We are Diamond level on RCL and have always enjoyed our cruises. My husband and I go one or two times a year and once a year take my son and his wife and their 4 children. Until recently it has always been a great experience. We have noticed that the quality of the food in the Windjammer is really becoming quite average. It seems like it Goulash Night at every meal. And Sorrento's Pizza is little better than the dreadful public school pizza served in my high school cafeteria. Surely RCL can do better than those shriveled pieces of stale toast and cheese. Actually we had some very wonderful pizza's poolside on a cruise on Carnival Valor a few years ago. Much better than Sorrentos. We did the 3 dinner specialty restaurant package last year on Oasis and it really was very good. On our Nov 17th cruise on Independence they were pushing the specialty restaurants so we went to Giovannis table one night. Food was cold, tasteless and service was mediocre at best. We had been told by the head waiter in the dining room that all the Specialty restaurants were booked but he would make sure we got a table. Well talk about false advertising- the restaurant was about 1/3 full and stayed that way the entire time we were there. Another guest had the same story about Chops. Is there some very egregious upselling going on?

I can put up with some of these concerns but lack of proper hygiene is one I find very troubling. On every one of our past cruises RCL has been very aggressive about ensuring people use the hand sanitizing stations especially in the public areas and Windjammer.On Independence we were keenly aware that no one was managing the sanitizers. The attendent merely stood there welcoming guests and never mentioned the sanitizers. This was not an isolated occurrence on this cruise. In the dining Room we noticed wait staff clearing dirty dishes with bare hands and then serving food to guests without washing hands or wearing gloves. Upon our arrival I noticed that the glasses in our bathroom cabinet were used. They still had lip marks and toothpaste residue on them. During our cruise our glassware was only changed once in 5 days. Toilets in several of the public areas were not functioning but were filled with waste matter and left that way for extended periods. I was very critical of RCL's hygiene management in my post cruise survey. I even told them that an outbreak of Norovirus on that ship was eminent if they did not get a better handle on the situation. Guess I was right. This makes me wonder if RCL is somehow lax about crew and procedures on some of its older ships and the shorter cruises. It does make us less likely to book short cruise or the older ships as many of the other guests in the Diamond Lounge had similar complaints and experiences.