First let me say I am a huge fan of RCCL and have sailed with them numerous times and, in fact, will be sailing with them on Christmas. Also, I had reasonable expectations for a holiday weekend cruise - i.e. busy, lots of kids, large families, etc. And finally, I really like the IOS having sailed on her before .

I am Diamond and boarding was easy and fast but the ship was sold out and there were 4200 people onboard 1900 of which were children under 17. The ship was clean and fresh. Our cabin 8403 an inside was very comfortable for this short four day cruise.

We had booked CHOPS for the first night for thanksgiving with two of our friends also on the cruise. Though the reservation was made online for 8:30 when we checked with the maite d' we were told it was for 7:00 . Luckily we changed it back to 8:30 (no explanation ever given). Unbeknownst to us our friend then went to Chops to verify and was told by the very bizarre crew member at the stand that she could make a new reservation for 11/16 ( remember this is 11/26) she was informed of the date but still she did not "get it" in fact, a frustrated fellow crew member finally came over and basically called her an idiot and told her to go away. Read more