendly. The ship is beautiful with many modern touches. It is laid out differently but it was nice to have a different experience. My favorite place was the 270 lounge and café. It is a really nice space that is multi-purpose. It was immediately obvious that the number of staff is reduced which affects everything from the tables being cleared in the Windjammer to the reduced number of waiters on deck to the lack of assistant waiters in the restaurants. Royal really needs to resolve this issue. It was also clear that 2/3 of the workers were new to the ship and in a training status getting ready for the move to China. We ate in a every restaurant on the boat throughout the 12 days and thoroughly enjoyed it. We had made dinner and show reservation ahead of time making our agenda much easier. There were two restaurants where our reservations were lost but it was no issue they seated us right away.

There were two stand out waitresses that encountered, Angelica in Devinly Decadence and Anna Marie in Wonderland. Both of them made the experience so much better and Royal should work hard to retain them. The rest of the waiters were clearly overworked, being responsible for drink orders, bread, ordering, fetching the food, serving, following up at the tables, clearing the dishes and ordering and serving the dessert. They have little time to visit with the guests. The only thing we missed with Dynamic Dining was having the same waiter however, it was nice to go to the different restaurants. Devinly was the best meal we had and both times at the Grand was the least favorite.

We purchased the internet package and had no issues with it. The system worked perfectly the entire time. The Royal IQ app is another story I ended up asking for a refund because it didn't work. They charge $14.95 to use the chat feature and with friends on board we thought this would be a great tool. Theirs worked and ours didn't so it was useless. The App itself is free which allows you to track your luggage, look at your calendar, book shows and meals but it only worked part-time. It would put strange time frames on meals and loose information on your schedule. I tried to book a show and it said there were no seats yet when I called guest services they were able to book with no problem. The Cruise Compass is not on the App which is something they need to fix. When you are away from your cabin unless you carry the paper copy with you there is no way to tell what is going on around the ship. My understanding is they are rolling the App out to other ships, but before they do that they need to make sure it works perfectly. Read more