We were a little apprehensive about this cruise ship having previously been on the Oasis and concluded that these ships are just too large and the ratios of staff to passengers is poor generally resulting in a somewhat underwhelming overall experience. However it was a celebration cruise and the itinerary was the reason for joining this particular cruise.

We only started cruising 8 years ago, with this being our 5th cruise, all of which have been with RC, and whilst we have overall been reasonably satisfied with the cruises, the standards and quality have certainly deteriorated over the years particularly in the dining room.

The dining room experience on this cruise was certainly the standout disappointment. In comparison to our first RCI cruise on Independence it was now far from a fine dining experience and could only be considered no better than the average type of fayre received at any mass catered hotel type event. Basically very bland and basic food, certainly not inspirational menus and continual lack of any real choice. Cold bread rolls now sitting waiting for you on your table as opposed to choice of a good variety of warm rolls served by your waiter. Attentiveness of staff is minimal, basically due to them all being clearly overstretched. Essentially if you want a fine dining experience now - you need to pay for it. Throughout the cruise it is now becoming more and more apparent everything is a constant up sell and the ships are increasingly adding more restaurants and services that are not included in the basic cruise price. Read more