My husband and I just recently booked a cruisetour to Madrid and Barcelona and then a cruise to Italy. It was one of the worst nightmares we ever had. First, our flight to Miami had been delayed because of a storm in Tampa, so we missed our connecting flight to Madrid. We notified Royal Caribbean that we would be delayed and coming in on a new flight. We were told they would get the info to the proper authorities. When we arrived in Madrid, we had no luggage, so we filled out a claim. We then tried to locate our Royal Caribbean representative who was no where to be found. We called our hotel and they were surprised that we were even in Madrid!! They thought we were coming the next day. The land tour guide said she had not received any message of our delay. We were then told to take a taxi to the hotel, whereupon Royal Caribbean would pay for it. We told our land tour guide of our plight-no luggage, not even a toothbrush!!! She tried to call and find out where our luggage was, but after 2/12 days in Madrid, nothing showed up. We then took a train to Barcelona, and the luggage then showed up in Madrid!! We were told not to worry because there were hourly flights from Madrid to Barcelona. After 2 more days and no luggage, we were desperate. The next day was our cruise and the only clothes we had were in shopping bags because we were forced to buy clothing. Our tour guide took our small group of 8 (including us) to the pier. We were frantic wondering if we should go on board or just go home. By then we were thoroughly disgusted. We boarded the ship at 2:00 p.m. at the insistence of the pier supervisors. They kept stating how this happens all the time! At 5:00 p.m.- 2 hours before sailing, 3 of our 4 bags had been located and they were being sent over on a van. The entire tour preceding the trip was unenjoyable, to say the least, because we did not have our own clothes or toiletries. The hotels were okay-could have been better.
My husband and I had traveled before on the Voyager when it first came out. It was clean and we had a wonderful experience. We were, therefore, familiar with the ship but when we boarded in Barcelona, we noticed right away how the ship had declined in appearance. The carpeting in our room-a Junior Suite was dirty, torn, and had a big stain. Mid-week, we got a letter notifying us that they would be changing the carpet in our room during the week. We also noticed that the people serving in the rooms were not that attentive-not the way we remembered. The furniture definitely needed to be re-done-there were many scuff marks all over the backs of the chairs which then made the ship look dirty and not well kept. The entertainment was mediocre-we remembered the dancers and singers being excellent-not this time. Sometimes it was difficult to even attend the shows because of the dinner schedules. Eating at 9:30 p.m. is very late and then a show afterwards made it difficult to get up the next morning for the very early tours which lasted too long. The daily tours were a grind! Tours started at 7:30 or so and went for 8 hours or more. They were physically demanding and allowed very little time for shopping. We saw just too many churches and after a while, we could not distinguish one from another. There should have been an allowance of time set aside for days at sea or shorter tours. There was just too much information from the guides and it all became overwhelming.
Our stateroom on the ship was very nice-big room, nice balcony. Our stateroom attendant was very attentive and did an excellent job. She even leant me her curling iron when she knew of our luggage circumstances. We sat with a wonderful group of people at our dinner table. We had many laughs and our waiter was very good. The only concern we had was the hour of eating-9:30 p.m.-much too late. The food was okay, but nothing outstanding. We always remembered how great the soups were and we did not see that this time. We would have liked to take advantage of the hot tub more, but because of the intense schedule of going on daily tours, we were not afforded this pleasure. We usually look forward to going to the Solarium just to relax, but we only made it there once. We would have liked more days of relaxation instead of being so on the go. We were surprised to see that on the Promenade, you had to "pay" for an ice cream. That should all be part of the amenities of the ship. Why pay for more? The trip was costly enough.