Took my 83 year old father on a cruise. We flew into Miami, stayed at Cambria Blue Lagoon (very nice) and took a $10 pp shuttle to the port. We opted for The KEY which gave us a lot of nice perks (internet, choice seating, free lunch at chops grill day 1, etc. Got dad a balcony room (8582), and myself a Promenade Interior (8583) directly across from his. My father loved his cabin ... the fresh air and views. My cabin, however, was awful. Terrible toxic, chemical, mothball-like smell. I asked housekeeping to help twice. Two different staff members agreed it was unbearable, but offered no solution, no other cabin, no sympathy. (See more in my cabin review). The cruise and excursions we're enjoyable for my father. He enjoyed the food, the shows, the waterslides, the staff, and his cabin. I found the shows, the cruise director and the performances to be a bit cheesy and annoying. We loved our two excursions booked through the cruise ... The Dolphin Swim in Nassau and the Dragon Zip Line in Haiti. Incredibly professional and worth every penny The cruise staff was friendly. And the ship overall was clean. Read Less

We chose this cruise based on price and intinerary. It was our first on RCCL and third cruise overall. Traveled as a family of four, with kids ages 9 and 11. We thought this cruise and ship were outstanding. We didn't realize upon booking that it was going in for refurbishment, so that was a great surprise. Embarking and disembarking for us went well, but we were there very early at 11:30am. My understanding is that those that arrived even a half hour later waited for quite some time to board. The staff was outstanding, especially to our kids. The Flowrider and waterslide assistants were particularly helpful! Dining room staff and stateroom attendant were all very good, though I'd stop short of saying excellent. We were never nickel and dimed for anything. Just a few offers from staff for the specialty restaurants, but nothing beyond that. The photographers are there of course, but tolerable. Elevators were a struggle throughout the cruise. Waiting times were long and even when a car arrived, it was often full. Elevators were sometimes marked out of service. It would be improved if able bodied people who were only going one level would just use the stairs. For reasons I don't understand, the aft starboard set was the most reliable for us. We took great advantage of most of what the ship had to offer: - Waterslides: excellent. The single rider one is a bit fast for adults so I only rode it a few times. The double slide, where I could go with my kids, we did dozens of times. It was busy from 11-2 or so, and we avoided those times. After 4pm, we had the place to ourselves and took advantage! Great fun! It was usually open until 8pm. - Flowrider: My kids did this many times. Staff was outstanding in helping them! - Mini golf: Very well done and the best mini golf I've seen on a ship. Only complaint is that it is VERY poorly lit at night and it mostly unusable after sundown. - Basketball courts, table tennis, etc: your standard stuff. Equipment in great shape. - Pool loungers and pool: While the pool area was often crowded, away from the pool it never seemed too crowded. There were always plenty of chairs available somewhere on the ship. The areas by the mini golf course were usually available and well designed with wind blocks. The round sofa loungers are excellent and I want some for my backyard! A hidden gem is if you go to the Flowrider, on the starboard side is a staircase that goes down one level - there were 30 or so chairs down there that no one knew about. I usually had the whole place to myself, though it was sometimes shady depending on how the ship was oriented. The pools were excellent and never too crowded. My kids enjoyed them. - Laser tag: average. Music was painfully LOUD!!! We didn't go more often just because of the noise level in here. Bring earplugs. - Ice skating: My daughter loved it. Very nice setup and not crowded at all. Food: Windjammer: It's a buffet with standard buffet food. Desserts were excellent. I usually opted for whatever was on the carving tray and it was quite good. Music again too loud in here, and on too short a loop so that you hear the same songs over and over. By Day 5 of 10, it was irritating. It was well laid out and the all you can eat seafood buffet on the last night was excellent. Main Dining Room: We did My Time Dining and it worked out pretty well. We dined here 5 of the 9 nights. (The rest of the nights we were busy doing other things and just wanted a quick bite in the buffet.) One night they sent us to a table that was already occupied, but otherwise it was flawless. Service and food were very good. Prime rib on Night 1 was excellent. Same thing on Night 7 was disappointing. Not sure why. But otherwise, pretty good. Service was just as quick as an American restaurant. Loco Fresh: We loved this place for a quick bite to eat for lunch. Freshly made and great taste. No clue what to do with my dishes afterward though? We did not do any of the specialty restaurants or Johnny Rockets as the "included" food was plenty good for us. Entertainment: I thought it was excellent. We saw almost every show. The ventriloquist and hypnotist were our favorites. The Showgirl show was excellent, but the follow up Ballroom Show was very disappointing and slow. All other shows were above average. Live music throughout the ship was pretty good although there were some hits and misses mostly based on personal taste. Cabin: Small, as expected. We booked very late so we were on level 2. Not so bad 90% of the time, but there were two nights in which there was excessive noise (maintenance or machinery) from below, which woke us up, sometimes for an hour or so. I would try to avoid this level, though if it was all that was available, I'd still book it as the rest of the cruise was great! Temperature was perfect (although the rest of the ship was warm.) Shore excursions we did all on our own or third party. Haiti: beach (food provided on the beach is average to below average.) Aruba: horse riding with Rancho Notorious. Curacao: wandered Willemstad and visited the Maritime Museum, local shops, etc. Bonaire: glass bottom kayaking and (first time) snorkeling. Despite the few hiccups (noise, elevators) we would absolutely do this same cruise again. The staff were fantastic and the ship was immaculate. Read Less

The ABC islands were beautiful! We enjoyed our excursions, and the Sunset Cruise in Curacao was amazing! Great music, beautiful scenery, and excellent staff. Our Stateroom attendent, Tri, was very attentive and extremely nice. Our waiter and attendent in the main dining room (Stephen and Olinad) were the best!! Every aspect of this cruise, from the balcony room to the activities and food was awesome. I was celebrating with my mom on her birthday, and we decided to try Chef's Table. The cuisine, wines, and deserts were delicious. The games and entertainment were top-notch. I suggest going to see "Love and Marriage". The couples chosen for the game we saw were hilarious! There were several standup comedians. One was very funny, and the musical shows were professional and entertaining. There is so much to do on the ship that there is no way you can do it all. Never a boring moment...with that said, there are several places on this ship that one can find some peace and quiet, while viewing the beautiful scenery of the open sea. I've enjoyed all of my cruises with Royal Caribbean, but this one has been my favorite. Read Less

Wow, what a great cruise. The best of times start at Decks 11 and 12 around the pool. The cabanas were a joy to sit in--like box seats at a ball game. The 3 level Lime and Coconut bar is the perfect place to hang out, people watch and party. Soft serve ice cream on 11 now has an attendant. He kept the lines moving and eliminated the usual mess and germ sharing. El Loco Fresh (also on 11) is a free Mexican style buffet walk-up. Food was good, but the cheese was way thin and you had to open up the pre-wraped burritos to add some of the available hot sauces and assorted other condiments. That really backed things up. The new water slides are amazing. Tried em both and loved em both. If you want entertainment, hang around and watch people try to get out of the 2 seat blaster after their first trip. Best times could also be found at the Bamboo Room and Playmakers, both on 5. They are bars with good bar food; but at an extra cost. More on that in a minute. Deck 4 has $2 Mimosa's at the casino on the sea days. Best drink deal I've found since the 2 for 1 margaritas at the On Air bar on Freedom! Deck 3 has the entertainment. The shows at Royal Theater were varied and entertaining. Something for everyone. Studio B has a new ice skating show that is even better than the old one. It also has free skating and lazer tag. Good stuff. Now for the ok...the music was loud. I'm going deaf because of the way I played my music in the 60's and 70's. But most of the music onboard was way loud. Royal spent many millions renovating the pool area, so why on 4 different nights did we have late night parties on deck 5? They did have one on deck 11 one night, but the shrill electronic music that was playing drove us downstairs. Main dining dinner is at 5:30 or 8:00. It takes close to 90 minutes to finish. So why were some 60 minute shows scheduled at 5:00 or 7:00? Last, but not least, the Windjammer closes for the evening at 9:00. Which means that the only free food to be found after then is at the Cafe Promenade on deck 5. At busy times the wait would be 10-15 minutes for something to nosh on. Good business for the Bamboo Room and Playmakers though. And they do have good food. But those are just nits, the ship is great. Read Less

Chose this cruise because it was 9 days and I have only been to that area twice before. This ship is very hard to navigate from one area to another especially when the 3rd and 4th decks are involved. I wish we had known that water shoes were so important at the beaches in Aruba. The underwater rocks are tough. Also the "off road" tours they are really that "off road" and unfortunately far to long. Meals in the special dining rooms were excellent and the service outstanding. Meals in the dinning room had outstanding appetizers and starters but the entreas were not up to the standard set by the apps/starters. Over all the crew was very good and the rooms delightful. This was my 42 cruise and while it was not my favorite it was far from the worst. Read Less

We chose this as our 2nd cruise because we had friends already booked. We then had an additional 6 friends join us. The reason for the 4 instead of 5 is simply due to issues with or at the terminal prior to and after we returned from our cruise. We had to wait for extended period of time both times with no real communication from Royal as to what the issues were. Apparently people did not get off the prior cruise and then when we retired the escalators were broke. So communication is key so I feel they need to work on that. Other than that the cruise was unbelievable. The destinations were perfect and the staff was beyond awesome. So friendly and helpful in every way possible. Special shout out to Raj and Sagar our dining staff. They are the gold standard of service and the excellence. They were on top of everything and never had to even ask it was like they read our minds ahead of time. Julio our cabin steward went up and over our expectations. My suitcase was damaged in transit and Julio help find the materials I needed to repair it. The different towel animals each night always put a smile on our face. Thank you so much to those gentlemen they deserved to be recognized by not only by myself but by The entire Royal corporate team. Read Less

An excellent check-in process (thanks to online registration) was later quickly forgotten when I found notes in my suitcase saying that Security had confiscated my 6-outlet power surge cord and my rare Olive Oil. When I protested these items to Guest Relations, they immediately offered a single outlet extension cord (8’ orange heavy duty) for power, and explained that the Olive Oil was a “prohibited Item.” I asked where it was prohibited because I certainly didn’t remember seeing such a warning, but she had no answer and no sympathy. When I asked where the suggestion box for the Hotel Manager was located, I was told that the only way to interact with him was to personally complain to the Guest Relations representatives (CSRs) who would enter it into the computer. Really? The last thing I want to do on a cruise is to have to wait in line to solve a problem I didn’t create. It’s a very outdated business model. RCI advertises the best WiFi at sea, but it’s still terrible. I made the mistake of thinking I could work in the library using e-mail to transfer files to/from my company. Regular Outlook would not function at all; probably due to “closed Ports” according to my IT department. My company’s Outlook Web Mail worked; but was very slow. Best case, it typically took 8-15 minutes to email or upload a 5-6 MB Excel or Word file (typically containing a dozen small photos). There was only one IT guy to help with WiFi log-on issues, and he only worked 8-hour shifts. Oh, they did have a couple of extra people occasionally standing at the help desk; but they only had very basic knowledge and could not help me. Being a healthy eater, I asked the attendant at the Gluten-Free salad station, where the Olive Oil and Vinegar were located. I was told there was only the “house dressings” available. A day later, I found those items located on a display with the steak sauces and condiments. Talk about a clueless staff! Butter? For breakfast on the first day, I picked up a pat of butter and took it to the table. The expiration date was 3/27/19, which was one year from the manufacture date. Since the 27th was only a few days away, I handed the pat to one of two restaurant managers that were apparently “supervising.” His response was that there were still a few days before expiration. So, I asked him why eating year old food did not seem wrong to him, but he simply protested that they had several days remaining. After the 27th, they were still serving the butter. And that’s why I like to bring my own olive oil. Read Less

We had a wonderful time on the newly refurbished Navigator. We chose this cruise because we had always wanted to see the ABC islands and this was a nice 9 day out of Miami, saving us airfare to Puerto Rico. We had sailed on Navigator before and were excited to see her after this impressive refit. We booked a balcony and travelled with my sister's family who has kids the same age as ours (10 and 12). We had adjoining rooms and were able to open the balcony door to share the space. As with anything there were some hits and some misses that I will summarize: Hits - the new water slides are great. By far the most fun we have tried at sea. The two person raft slide was perfect to go down with our kids. - the addition of a splash pad for the little ones was appreciated by several families - the new El Loco Fresh was a hit. Great tasting Tex Mex fajita style food that was included at no extra charge. Nicely located by the pool for lunch or a snack - the new sports bar was very popular - they actually had a professor of astronomy on board giving lectures. They were fascinating and our oldest loved it - the new ice show was a great production with some effects I've never seen before - The evening shows were entertaining. The Royal productions shows had very talented singers and dancers. The comedians were hysterical. - this itinerary was all we hoped for. We thought Aruba would be the highlight, but snorkeling at Bonaire was simply like swimming in an aquarium. Truly an unspoiled gem Misses - the new Johnny Rockets Express was disappointing. The food was good, but it is now an open area next to the pool. You lose the charm of dining in a 50's diner and no more dancing and singing staff. The pool noise was so loud that the manger actually had to unplug the speaker near Johnny's so that the staff could hear what people were ordering. - speaking of noise, I lost count of the number of people wearing noise cancellation at the pool deck. Someone had it turned to "11" ! - our cabin was disappointing. Our glass door to the balcony had a wind leak. We had maintenance out twice to fix, but they could never get a good seal. For a ship just out of dry dock, they had not fixed some of the basics. Also, the door that lets you merge two adjoining balconies would not latch and would bang around if you didn't keep it closed. Definite design issue here. - the ship definitely is more crowded. The staff told us that with the additional cabins and 3rd or 4th person bunks, they could cram an additional 1400 people on Navigator. You noticed it at show times, dinner seating and elevators. Not horrible, but definitely noticeable. - the crew as a whole seemed to be finding their feet. Not sure if it is because they came out of dry dock 2 weeks prior, but there seemed to be a lot of scrambling. Two of our dinners took 2 hours+ for no really good reason. Our cabin steward was simply the worst we ever had with Royal. Barely was seen and often didn't get to our rooms until lunch time and around 9:00pm at night - we wanted to do the Escape Room but had to pass. They charge $20 per person regardless of party size. If the 8 of us signed up it would be $160! We could do 4 escape rooms back home for that much. Also, no children under 12 were permitted, so we passed. I never talked with anyone that had done it the entire cruise. I'm guessing it won't be around long. - the Main Dining Room was good most of the time. My concern is that the menu choices seem to be fewer and fewer with each cruise. For all that, we had a wonderful time. I don't want to give the impression that I'm one of those people that complain they are on a cruise! Just want to give you an honest assessment. The ship is beautiful with lots of great spaces and features after this refit. The ABC's lived up to their billing! Nine days was just right for us!!! Read Less

I wanted to try out the newly renovated ship. $113 M spent, looks like mostly for new water slides and pool decor. Air conditioning was not up to par, even crew was complaining about the heat. Several elevators not working for most of the cruise. Seats broken in the theater and ice rink. Bathrooms near Windjammer not working at first. Holes in tile wall. Due to unrest in Venezuela, ship was unable to get some fresh fruit and vegetables. That was not a great deal, there was plenty to eat! Love the new Hooked restaurant. Chops was terrific, best filet i have ever eaten. Crew was friendly and attentive, food as usual was great. Shows were well done and contract entertainment was really good. Embarkation was a mess, delays and misdirected. Staff at the port didn’t seem to know or care what they were doing. Priority check-in meant nothing since most of the ship was priority. Tours and ports were great. First time at Labadee, enjoyed very much, lots of activities and also beautiful beaches and plenty of shady places too. Aruba is gorgeous, took see and sea tour. Saw plenty of beautiful fish at the shipwreck and divers. Bonaire and curaçao also beautiful stops, tour guides knowledgeable and friendly. Read Less

We chose this cruise 2 years ago based on the itinerary and sailing date. Embarkation was a breeze since the cruise before us had been canceled. However, if you were a parent with small to teenage children, you would have been very upset, since they didn't start any of the kid's programs until Thurs. night. (We left Sat.) The re-fit of the ship included major work to the 11th deck, we were on deck 10, something happened in re-fit because the whole deck's virtual balconies worked on & off. RC did the right thing and gave everyone on deck 10 a shipboard credit to compensate as if we had booked a standard room. Also, if you are a gym enthusiast, you would have been disappointed. They only had a handful of treadmills and they were located in the corner of the Solarium area. I can only assume that with the re-fit some things didn't get totally finished. The food was, as always, very plentiful, but average. Friends who we traveled with thought the food was exceptional, so it's just a matter of taste. The shows were very good and there wasn't any major seat hogging going on. I wish I could say the same for the pool deck. Regardless of how many times passengers were reminded on a daily basis not to reserve deck chairs, people did just that. So on sea days you were hard pressed to find 2 "available" chairs near each other. It's unfortunate that some people just think they are better than the rest of us, and there really isn't anything a cruise line can do about that. The ports were beautiful and the weather was great. The service was excellent, and I have never been disappointed by RC in that regard. We have cruised 10 times with them. Read Less