We booked this cruise with friends from out of town. Both of us in D2 balcony cabins on same deck. We are not newbies to cruising or to Royal. (They are Diamond and we are one point from Emerald.) We had a really nice time and enjoyed the ports of call however both of us felt this cruise fell below our expectations and was average at best. The AC on the ship is set too high and even on the very coolest setting the cabin got too warm with the curtains closed all day, and in the night they seemed to shut it off or run it minimally. Our room attendant was helpful in switching to a lighter blanket to make up the bed, but, it was not enough to be truly comfortable and there was no other resolution thats just how they run their thermostat. (and this may be the case on other RCI ships as well in an effort to conserve energy and costs?)

We thought the food and service in the MDR were far below expectations. The staff themselves were wonderful but there seems to be issues with the whole process and the food itself was just not as good as we have come to expect from Royal. Breakfast in MDR was awful, service poor food over and undercooked and nobody came by to ask. At lunch we were never offered anything but water. No tea, coffee, nothing and those who asked waited quite a while. The food at lunch was okay for the most part, salad bar was fresh but some of the menu items were really not. The line to get in the MDR at lunch was long and slow moving due to poor processes in place for seating guests. Windjammer I thought was pretty good , repetitive and sometimes hard to find seats and to get through to the food since there are queues for some items that cause back ups. Also hard to get refills on drinks since there never seemed to be much staff on the floor.

The service in some bars was really bad, in others really good. The bars with good service were often crowded and staff seemed overworked and unable to keep up during peak times. Our needs were met but not in the manner we expect. Read more