Our cruise began pleasantly enough in Miami. Check-in at 2:00 with our pre-registration was quick and efficient, with little waiting and courteous service. We boarded the ship and checked out our cabin. What we noticed immediately was that it was hot. I am used to it being hot outside having lived in South Florida for so long, but my wife and I have become spoiled. I adjusted the thermostat to the lowest setting while we milled about on deck. After an hour or two our cabin was only marginally cooler. Two calls to the purser's desk elicited promises, but no response. A third call to engineering finally summoned a repairman. He replaced a small part, and then pronounced it repaired. By dinner (second seating) we were sweating through our clothes. I finally had enough and went downstairs to the purser's desk myself. This brought back the maintenance person -this time with help, and a promise to have it working by the time we returned. After much rigamarole with wires and panels removed, it still was not working adequately. We finally gave up and swore to spend the least time possible in our sweatbox. It was easily 5 degrees cooler in the hallways of the ship. It is a darn shame that Royal Caribbean could not manage to cover something as basic as air conditioning.

We felt as though we had booked the floating equivalent of a Days Inn. The television picture was bad when it worked at all. Our seapass info was available about half the times we tried. A call down to the purser's desk revealed they were 'having problems'. The safe in our room was broken, and would not lock. Having gone the maintenance route before we just shrugged it off.

Other parts of the ship, with the exception of our cabin, were truly a wonder. The Royal Promenade was fabulous, as was the solarium. The many bars and clubs were great. My wife enjoyed the stores, and the spa. Read more