Royal Caribbean has decided evidently to become an entry level cruise experience. Here are my observations:

1) overall food quality has been going downhill for the last few years. Menu diversity also has been reduced. If you're a meat and potatoes person you're in luck. If you like vegetarian or international cuisine (Indian, Thai, Chinese, etc.) you won't be happy. Here, animal protein rules. They used to have a decent vegetarian option at dinner and at the buffet, but they have slowly gone away too. I am not a vegetarian but I like eating that stuff a lot and miss it here.

Internet speed is around dial up speed. We were on a Norwegian ship recently and could actually stream video!! On Royal getting email can be a challenge. I will say their larger newer ships have better internet, but the Jewel and also the Serenade which we recently cruised on had dial-up speed internet and was frustrating. Royal has obviously decided that internet was NOT important to its clients because the equipment obviously exists to upgrade it. Unfortunately we have our own business and we have to stay connected. So next cruise will be on Norwegian again. Better internet by 100X and better food (lots of non-meat choices at the buffet every day and more choices in general). Read more