We'd been on a few RCL cruises in the past three years and decided it would be a good way to get a sampling of Europe. The ship is brand new and beautiful with plenty to do! We booked three cabins for our family in order to accommodate everyone. Before I go into the cons of our trip, I do want to mention that we had the best room attendant ever. Her name was Bernadette and she was from Jamaica. She was truly a joy to be around. Always happy and accommodating. We also had a table attendant on a few nites, Fabian who was from India. He too, was a great person to have around. He was personable and very helpful with his suggestions. If we had not had dinner at different times each nite, we would have requested to have him the entire week. It's people like Bernadette and Fabian that give service and the cruise line a good name and they should be commended.

This being our fourth trip in three years, we have noticed a slight decline in the service area. For one, we had asked for all of our rooms to be connected to the same expense account. We had everyone added upon embarkation and were told we were all set. The first day, they wouldn't accept my charges because I was not on the account. After a long wait in line at the Service desk, we were assured it was taken care of. On the day of our departure, we were stopped and told my son had to pay his bill before disembarking. They had removed him from the expense account and we still don't know why, so we had to get into another extremely long line to resolve this while our tour driver waited for us at the gate.

There seemed to be a shortage of waiters in the pool area. It was difficult to put in orders and had to go to the bar and wait in line most of the time. My husband went to put an order in with one of the waiters and he said he'd be right back and never showed up. On another day my husband gave the same waiter another order and he called another waiter over to take the order. It seems that since we don't have to sign anymore and there is no place to add additional tips the service is definitely not the way it used to be. The other thing that was upsetting was the fact that the only reason we purchased the drink plan, was to cover the frozen alcoholic drinks such as Pina Coladas and Strawberry Daiquiris since they are probably the most costly. We got on the ship on Sunday and by Monday evening the ship was out of Pina Colada, Strawberry and Mango daiquiri mix everywhere on the ship except for the Schooner bar which had some left and we found out about on Wednesday. We were told that they would get more on Thursday in Rome. Well that was two thirds of the way thru the cruise and we couldn't get a refund for the drink packages. We were told that due to the unprecedented amount of children with drink packages on the cruise, they'd run out by fulfilling the kids' virgin drinks. I would think that the ship had a count of kids on the ship, as that info is on all reservations, and I would also think that the beverage manager should have had an idea of the situation from experience and should have had a better handle on the supply. Read more