My wife and I recently decided to take a Mediterranean Cruise. He had heard many wonderful things about Royal Caribbean and decided to give it a try. We were very excited to step onto the “Biggest ship in the ocean”, the Allure of the Seas. It wasn’t our first cruise but it was our first cruise on Royal Caribbean. It, unfortunately, didn’t go well.

During our cruise experience we had a number of issues and were disappointed often. Right away, upon stepping onto the ship, we were met with staffers trying to give us flyers and coupons for deals (Spa treatments, Beverage packages, Internet packages, Photo opportunities, etc) that are aboard the ship. This may sound like a good thing, as someone might think that they are making sure we get the biggest bang for our buck. However, it was a nightmare. The hallway we entered when getting on the ship is first off very narrow for the hundreds of people trying to board and it was very cramped. As we walked forward staff member after staff member were trying to hand us flyers, which at the time we had no idea what they were. We thought maybe some vital piece of information for the ship. If it wasn’t a sheet of paper it was another staff member trying to talk to us about services offered. Well when a hallway is that small with that many people, you end up not being able to hear very well. We were finally able to fight through the commotion and find an elevator. That was our great “Welcome Aboard”. Perhaps a good thing to others, however, to my wife and I, having spent two previous days in Rome with all sorts of street vendors and people putting things in your face to purchase, it was truly just awful.

We then proceeded up to our state room. It wasn’t clean. Hair on the vanity chair, water/cup rings on the table, and misc. stains on the dresser. Again this wasn’t our first cruise, so we understand wear and tear on a ship, but this was very sloppy and very disgusting. Read more