I had great hopes for my first RCI cruise. I am a loyal Celebrity sailor but thought I'd give RCI a try for variety. I was taking a newbie with me and thought the more "active" cruise would be a better choice. Well, I made the wrong choice. Thankfully, my partner said she would go on another cruise so it wasn't a total wash.

To start, I asked 3 times by phone for the beds to be put together. How hard is it for a cruise line who advertises to the GLBT (gay) community that they are "friendly" to get that one little thing right - especially because I called three times to be certain. Now, that is a quick fix, I know but it is the details... So then, off to dinner. Requested 3 times for a table for two - they tried to sit us down at a table for 8. That took a lot more time and energy to fix. The line for the maitre'd took 1/2 hour. Fortunately we got a decent table.

Neither my partner or I drink and we requested that the "bar guy" not visit us. He was insistent on stopping by and making jokes about us not drinking and trying to entice us to "have just one". After 3 nights of asking him to leave us alone, I finally had to call the head waiter over and make a strong request. It finally stopped. Read more