Our first cruise on Royal Caribbean was this past November, sailing to the Bahamas out of Baltimore. Check-in went fairly quickly, and we were on the ship about 30 minutes after being checked in. We travelled with another family who also never sailed with RCL and all were curious to see the ship. Once onboard, we were taken back on how dirty and old the ship looked. We read it had undergone a renovation not long ago, but not sure what was renovated, as everything looked old. Only certain elevators worked and the wait for them was always long, only to find that when the doors opened, it was entirely full. There definitely is not enough elevators to handle the amount of passengers. We walked on the top outside deck before we sailed and saw a cup of spilled red juice that was dried up and the cup was stuck in it.....this cup remained there for almost the entire cruise, until one night it rained and it was gone the next day. The spa area was a joke, the steam spa in the women's spa was broken the entire cruise, we were told they were waiting for a part. The men's steam spa broke during the cruise and was never fixed.

The rooms were just ok, sort of like a Motel 8 look. Crooked pictures hung on the wall and shabby, old looking curtains. We had a port hole room and, the caulking around the window on the outside was dried up and cracked, with pieces missing. The pillows were comfortable, but the mattress was very thin and uncomfortable, similar to sleeping on a cot. Room looked clean, but not sure if/how they sanitize their rooms. Our friends had a verandah stateroom and the curtains were the same old looking curtains. Their verandah door had a broken lock, so the door to the verandah could not be locked. They called maintenance to let them know, but no one ever came to fix it. This is a major risk factor if young children were to stay in this room.

The shows were awful, we walked out on all but one of the shows. The speakers in the theater were crackling and you couldn't understand what was being said. Read more