Firstly I know this ship has just gone in for a six week refurbishment. That being said having cruised with Royal many times ( Diamond Plus) I found myself constantly defending their policy’s but I can’t defend the indefensible. When will they stop this nickel and dime policy, over priced tours ,menus unchanged in years,shows that boarder on children’s party level. I take no pleasure in saying that. The ship was clean but looked tired ,we had work men on board during the cruise dismantling venues a very poor impression given to first time cruisers. The ice show repeated at least nine times during our 28 night voyage,trivia’s repeated three to four times. The staff on the whole work very hard and polite. The ship is in dry dock and needs this overhaul. We had a inside cabin on deck 6 in was fine clean ,quiet and everything worked well. We mostly dined in the dining room at night the service was good and the food of a good quality. Dining room lunch was our favourite meal of the day good choice. The entertainment was in my opinion poor as I have said some shows children’s party level but we did enjoy a Beatles tribute and violin player . We took two tours from the ship in Phuket and in Cochin both were fine and weren’t expensive.We then took a private tour to Petra in Jordan which worked out at just over half the price of the ships tour and featured more sights. Read Less

We boarded the ship in Dubai, to Barcelona, having originally booked to stay on her to Miami, until a change of dry dock was made. Prior to boarding, we stayed a few days in Dubai, & had such a lovely experience in our hotel, that at we wondered if the ship would be a disappointment. How wrong could we be ! The ship was in good condition, especially when she was going in for a massive refurb at the end of the cruise. Of course there was some rust, but anyone who sailed on the final cruise of the Legend of the seas, will know what a bad condition looks like.... The crew were absolutely wonderful, always smiling, helpful, interactive & generally a pleasure to be with. We had a balcony room on deck 8, which was well maintained by Richard. The SRA in the section beside ours, Tito, was also a lovely chap, and we chatted with him at least twice daily. All crew we encountered were super, but at this juncture, we shall name a few who stood out... Himanju & Ying Ying, dining servers on deck 3. Carina, Next Cruise staff, who we hope to meet again soon on the Indie. Achmad & his Chinese colleague, housekeeping staff, who checked sea passes on entry to the evening event on deck 14. Both Concierges, Grecia & Tao. Rikardo, the lead barman & his colleagues, in the Diamond Lounge. Darmie M, supervisor, and all her crew on the pool deck. She was very good at checking the reserved chair area at the pool, to ensure only Gold card holders were present. We wish her well with the birth of her baby. The breakfast crew in Chop's Grille, the greeter, Jonn, Valeriano & Joenel, servers, were a joy to meet in the mornings. After the first morning, they knew exactly what we would like & when it was quiet, our food was served quickly. Fresh OJ, berries & yoghurt were served almost immediately & the cooked food my husband ordered was hot and cooked to perfection. Jing Jiang, wait staff in the WJ, was a lovely girl, a friend of Ying Ying, who interacted with us daily at lunchtime & we sometimes saw her in the evening if she was on duty in the MTD restaurant. Aaron, GSM, with whom we had a very good conversation. HD & CD were both very attentive & visible on a regular basis. Douglas R, Beverage Manager was very attentive & we appreciated his kind gestures ! If we have omitted anyone, apologies, but be assured that all crew we met were exceptional. The only ones who could have been a bit more upbeat...the Loyalty Ambassadors, but reckon they were tired, & fed up with trivial complaints from scores of passengers. As Pinnacle members, we enjoyed some additional perks, but the fact that there were no robes available when we embarked was a bit annoying. We eventually got one robe towards the end of the cruise after speaking with YinTao, Suite Concierge...many bows to him !! The executive chef Andy Bouchard was a joy to speak with, & he runs a good team. We found the food, on the whole, to be good, with an odd exception, but that can happen anywhere. There was nothing about which we could complain on a regular basis. When I asked for meat to be medium rare, that's exactly how I got it. There was only one occasion when the steak I ordered was too gristley, but I declined an alternative as I was too full. When you consider the number of people the chefs have to cater for, order their ingredients prior to sailing, not have the opportunity to nip out to a supplier if some ingredients are not up to scratch when preparing the menu, then they deserve full kudos for their efforts. When we heard some people complaining about the food, we did wonder what they prepared and ate at home. Judging by some of the plates we saw, not exactly nutritious choices. We even heard one couple complain that there was nothing except deep fried food on offer.....The only deep fried food my husband ever ate, was the occasional French fry, the rest was well balanced & healthy. The one consistent gripe we have, which is fleet wide....smoking, especially in the casino, which permeated through the bars close by. The smoking area on deck was also objectionable. Smoke travels & doesn't remain in one spot. Some ships have small areas on deck assigned to smokers, not the entire length of the deck. Really wish the ships had a small enclosed area where smokers could congregate, inhale each others smoke & leave the rest off us to enjoy fresh air, without obvious pollution. Passive smoking is as injurious to health as active smoking. The crew in the casino are subjected to smoke on a daily basis,& that is not good for them. The transit through the Suez Canal went very smoothly. Captain Arild was good at informing us what was happening & he too seemed very personable, although we didn't see him as visible as some Captains. We didn't bother attending many of the shows, but the Ice show was good, especially with Ricky giving an after show performance !!! The only other show we attended... Beatles Celebration. They were very good, & much appreciated by all the audience. We have seen/ heard them several times, & they are consistently good, so we hope we have the opportunity of seeing them again. Read Less

We enjoyed the places we visited on the cruise but not the ship - food was not great, very poor maintenance with rust everywhere, things broken and missing including furniture and chairs in lounges and public areas, and the office staff and management uncaring and not obliging. It lacked the lounges and bars and the forward located crow’s nest outlook of the smaller Holland America boats. Alcohol was very expensive and only Diamond status past passengers could access the happy hour prices – a very discriminatory restriction on the bulk of the 3,000 passengers on board. The starboard side of many decks (promenade, pool and bistro and the upper most exercise deck) plus the casino were approved for smoking and you were constantly getting fumigated. When you were at the office and the nearby lounge tobacco smoke flowed into these areas and the internal atrium space which had most of the limited lounges and the shops. Our Viator tour of Jerusalem and the Dead Sea was delayed 2 hours as RCL was so disorganized that they refused to let off non RCL tours for 2 hours and 4 of the 14 people on our tour could not get off until passengers marched down to the ship’s office and loudly demanded to get off. We had got off at 7:45 AM and just walked through with the ship’s tours and insisted as we had an 8:30 tour booked! RCL blamed the Israeli Immigration people for not having sufficient staff on duty but this was not the case as the Immigration hall had roughly 250 passengers in it and we went through in 20 minutes and there was only a trickle of passengers walking through Immigration from 8:45 till 9:45 AM when RCL finally let the non ship tours passengers pour off the ship. The result for us and many others tours was that we hit the peak period of the day for visits to the Christian and Jewish quarters of Jerusalem with massive crowds on day tours from huge number of bus tours and other tourists. The head waiter in our area of the restaurant looking after dozens of tables was really excellent however Florina could not despite her continued best efforts do anything with the product she was provided by the kitchen – she took all 6 of us on a complementary tour one day of the kitchens and she and our 2 wait staff looked after us very well just a pity about the food quality and the rest of the ship. Read Less

We chose this cruise because we wanted to go to Petra and the Dead Sea. However, from the minute we were picked up from the airport in Dubai, things went horribly wrong. We were a family of six adults. This was our 13 th cruise with RC and will definitely be our last. We were supposed to have special needs assistance as arranged by Royal specialist services as I have mobility problems and my husband was recovering from a broken ankle 7 weeks previous. We were promised wheelchair assistance at the airport and pier, but as soon as we became under the jurisdiction of RC the assistance disappeared. There was no wheelchair assistance at the hotel where we were booked in for breakfast and when we got to the pier we did as instructed, found an RC person, asked about wheelchair assistance and were told we had to wait for two hours, outside sitting on a concrete floor in the midday sun with temperatures in excess of 40degrees. Family members went off and found two wheelchairs, not belonging to RC and took us into immigration and we were not allowed to go any further because they were not RC wheelchairs. Eventually 2 RC personnel came after a lot of hassling, took us on board, dumped us in the Windjammer and took away the wheelchairs so we could not access our stateroom. We were told that we would have to stay where we were wait until the ship sailed as they did not have enough wheelchairs. Again family members went off searching for staff to resolve the situation and after making a fuss which we really did not want to do, we eventually got a wheelchair and the family ferried us to our stateroom which was scruffy with paint on the carpet and the balcony was a disgrace, they had to come and clean it before we could go out on it. The automatic doors to some of the toilets did not work so unless someone was with you, you could not get in or out of the toilets. We are Diamond plus but it meant nothing. We asked for bath robes and were told there were none available. At each port the ship started discarding furniture and metal into skips lined up along the quayside as the ship was going to Cadiz for a refit and many crew members were finishing their contracts in Barcelona so they didn't' really care. Many were of Eastern origin and had difficulty understanding what we wanted or needed. The officers and guest relations were mostly absolute rubbish and guest relations were rude. We were so disappointed as we have recommended RC to friends and family but never again. I could write a lot more but am too disgusted. All they wanted was our money. Read Less

Chose this cruise for the ports and weather. The ship and facilities were disappointing. Lack of stock in shops. Entertainment when at dinner and over by 10pm. Geared to asian clientele. Food only average. Mashed potato with everything not fine dining. Dirty areas round pool and in theatre. Ship tired and going for refurb. Overpriced tours. Insect bites. We paid a lot and not value for money. Have written to rci. Travelled a lot with them and standards have slipped. Food in dining room poor. Dining service poor and slow. Windjammer food better with good choices but no fresh crepes. Windjammer rammed at peak times struggled to get a seat and ship not full. Karaoke mostly asian songs and on when at dinner. Diamond loungr rammed due to number of frequent cruisers. Some staff were miserable. Think some of them were being laid off due to refurb. Nice nail paint in spa. Read Less

We chose this cruise for the itinerary. My wife's sister lives and works in Dubai and the opportunity to see her and locations we had not been to before made this choice irresitable. We spent a few days in Dubai, we had been there before, but really enjoyed it as well as a day trip we took to Abu Dhabi. We chose an early boarding 1100 AM, which was a good idea. We were on board in no time and had a cocktail in hand immediately. We decided to check our cabin 1232 on the off chance it was ready, perfect, it was. We dropped our carry-on and proceeded to our usual tasks which include, specialty restaurant dinner reservations, hair appointments, and checking our dining room seating, We then went to Johnny Rockets for lunch which we enjoyed, just something about a greasy burger and french fries chased down by a cold beer. For us boarding was easy and uneventful, and we were able to get our primary objectives done and now it was all about enjoying the cruise. The cruise on the whole we enjoyed, we did feel however, that some crew members were not engaged. I think part of that could be the length of the cruise (it started in Singapore we picked it up in Dubai) as well as that the ship was going into dry-dock for refurbishment. These ladies and gentlemen work extremely hard with no days off and long hours, so a lot of it I get. We enjoy eating in the specialty restaurants, however the menus need some change. The Chops and Giovannis Table menu have not seen a change in many a cruise, we enjoy these venues but we will re-think the amount of times we patronize these establishments going forward. We usually get the five night dining package plus a couple of additional dinners, but being faced with the same menu all the time becomes boring. The dining room was okay, nothing really special on that front, we do however enjoy breakfast in the dining room. We enjoy going to the Schooner Bar after dinner each evening and this cruise was no exception. Yanus and Stanislav (bartenders) could not have been nicer and more efficient. They went above and beyond especially when they ran out of grapefruit juice. We enjoy vodka and grapefruit juice and for some reason when you travel to that part of the world they always seem to never have enough and mid-way through the cruise they run out. Yanus and Stanislav would actually run to another bar in an attempt to find us grapefruit juice. Hope you guys can get off the ship in Miami. Why is having enough grapefruit juice on a cruise an issue? Best RCCL bartenders!!!! Our stateroom attendant was Li, a nicer gentlemen I have never met. I enjoyed speaking with him at length will hopefully run into him again on another cruise. We booked our 2019 and 2020 cruise with Carinha Duarte. Bon Dia Carinha!!! See you in the north!!! She did a fabulous job working with us for our next cruises as well. very informative and helpful with the different ships and venues. We only took the tour of Petra with RCCL, we are finding their tours are over priced and you can usually do better with a private tour company or venture off on your own. We enjoyed Crete (Chania) very much and of course Jerusalem, Dead Sea and Barcelona. We did Jerusalem and the Dead Sea with a private tour operator because it afforded us to see both in the one day we were in port. RCCL offered one or the other. Barcelona is one of our favorite port cities we have been there many times and so we go off on our own and seek out the obscure tapas and wine bars always the best. Going through the Suez Canal was an adventure, so glad we got to experience that. On the whole an excellent vacation with just the few thing we mentioned that hopefully RCCL can address Read Less

This was our first cruise with RCC, although we have more than 30 cruises under our belt, mostly with Princess, HAL and Viking Ocean Cruises. We chose this sailing for the itinerary: Singapore to Barcelona 28 days total. Our cabin was a balcony 9th floor. First the Good: Excellent crew!! The BEST we have encountered; everyone was pleasant and polite (one exception below). Even the Customer Service group, which in other ships tends to be manned by unpleasant Eastern Europeans was absolutely wonderful. Smiles and hellos wherever we went. Kuddos to HR for choosing and training so well. Two minor cabin maintenance issues were resolved literally within minutes. Food: good in Windjammer; excellent in the dining rooms. The Bad: The ship had been in Asia for a number of years and virtually everything was geared to the Chinese/Asian clientele. For the first weeks only one TV channel was in English. Even the ship layout maps on each floor were in Chinese. Our itinerary, and the majority of passengers were not Asian. They should have prepared in advance for this change. There were no professional enrichment or port lectures, just pitches for spa/beauty treatments and Shorex excursions. Unbelievable!! And the library was miniscule, with little inventory. We paid through the nose ($3000 plus) for a Shorex multi day excursion to the Tahj Mahal. Contrary to our experiences with other Lines, RCC did not send a ship rep. with each group that went ashore..The result was a series of mishaps and abuses from Indian bureaucrats upon our return from Dehli. Our group spent more than 3 very hot hours trying to get back to the ship while "immigration and customs" went through the same documents over and over., probably looking for a bribe from the guide. Our Indian guides were helpless and no one from RCC came to our rescue. 2 dining room servers would greet us very loudly by our first names every time they saw us. Being friendly does not equate to being overfamiliar. Unless they offer an extraordinary itinerary, I don't think we will sail with RCC again. We are not into silly games nor rock climbing or ice skating at sea, and there is not much else to do except trivia and joining the hordes around the pools. And it gets old to see grown ups wearing "pinnacle" badges (yes, they actually wear them day and night) complaing that they are not getting the preferential service they "deserve" in comparison to the rest of us mortals. Read Less

Chose this cruise for its repositioning itinerary. Prior to this cruise, the ship had been on short (3-4 day) gambling junkets out of Singapore targeted at Chinese passengers. Senior staff appeared not to have adapted policies and procedures for a longer cruise (15-30 days). (Some food items ran out early; insufficient recorded movies for the duration, daily charges were more appropriate for short rather than longer cruises, etc.) Their business model is to take advantage of their monopoly situation to soak passengers for everything aboard. $12 for a glass of wine; $15/day for poor internet service; charges for in cabin movies; no self serve laundry - we spent over $200 having 4 laundries done on our 30 day cruise. For their shore excursions into very hot climate (30 to 40 degrees C) we were warned to stay hydrated, and we could buy $3 bottles of water if we wanted. [Why would such a safety item not be included in the excursion cost?] On board tours (free on other lines) were expensive ($90 each for 2 hours). Although this cruise had been marketed to us as a sail from Singapore to Barcelona, Royal Carribean treated it as 2 cruises- Singapore to Dubai and Dubai to Barcelona. Perhaps this made sense to them, but it seriously inconvenienced passengers going the full way. We had to essentially "disembark" and "reembark" at Dubai, including clearing our account balance. In addition, hundreds of passengers (I heard 600 cabins) had to pack up and move to other cabins, some just a cabin or two away. This was despite pleas to just let everyone who wished to stay in their first cabins. To add insult to injury, we were required to line up at 5:30 AM for a half hour to provide credit card information for the second "cruise" - something we had already done 3 times! The ship was going for a shipyard refit after reaching Barcelona, so we knew some of the facilities would be a bit tired. And they were. Some obvious rust, balcony rails needed paint, carpets were stained, some rust in the hot water, dining room chairs felt greasy, some upholstry was stained, etc. Not that it was overall poor, just that in our opinion it was overdue for its refit. However, the cigarette stench in the casino and surrounding area was just disgusting. No excuse for that. When all these items were brought up to senior staff at the public meeting, they were dismissed as not worthy of considered responses. Shore excursions were generally well managed, but some guides were below par. Shore excursions arranged by the line were as much as twice as expensive as arranging them locally. During the first part of the cruise, there was no information about ports of call other than their seminar promoting the line's shore excursions. We were disappointed that there was no commentary from the bridge during our transit of the Suez canal. It was made very obvious to everyone that they were catering to their "Diamond" class passengers. Others did not rate. For example, passengers attending a scheduled card game session were twice told to move out for a "Private Function" for Diamond passengers with no alternative space provided for the card players. Passengers trying to buy drinks from the bar during "Happy Hour" for Diamond passengers could not even get to the bar. On the other hand, I have to commend the Captain and the line for the safety precautions they took going through the pirate zone and for their response to several medical emergencies during the cruise. Read Less

We chose this cruise because of the itinerary. Absolutely no entertainment on this ship. There where to many pinnacle members on board so between 4and 8 you could not get a seat in a bar. The elevators did not work very good. The food was acceptable at best with no imagination one person told me the beef tasted like the locket was still on it. The food in the windjammer was often mislabeled (example sea food soup labeled bean soup could have been tragic for someone with allergies ) not enough staff. Bussing tables went to Johnny rockets and waited 20 minutes for service and no one even acknowledged we were there so we left not enough deck space on this ship But the ports were great I doubt that I will use RCCL in the future as they treated everyone that was not a pinnacle member like a second thought we were on that ship for 4consecutive cruises from April 2 to May 7 Read Less

Just returned from a fantastic holiday to Singapore Bali & dubai organized by Imagine Cruising the only problem was the holiday included a short 3 day cruise from Singapore to Malaysia. I wish we could have missed the cruIse out of the itinerary. The cabin was small & out dated even though it was supposed to be one of the better ones on the tenth deck. The worst part was the breakfast , the fight for a table in the Windjammer was unbelievable, dirty cramped tables, cold tasteless food that seemed like a back street cafe, We tried the breakfast in a lower deck but although not as busy whatever you had was guaranteed to be cold even the fried eggs that were like bullets, the toast had to be ordered from the waiters that tasted as if it was toasted the day before then warmed up. On the first day we booked a trip to Kuala Lumpur, then my wife's legs were playing up,so within 7 hours we asked to cancel it, only to be told sorry you still have to pay, unless we give you a doctor's note which will cost you £150 the trip was only £50! The whole feeling is "how much money can we get out of you" with water costing $5 for a litre & if you dare bring any on board they confiscate from you. Everyone we spoke to said this is NOT how Cruising is! It was Cheap & Nasty. SORRY Royal Caribbean. MARINER OF THE SEAS "NEVER AGAIN" Read Less