I had originally scheduled to go out of Puerto Rico in Oct, but with Harvey hitting us we didn't want to endure seeing that again. I cancelled that cruise and lost half my money because even though they were cruising with passengers and also had those displaced living on the ship, they didn't even offer to save the money for another cruise. That aside, we booked another cruise out of our home port. We booked this particular week so we could see Caymans again. Well, we got out late from port, which really didn't have much bearing on Caymans since it was suppose to be the Wed stop, but the Captain cancelled saying there was suppose to be bad weather. Well, we heard from others that day that the Cayman's had the other 3 ships in port. The weather wasn't bad at all. I don't know whether Royal was loosing money on more fuel or what, but we didn't get that port of call.

We have cruised with Carnival nearly every year for countless years. Carnival has more options for food, has staff that is more personable, and really makes every effort to get you to your scheduled ports. Also, embarkation and disembarkation go smoothly every time.

I found Royal to be a pretty ship. My cabin had not been updated. Looks like they only do certain floors at a time. The food was pretty much the same and not much variety in the Windjammer. Not a lot of options and looks to cater to more indian style cooking. Not our preference. Read more