My wife and adult children (2) just returned from our OOTS eastern sailing. Here is a quick review of the good, the average, and the ugly...

THE GOOD: The ship itself is amazing. My hat's off to the design team that worked on this, along with all of the market input that influenced the design. They managed to capture everything in one ship. Nice job! Overall food quality is good. MDR is a cut above all other Royal ships (Voyager class, Freedom class, etc.), probably because it's a marquee ship. Specialty restaurants are excellent, but you pay for it. Alcohol pricing has been adjusted so that you don't go broke on mixed drinks if you have them in moderation. Ship cleanliness and upkeep are very good.

THE AVERAGE: Windjammer. Food quality there is dropping, compared to past experiences. Also the shows. It was a bit of a pain to reserve everything, and then Royal goes and changes your reservations to time slots you didn't want. Also a lot of the staff. They are not as friendly as they used to be, although that could be due to the rudeness of the passengers, which we've noticed has gotten worse. The loss of the Viking Lounge to more suites was a disappointment. Read more