It's really sad how far the Royal Caribbean brand has fallen in 10 years. It's now pretty much a low end cruise. This is our second cruise on Royal Caribbean this year. We took this exact same New Years Eve cruise ten years ago. It was very disappointing. Gone is the awesome food, dancing waiters, sculptured butter, midnight buffet and true formal night.

The best thing about cruises is the food. Royal Caribbean was the best for my parents generation. On this cruise, there wasn't one dinner that was decent. Seriously, If you were in a nice restaurant at home and were served the "filet mignon" that you got on this cruise, you would have called over the waiter and said, "Something's wrong with this. It's REALLY tough.". Same with the fish plates, lobster and shrimps. We opted for the safe pasta one night. It was very undercooked.

The famous lobster night offered very small and mushy lobsters (on two RC cruises this year). You had to ask for butter and lemon. Caesar Salad came with no dressing; just some oil and a dusting of cheese. I asked and was given a small cup of Caesar dressing which was fairly tasteless. Read more