My comments are qualified by having only cruised RCL 3 times previously (28 days). I purchased 100 shares of RCL stock just prior to this 11/29/08 cruise to benefit from the stockholder cruise credit and because i have generally been very happy with my experience on prior cruises.

I was looking forward to the new ship experience and was rewarded by everything new, clean, and larger than anything i had been on before. Although i booked through an RCL agent and was advised online of the reservation, i did not receive a "package" that had baggage tags, or a book of the excursions. This was a first, and was advised that i should research online, and should drop off my bags at the terminal where a baggage handler would give me a tag. Cannot say i was comfortable with this but i did get my bags after dinner that day without any problem. I consider this related to a service issue but without much consequence.

My dining room experience was less than perfect compared to prior cruises. The waiter forgot to serve the men at the table after serving the women. I wanted two entrees one night because neither sounded great and i wanted to option to choose immediately if i did not like one. I was told he could not serve two at the same time. Strange that i never had a problem on other cruises. He would extract the lobster from the shell and cut it for some but not others. Very sporadic service!! Too many examples of attitude showed-rather than argue over a mix up in the order, he should have graciously corrected the serving to what was wanted. As you can imagine, there was no contribution to the gratuity pool. Read more