My family and I usually travel with Carnival and admittedly have gotten used to their way of doing things. Many of our friends travel with Royal and have offered that it is a better cruise line to travel with. We decided to give them a try for mine and my wife’s 30th wedding anniversary trip to Alaska. We had a good time, the scenery in Alaska was everything we expected and more; however, Royal was not ‘all that’ as it was explained. The many other charges, the Chef’s table was so-so, issues with credit cards and the way they bill were some of the issues, and especially the rock-hard bed that never afforded us a good night’s sleep the whole cruise.; however, not all was bad. The entertainment, especially the ice show was amazing, the dining room staff was great (they misplaced a bottle of our wine but did find it later), the windjammer, albeit difficult to find a seat at times, was very good and the ship itself was laid out nice and was well kept. Our room steward was good; but, we have to expect good stewards so nothing really exceptional other that doing everything she could to fix our bed.

I know all of the cruise lines are starting to nickel and dime us to death over what used to be an ‘all-inclusive’ style of travel; but Royal has it down to an art. I mean things like $69 for a ride on the flow rider… please. Or how about the ice cream machine down most of the trip so that the only avenue was to go pay for it at Ben and Jerry’s (which my family doesn’t care for) or wait for the dining room and get some for desert.

Another issue for our particular situation was our flight home following the trip. We called Royal CSR before we booked our flights to be sure we could make an 11 am flight following our arrival at 6AM, we were told that it would be no issue. When we arrived on the ship and asked for the luggage valet (you have to book on board) we were told that it was only available for domestic travel and since we were stopping in Victoria BC we could not book it. Next we asked for a shuttle, thinking that booking through Royal would speed our departure from the ship and was told that they only run in the afternoon. Next we tried to tell them that we needed to be off very early since our flight was at 11 am and was told that they doubted we could make a flight that early unless we were willing to use self-assist (6 people and 11 bags.. not thanks) I know we packed heavy for this trip; but, did not know what weather to expect. As a last resort, they told us that since we have an elderly couple with us, we could opt for the wheel chair disembarkation and that would afford an earlier departure, so we set that up. The night before departure we get our luggage tags. They are zone 23 with an estimated departure of 840-850 AM… a little too late for our taste, so my wife goes back to the service desk and they tell her the number doesn’t matter since we are using wheel chair assist. On the day of departure, we arrived at the designated location about a half hour early and was told that being part of the wheel chair assist offered no sooner departure than any other. We complained… but still got off the ship at about 845 am. Luckily about 830, I received a notification from Alaskan airlines that our flight had been delayed to 130PM… disaster averted; but, not at the will of Royal. Read more