Our first RCI cruise

Ok, so this is our third cruise in a year and a half. The last two cruise lines we took were Carnival and Princess, so we figured, why not try the other of the big three?So here are our pro's and con's of this trip. We're a twenty something engaged couple that sailed on the 8/29 cruise.

Embarkation-

This was a hectic nightmare and the worst of our experiences getting on any ship. Hundreds of people cramming their way into the ship in total chaos. I don't know why Royal Caribbean would have only two small entry ways but they did. After everyone was done pushing and shoving, we somehow ended up on board.

Staterooms-

Ours was great. We like how we had a sitting area (unlike Princess) and the balcony felt more private. The shower door thing is pretty cool, much better than a plastic sheet. Our stateroom attendant was awesome and went out of his way to help us out. He seemed genuinely happy to see us.

The Ship-

The ship is the biggest either of us have been on. It was clean and had some great features like the ice skating rink and rock climbing wall. We really liked the adults only pool area, it was always less crowded. The dining room was easy to get around and didn't feel crowded. Johnny Rockets was our favorite place to go for cooked-to-order food. Service was always good there.

Okay, since this is a review we need to address some con's.

1. Laundry - We didn't pack to heavily because we assumed there would be a laundry room on the ship. What a disappointment RCL. The other cruise lines had plenty of them. Why pay $20 just to do a few pieces of laundry? We weren't happy with this at all.

2. The DJ (DJ Matt or whatever his name was) - This guy needs to be let go. He played the same songs over and over and over. So badly, that we were kind of discouraged from going to the Dungeon disco very often. Whenever we would confront him about it he would wave us away. Seriously, plugging my ipod in would have been a better experience.

3. Food - As always, the worst part of the cruise. RCL was no better than the other lines. Food was poor quality throughout the ship, except at Johnny Rockets. What they serve in the dining room is the same as the buffet (which we ended up going to every night almost). Not much else to say, it was gross.

4. Programming - For some reason there weren't that many things going on. There was one or two pool activities on the whole cruise (not every day like on Carnival). We didn't see a lot of organized activities at all. A trivia game here and there. The shows on ice and in the theatre were ok, but we felt like not much was happening.

5. A couple problems with the ports. In Mallorca you're kind of forced to take a shuttle in ($10). When it was time to get back to the ship there were literally 2 buses trying to shuttle 2,500 + people back to the ship, while the other RCL ship in port had a dozen empty buses just waiting there. It was bizarre and a lot of people were ticked off by it.

Our cruise was about 75% Italian. We didn't mind, although Americans would probably not enjoy the smoking or how they cut in line a lot. We met some other people, but less than on the other cruises, probably because of the melting pot that was Navigator of the Seas.

Overall, if I had to rate it, it would be 6/10 or so. We had a good time, not a great one. We would probably do a cruise again on RCL, but maybe in the Caribbean.