I have done 20 cruises prior to this one. I have cruised mainly on Celebrity and Holland America. This was my 4th cruise with RC and my third on this ship, and cruise leaving from Cape Liberty. It will also be my last. Imbarkation was a nightmare. Just to give a simple recap, we were in line for priority boarding. We had #6 to ride the shuttle to the ship. There were approximately 50 people in line with one agent checking in the guests for priority boarding. I went to find a supervisor and when I told her of the issue, and that we had been waiting in line for 45 minutes, her exact words were..."Oh they're on their lunch break, and their is no priority boarding." I then pointed to the LARGE sign "Priority Boarding" and her reply was "I never knew that." At this point the "lunchers" returned. When we entered the shuttle area they were on # 48. Not a great way to start a cruise

The ship itself is very clean and very well maintained. The crew couldn't have been nicer and the captain was the kind of captain who obviously enjoys his job, and was very visible. At dinner the last night he went around to all the tables. What a nice touch. The food was quite good and two dinners at Portofino's was quite a treat.

Now for the Royal Caribbean part. It is quite evident that they are cutting corners every way they can. Two of the prime examples are as follows: the number of staff. In our dining room our poor waiter had 20 chairs to wait on. On days two and three of the cruise it took over an hour and ten minutes to get our food. We did complain and the following nights the problem was resolved. The other corner cutting tactic is the raising the price of drinks. The price of a Manhattan went from $6.95 to $8.95 this year. No it wasn't because of any special liquor, even with the bar liquor it was the same price. I've also checked the price on HAL and their drinks are still $6.95 Read more