We chose this cruise for the itinerary rather than the ship. After travelling on Anthem of the seas the year before, we had low expectations before embarking on this cruise. We weren't disappointed though. Yes the ship is old, but it is beautiful, and in the usual royal Caribbean way, it is exceptionally clean. The staff seem like they enjoy their jobs as they always seem happy and eager to help.

We only ate in the Windjammer because we found the food to be so varied and delicious that we never felt the need to eat anywhere else.

Staterooms: we had two interconnecting cabins. 1 for myself, my husband and our 2 children, 8 & 5. the other for my parents. I would definitely recommend interconnecting cabins when you are a large family. The only downside on this ship was that you couldn't take down the balcony partition, whereas on Anthem we could, giving us one large balcony. The cabin was small once the sofa bed was made up for the kids but that was only at night. Each morning the attendant would come in and pack the sofa bed away giving us more space again. The bathroom wasn't too compact although I didn't like the shower curtain - it kept sticking to my body during a shower! I think the newer ships have actual doors on the showers. There were 2 other negatives with our room. 1- on Anthem we had toiletries in our bathroom like body lotion, shower gel etc. I purposely didn't bring any of these with me because expected to find them in my cabin on this ship too, but there was nothing, apart from soap, and a shampoo dispenser in the shower. This disappointed me, because I know this is an old ship, but I would have expected royal Caribbean would be consistent in providing toiletries, if they are 1 ship surely they should be on all ships? And the second thing, I put down to the age of the ship and the technology not being upgraded yet, but on Anthem we could view our onboard account on our tv whereas we couldn't on this one. Read more