We've been on several cruises, including one other on RC, and while this ship was very impressive, we never felt like we were on "real" cruise. There were several factors at play for us, one of which was not precisely RC's fault, which I will detail below.

First, the travel agency we booked through sold us a "balcony" room, which with all other ships on the ocean, means an ocean side balcony, and that's what we thought we were getting. Instead, when we got on the ship we found out that the room has a balcony (so it was technically a balcony room) but it overlooked the Central Park area of the inside of the ship. The main problems with this are that: 1) we had absolutely no privacy on the balcony because the pool deck and all of the higher decks on the other side of the ship overlooked our balcony, giving them an unobstructed view of the balcony and the inside of our room; 2) there were frequent "outdoor" live concerts in Central Park, and no matter how tightly we closed the balcony doors we couldn't get away from the noise and racket, so we literally had to leave our room and go to another part of the ship to get some peace and quiet; and 3) it was more like being in an inner city apartment than a ship. The lesson here is that if you book on this ship, be careful of unscrupulous agencies that will mislead you into thinking you're getting an ocean view balcony.

Second, it was almost as if the ship designers wanted to isolate the passengers from the ocean rather than allowing us to connect with it. We go on cruises in large part because we love the ocean and enjoy the experience of being on a ship, and part of that is being able to connect with the ocean by watching it go by on a deck that is close to the water. On this ship, the lowest deck that had outdoor access to the ocean was deck 14, which was so high that it was like being on a tall building and trying to connect with the pedestrians on the sidewalk. Deck 5, which is fairly close to water level, is open to the air, but the only part of that deck that allows a view of the ocean is the stern, while the rest of that deck (which has the running track on it) is occluded by the life boats and offers no real view. Read more