We are first time RCI cruisers, prior cruises 4 on Disney, 1 Princess, 2 Carnival. I don't want to be unfair, but I was a bit let down re RCI--I am hopeful it was just this ship since we have a cruise booked in April on Allure.

The Windjammer food was just "ok" and I say that as someone who is not picky and liked the other cruise line food--even Carnival was quite good. I didn't think RCI restaurants were that great--we went to Giovanni's, Main D.R., and Izumi. Izumi was fine, but the others were just not that great. Food was usually barely warm to cold, MTD waiter first night was popping his pencil at us, hurrying us along (later we got a good waiter and assistant, from Romania, she was great). Our Giovanni waiter was excellent. I just didn't think the food was that great and the My Time Dining thing seems to put the waiters under pressure, and thus the guests. Maybe I was having an off cruise. My wife generally agreed with me, though. Soft serve ice cream has a pretty short window. They didn't link our 10 year old daughter to our account for some reason and sent a dunning letter to our cabin to settle her account (tips) with cash. I called and the rep couldn't explain it and said she'd "try" to figure it out. Some RCI stuff is just sort of weird--haven't heard of that on other cruise lines.

Pet peeves--the self serve Coke machine was down a lot and/or without ice, and I got some ugly glances when I came in late to use it at Windjammer as staff was cleaning up--one guy shouted for us to stop and his co-worker had to put him straight. Not enough cleaning up around Windjammer and the outdoor seating. No napkins at food place in Solarium. Coffee first day was cold everywhere I tried it. A lot of this was a case of not having anyone "do the rounds" and check things--it looked to me like the supervisors had no one scheduled to do anything other than bring out food. Sleeper sofa was almost the whole width of the room, so getting to the bathroom at night was risky. Even though the ship was renovated in April, the bathroom mirror and cupboard were shot in our room, and some of the "trim" around the ship was rough. It gets some traffic I'm sure. Read more