Royal Caribbean Cruises

RCCL changed their target audience some years ago. No longer a cruise line for traditional cruisers, they went for the young families with kids, to enjoy rock walls, bumper cars, water slides, video games, etc.
Problem is they gave up formal nights, even though they still schedule them, no men bring tuxes anymore.
The dance floors, even in bars and late at night are filled with kids, from toddlers to semi teens, and dancing couples cannot even find the space to do a decent Cha cha. Crowds on Ovation are not handled well. All traffic is funneled on decks 4 & 5, and no one moves aside for you. The current guests are not well dressed bon vivants... over 4000 guests, and 3 tuxes!. They rather look like they are taking the pickup to the dump. Food is terrrible, even though wait staff are friendly. If you are an experienced cruiser, take a pass on Ovation of the seas, in spite of the high class stage shows that RCCL produces.

RC is nothing but problems. We have had to call over issues many times. We are always on the phone for over an hour and about 50% of the time we get "disconnected." We were sent an invoice that shows a zero balance and then five months before the cruise, 5 months after the booking we were sent a new invoice saying we owe $1000. If we do not pay the cruise is canceled without a refund. We have always booked through Carnival and will only book through Carnival in the future. When I told them that, they basically said they didn't care, I was only one person.

On top of that, the "all-inclusive" cruise doesn't include the majority of restaurants on the ship. All ships have upgraded dining, but RC wants to charge for all of it. The ship is small and outdated compared to others we have sailed on.

The attached itemized receipts show that our payments "disappeared" and new amounts owed. No explanation was given. We were just sent new invoices. After 3 and a half hours on the phone with three different people, we were told there was a system malfunction in April when we booked that made it look like we paid more than we had. We had originally booked in 2020 and had rescheduled several times because of COVID. We did not pay the deposit in April 2022, all balances were carried over from original booking in 2020.

I have no idea how they have four stars.

On 8/28/22, cruise for seven days as a Diamond members. Our original REAL Samsonite suitcase with a built-in lock was damaged. Three-man maintenance crew couldn't open the lock and eventually broke it. The built-in lock can not be replaced, and the suitcase can not be locked anymore. They wrote the report. The Senior Guest Service officer, Mr. NK, promised to credit our VISA with $200. It was never credited. Upon our return to the port, seven days later, until 9/30, we had a nightmare of finding anyone in the Royal Caribbean who would solve the problem. Every day we were waiting for over ONE HOUR for someone to answer the phone. Then they forwarded us to another clerk, who responded only after 35-45 minutes of waiting. After a few days of struggling with the multitude of leaks, we discovered that the Senior guest Desk officer, Mr.NK, should give us a yellow copy of the report, which he never gave us. He made us sign the half-blank form and said he would complete the rest of the document. Later we discovered In his claim; he never mentioned the $200 credit he promised to us. The problem is still not solved.
So we ordered our 11 days cruises in November and January with another cruise line for a much cheaper balcony cabin.

I want to write positive reviews but in this case my review is more pessimistic but hopefully will help you make an informed choice on whether to sail with Royal Caribbean or not.

The good: they have a special service offering for repeat customers. If get to the upper tiers of their rewards program, you will have access to priority check-in, access to welcome back parties and if you are a diamond, emerald or pinnacle members you have access to gifts and diamond lounges. However you would have to sail I think 43 nights to get to even platinum. I was able to get to gold due to their alliance with MLife (from MGM in Las Legas) so had some sort of recognition without even sailing with them.

They are bring out brand new ships but this may not affect the service levels (see below).

The bad: 1. The boat that I cruised on was old and tired and the shower temperature control did not work so there was only one temperature which was a little bit too warm, especially for a very hot day in Australia.

2. The service was lacking. If I did this cruise again, I will opt to give tips directly to those who made more of an effort rather than pre-paying gratuities. It would probably incentivise the staff more.

3. Be careful of the used by date of their food. We noticed that the yogurt was 8 days past the "best before" date and just wanted to bring this to food and beverage manager's attention. Her response was that it was international law that allows them to serve food that was within 2 months of the "best before" date. Really? For yogurt too?

4. The food was mediocre at best. I am not a food snob but felt that they really did not bring a standard that you would expect from this type of cruise line. I resorted to paying for their premium/specialty restaurants and found this to be much better. Get the 5 pack deal as it costs $20 USD per head which was not too bad considering that We had $300 on board credit.

5. The onboard entertainment was boring. I have sailed on Carnival cruises for my first and other time and found their shows to be of the same standard as what you see on say Broadway... almost.

I think I will sail with another cruise line next time.

Best cruise line if you want to sit around the pool, watch movies in the sun and eat bad food. Literally, that is what we did. While the sun was shining and drinks were pouring, they played movies by the pool instead of music. Crazy huh? That is what everybody else was thinking. Where is the fun on this ship.

They had a two man band play for about an hour each day, held a belly flop contest and a sexy man contest. Other than that, the played movies on the big screen for 5 days. I guess it's their form of crowd control.

I even ran into the activities director and mentioned it to her on day 3. I asked her if she even visits the pool during the day to watch lame movies? How about some music. Nothing.

Royal Caribbean, shame on you for hiring horrible activities managers! Our cruise was 12-6 to 1-11 on Brilliance of the Sea.