My wife and I have cruised numerous times with Royal Caribbean over the years, and have generally had very positive experiences. We just finished a cruise out of Galveston on Navigator of the Seas, and the ship itself, the service, the food etc. were all quite good. The only complaint I have regarding the ship itself has to do with the process for purchasing photographs taken on the ship; you are supposed to be able to view the photos on Deck 3 with the use of ipads and other screens provided by the ship, however at any given time more than half of these screens were not working, and those that did malfunctioned during the purchasing process. RCCL should work on getting those kinks ironed out.

My only real issue though is the continuously worsening behavior of my fellow Texans that sail out of Galveston. I have cruised from Galveston 3 times now in the past 2 years, and each time the behavior has been worse. It is not uncommon at all to see shorts in the dining room at dinner, which Royal Caribbean says is not allowed but continues to tolerate. On multiple occasions I saw men walking around the Promenade Deck (indoors) without shirts.While sitting at a table in Vintages (wine bar) I had someone sneeze twice without any attempt at covering their face, spraying visible mucous on the table and floor. I could offer many more examples, but you get the point. Cruising with Royal Caribbean used to be special, but RCCL is allowing itself to slowly slide into Carnival territory. I have never seen this kind of behavior from guests when cruising from the various ports in Florida. I doubt very seriously that my wife and I would consider cruising from Galveston again.

So, the ship and service are good, but the hillbilly behavior is very prevalent and very off-putting.