We are return cruisers on Royal Caribbean, and I have sailed this class of ship previously (the Serenade which has been refurbished) I got a little nervous after reading some reviews, but I didn't run into any of the problems I've read about here. Embarkation was smooth, we were on the ship within 20 minutes. We were platinum level so we did not have to wait in the regular line.

We sailed full, but I will say that we did not feel crowded on the ship most of the time. The only time I noticed a lot of people was before the opened the doors for the dinner seating. We never had a problem finding seating for the shows, we could always find seats outside near the Windjammer (my favorite place to sit and watch the scenery)

I did notice not only did it seem like there were less waiters offering drinks, but that there were far less photo ops with the ship photographers. I did not see one set up in any port as we arrived. Normal set ups around the ship for formal nights. As the prices for photos are now 22.00 I didn't mind that... Read more