We booked this cruise in February 2016 and my 2 sisters and our husbands just wanted a trip together. After losing our son in June, my husband and I weren't planning on going but in the end, decided we needed a distraction. It was a very good deal for us as far as the cost so we were excited. Embarkation went well and we settled into our balcony staterooms. We were in room 6524. We noticed that the decor was fairly worn and tired looking but didn't think much about it. That night our toilet didn't want to flush quickly. Sometimes you had to push the button and it would flush 3-5 minutes later. Not horrible yet. By Sunday morning it stopped working completely and for the rest of the trip we very rarely had a working toilet. We got to know the restrooms on all the floors pretty quickly. That's a problem in the middle of the night! Although reported to the room attendant and guest services many times, the answer they kept giving me was that if someone in another room puts something in the toilet other than tp it will clog everyone's. Ok I understand that but how is that my problem?! And why did our toilet end up being the only one in the line that stayed clogged. I heard from others on the ship that they had the same issues as well throughout the week and I was told by an employee that this stateroom had the same issue the previous cruise. Shame on the cruise line for putting guests in there! The shower water was also so hot it was almost impossible to take a shower. One day my husband was scalded and I had to pour cold water from the sink over him. These issues are basic human necessities and we have every right to expect them to work. I didn't pay my hard-earned money to go to another floor to pee or to have to bathe from the sink. I could have gone camping for that and at a far less cost!

The other negatives were rude….very rude bartenders in some of the bars, food was barely ok in the dining room and the windjammer…..pretty much cafeteria like taste. Another big disappointment is the whole beverage cost. The drink packages are prohibitive for most people and the cost of a drink is ridiculously high. And then the cost of the same drink would vary in different bars. We never knew what to expect. The biggest draw to a cruise is the food and drinks. That did not hold true on this ship at all. This was our first cruise on Royal Caribbean and as far as my husband and I are concerned….the last. If we had received good response to our concerns and someone had checked with us each day to see if the toilet was working, it would have helped a lot. But to be blown off with the "if someone clogs their toilet, yours won't work" excuse just made us more frustrated.This ship should NOT have set sail in the condition it's in. We paid the same amount as those who cruised on the ship a year ago and should have had the same amenities.

The plus side of our trip was the staff in the dining room. They were fantastic, attentive and caring. That would be Shanelle, Donn and Sean the bar guy in the Vivaldi dining room. They were the best. The islands were great and beautiful but the port shopping was unimaginative. We didn't buy much of anything. This was only our 3rd cruise. The other 2 were on Carnival. Guess who wins best cruise line in our book?