This was my second cruise but my first cruise with Royal Caribbean and my friend's first cruise ever. Quite a few things seemed to fall through the cracks and was very disappointing. I ordered and paid for a birthday cake for my friend two weeks before the cruise to be delivered to our cabin before we got there and after requesting it twice after we boarded I found out at guest services that it was never ordered. Food ran out quickly in the buffet and I heard rumors that the ship never got fully restocked between their last cruise and our cruise. By the fourth day most of the soda machines were completely empty and I was only able to choose from Sprite, Coke, or Ginger Ale as my drink. So I didn't fully get to take advantage of the expensive soda package I bought prior to boarding. More than a few staff members were being trained so it made things move even slower. There was no formal night even though the website said that our 4 night cruise was supposed to have at lease one. I didn't appreciate that I felt as though I was being nickle and dimed for everything on the ship. The lobster was $22 in both the specialty dining restaurants and in the main dining room so we didn't get to indulge in that, and there was no sea food at the buffet other than locks one morning. Then on our last night we went to the main dining room for dinner. Our server was rude and barely spoke two words to us and dropped our plates on our table knocking some silverware off. We ordered soda and we never able to get a refill on them even after asking. We only had good service for the first two nights and after that it seemed like none of the staff wanted to be there which made us feel unwelcome to be there.
Embarking on the ship was seamless and took 30 minutes at most.