Let me preface that I have been on about 16 cruises. Various lines. This one on IOTS was definately the worst by far. I book RCCL expecting the best. I was on a Carnival cruise that was by far a better experience. It seems like the ship is under staffed - which seems to permeate every aspect of the cruise. None of the workers seem happy. In turn, they aren't trying to make you happy.

Lets start with embarkation. I received an e mail stating I could board up until 4PM. I had planned to get there much earlier than that but there were dalys in the Northern Corridor due to cold weather and snow. My cousin and I arrived at 3:30PM. There was NOBODY outside the ship to direct us. Some man who was hanging out (could have been homeless) directed us to a door. It was locked. Finally one of the workers from a service that RCCL hires to help with boarding and the luggage directed us to the proper entrance. He informed me that the workers are directed by RCCL not to help passengers after 3:15PM. Why send me a e mail stating I have until 4PM and tell the workers not to help me after 315PM? We had to carry our bags to our rooms ourselves. Not tragic but that was only the start of the disappointment.

The room was very nice. Clean - the air conditioner worked well. The female steward greeted us but didn't giver us any info. Like the fact that we had a refrigerator in the room. A fact we discovered on our last day when leaving the room. I know some of you are thinking how stupid can I be. I agree that I should have seen it but our room had a wall of closets and drawers. It was a family suite - at the time I booked- the only room left that had twin beds. We didnt use half the room and didnt spend a lot of time in the room. My point is the steward could have pointed it out. She gave us no info about the room. We didn't find the tissues ( which were in a drawer ) until we asked her for a box. The tissue holder in the bathroom was not functional and empty. Read more