First let me say I'm a fan of Royal Caribbean. Four cruises since December 2008. We were very disappointed to learn that there was no ice rink, no Royal Promenade and no specialty dining like there is on the voyager class ships.

We made reservations in May for the end of July cruise and requested early dining. The twins are 6 and the baby is 2 years old. We even called the special number for Crown and Anchor members to request early seating. When we got to the pier in Seattle there was an incredible line for security (where they took away 4 nice wines I had brought from home in Houston to enjoy on the cruise.) Oh well.

Then we checked in and were given room keys saying late dining. The guy checking us in said we needed to change it on board. We knew that since this has happened several times over the last year with 6 other cruises on RCI. So we went immediately to the Maitre D' and he said that with 6 people he could do nothing and that the 'you time dining' option was full too. There was nothing he could do but put our names on his long list. I looked and we were about 20th on the list. Read more