Let me preface - my husband and I are in our 50's and this was our 8th cruise (our second on RCL) and we were accompanying my mother and her 80 year old friends on a reunion cruise. They are experienced cruisers with 75+ cruises under their belts, so they were not novices by any means.

Arrival: The lines to board the ship were ridiculous! It took over an hour for Diamond Check in. We felt sorry for those who didn't have priority check-in......their wait had to have been much longer. Lunch on deck was not much better. Although we know that it is hectic trying to get everyone fed and moved through, this was particularly chaotic. the food was just ok, pop machines were not working, no one was helping with seating....not a great first impression.

FOOD: My time Dining with any kind of group is nearly impossible. We were lucky enough to be able to switch to a "set" my time dining for our group of 10 or every dinner we would have had to line up and wait for people to vacate a 10 topper. The HIGHLIGHT of this cruise were our dining room servers.....they made our trip! Dinner in the dining room was good, not great. Only a couple of the meals were very good and there was not one excellent meal. Breakfast and lunch in the dining room were just good. Service was often lacking and we frequently had waiters who were visibly exhausted. The buffet ..... lets just say that it felt like they were cleaning out the refrigerators in preparation for dry dock. It was a variation on the same theme every day. Salad options never changed. Just sad! Pop machine was often not working. Seating was always a problem unless you ate at off times. Just disappointing compared to other cruise lines. There was no beverage station on the pool decks, like on other ships, where you could get water, tea and lemonade throughout the day. The Promenade had the one cafe which served the SAME 6 finger sandwiches and pizza slices and 3 types of cookies for 9 DAYS! Come one..... Read more