We were very concerned prior to getting on this ship with all of the negative reviews. We traveled with our 2 college age children and another family with a high schooler and college age son. However, in some area we were pleasantly surprised and in others, previous reviewers were correct. Driving to Bayonne from Pennsylvania was a breeze. we got to the port early. We were able to drop off our luggage, park the car, check in and walk onto the ship by 11:20 am. We had no issues with waits at that time. The staff we found to be friendly and helpful. We went to Two70 for lunch. It is a lovely area to sit and eat. The salads were just ok. I heard the grilled cheese was excellent as was the roast beef sandwich. That evening we ate at the Grand. Our waiter Luis was wonderful. We also enjoyed our Lobster and escargot.

While I am discussing dinner, Id like to mention dinner service was never painfully long as others had experience. We usually had attentive excellent waiters. We usually dined in a party of 8. We premade all of our reservations for dinner. It is almost impossible to change your reservations once you are on board. Yet we always saw lots of empty tables in the dining room. We did not eat at any of the extra pay restaurants. Food quality was usually pretty poor. I have to agree with other reviewers, that the food was the worst cruise food I ever tasted. This was my 13 th cruise, my 3rd on Royal Caribbean. The meat was gamey, the sauces were congealed as were the soups and except for the ice cream and little donuts, the desserts were inedible. I am not a picky eater but this was worse than dining hall food.

Our service at breakfast and lunch in the sit down restaurants was spotty. Often orders were forgotten or wrong and never corrected. It was hard to get coffee refills. We went to the Windjammer once for breakfast. It was a nightmare. Crowded and no one was cleaning the dirty tables. The breakfast scrambled eggs are also inedible. However, I always found the oatmeal good. By mid week some of the fruit was also looking pretty sad and not edible. The worst entree I got was the Soy sauce chicken at Silk. Salty and with a congealed sauce. the worst desert was also there, the Asian Pearls. Not sure what it was but do not risk it. Their Vietnamese Tacos there are very good. Those I do recommend. Read more