Star Clippers

Luxury Cruises

Romantic Cruises

Senior Cruises

Gourmet Food Cruises

Barbados

St. Maarten

Caribbean - All

Caribbean - Southern

Poor

Royal Clipper

Izmir

The Royal Clipper is a beautiful sailing ship.  What excited us the most was the chance to see the five masted fully rigged ship from one of our excursions.  Unfortunately, Captain Mariusz Szalek sailed the tall ship using mostly the engine during the entire seven days in the Caribbean.

We motored our way from Saint Maarten's to Barbados sometimes navigating in bad weather.  Unfortunately, we succumbed to a lot of rain.  When we took the tender to an island beach, either it was Antigua or Dominica, the beach was narrow and the water was murky.  We were expecting white sands with turquoise beaches.  Perhaps our expectation was a bit unrealistic. 

We don't fault the captain or the cruise director for the 4 days of bad weather.  However, the cruise director, Gabor did not offer us opportunities to learn about the islands that we could not visit on those rainy days.  We think it would have been very educational if they had films about the islands in the lounge.  We could have learned about the culture, economy, history and what influenced The Royal Clipper to choose these islands to visit.  Upon many occasions as we motored in the rain, clear skies and sunshine were only a few miles away, If weather reports showed socked-in conditions at the next port-of-call, a leisurely sail under sunny skies would be monumentally favorable to hovering under the rain tarps provided.  When this alliterative was put to the captain, the response was that he was strictly prohibited from deviating his course.  Is it more important to stay on a rainy track or to make the passengers happy and comfortable? 

One of the islands that we did visit was called Saint Barts.  Unfortunately, it was Sunday and most of the stores were closed.  It would have been great if we had some kind of tour guide to direct us to different landmarks on this island to see.  To make matters worse, the captain on the ship wasn't very accessible to many of the guests when asked questions.  We would think some public relations officer would be at hand here.  Towards the end of the cruise, there was a gentleman walking around with a petition to sign complaining about the excursions and the poor communications between the captain and the guests.  We found that very troubling. 

Overall, the food was very good.  The dining room waiters and the cabin stewards worked very hard to help make our trip comfortable. They are the backbone of the Royal Clipper.  There is always a possibility on any cruise, that inclement weather will put a damper on the journey. We think it's in the ship owner's interests to anticipate the possibility of inclement weather and provide alternatives to make the trip more enjoyable.  After all, we are cooped up on a ship with no alternate activities.  Most of the passengers like ourselves were bored and the only highlight of our trip was eating.  You could go on any big ship for that!  We did not feel we got our moneys worth.

Lastly, the intercom system was very poor.   Some of the speakers were inaudible, because the intercom system is only in the hallways.  Having an effective intercom system allows the passengers to hear important information.    Perhaps a closed caption line could be added to the TV to facilitate hearing announcement while in the room.

Expectations not met

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