This cruise was sold as "Best of Cuba", three days in Cuba. What a joke! Before the cruise started they dropped one of the ports and substituted Key West. We were suppose to start boarding for the cruise at 11 AM but because of "technical difficulties" with the ship we were not allowed to start boarding until about 12:15. No problem. We boarded and directly went to the bar, got a drink and set by the pool, still no problem. We figured that by 3 PM our cabin would be ready, and it was, but found a cabin that hadn't been updated since the ship was put into service in 1990! Formica, particle board and cabinets with that golden oak wood edging were everywhere, straight out of the 80's. The cabin and the bathroom with it's flickering florescent lighting reminded me of Grandma's house. In the bathroom there was plastic countertops with cigarette burns and more 80's decor. Towels that had raggedy edges form too many washings like the ones I use to wash the car at home!

The food in the Windjammer Restaurant was more like a high school cafeteria. Abundant, yes, delicious, no. Lots of hamburger, hot dogs and pizza with a few other offerings sprinkled in. My son LOVES shrimp. He could literally eat shrimp three meals a day but two bites of the shrimp in Windjammer was all he wanted. If this child won't eat the shrimp you know it's bad! One night they had some small grilled steaks, chicken and pork loin cutlets. If you closed your eyes, your taste buds would not have been able to tell one from the other, bland and tasteless. The main dining room food wasn't much better, pretty bland and never hot, just warm. The selection was better and the service was good but again very bland mass produced food. There is the Chops Grill on board which you have to pay extra to eat at. Luckily we did so we had one good meal while on the ship.

The major problem with the cruise was CUBA! We pulled into port at 3:30 PM. My son and I were lucky in that we were one of the first groups to get off the ship at about 4:15 PM. Many on the ship weren't allowed off the ship until after dark. Royal Caribbean tried to blame everything on the Cuban Government but going through customs in Cuba was a breeze .We were scheduled to take a 5 hour tour of Havana in a classic car. We were taken by bus to where the old cars were waiting. The problem was that by now it's 4:30ish and it got dark about 5:30. We literally got to see almost nothing of Cuba except car headlights. Since everything in Cuba is owned by the government, everything closed at 5 PM. The bus stopped at a very over crowded store for just a few minutes so we could buy a bottle of rum and a few cigars, then dropped us back at the dock about 7PM. We had paid for a 5 hour tour and only got 2.5 hours, most of which was in the dark! EVERYONE was complaining but Royal Caribbean still wanted to blame it on the Cuban government. The ship then pulled out of port at 5:30 AM. 14 HOURS IN CUBA AND 12 HOURS OF THAT WAS AT NIGHT IN THE DARK! HOW DO YOU CALL THAT "BEST OF CUBA"? Read more