Royal Caribbean CruisesReviews 33

I have been on many Royal Caribbean cruises and become more disappointed with each one. We were one one a few weeks ago and I went to to Guest Services to ask to have the gratuities removed from my statement as we prefer to tip in cash. I was told they were, yet when I got my final bill, they were not removed. I have called multiple times and have been promised a return call, and to date, have not received any response. This is obviously their new scam, as when you get their automated voicemail, there's even an option to select if you are dissatisfied with the automatic gratuity charges. As a platinum member, I would expect much better service. They charged all 4 people in the room, which adds up to near $1,000, so I am either going to have to involve my credit card company or our attorney. I am incredibly disappointed with the service we have received. Check cruise reviews before booking with them - you'll see that their service continues to fall where others continue to increase.

My father, my daughter and myself recently traveled on Royal Caribbean on a Greek Isles cruise. She just graduated from college & this was a trip of a lifetime for us. We spent three days in Rome & then boarded the Princess of the Seas. The staff, the ship and the accommodations were off the charts and as lovely as they could be. We were in an owners suite & were so pleased with our welcome. We met so many wonderful people that we stay in touch with. We will definitely travel Royal Caribbean again. Thank you for doing such a good job and making us feel so welcome!

Just went on a five day Florida to Bahamas cruise on Enchantment of the Seas with grown daughter. Overall it was fine and the private island-CoCo Cay- was the highlight of the cruise. A couple of things to be aware of, the staterooms are older and in need of refurbishment and updating. RC really pushes the drink packages-basically you would need to have 10 beers or 5 cocktails/wines each day per person to break even. The WiFi packages are also pricey so go "unplugged" and really relax. Here is the kicker-in order to print your airline boarding passes you have to pay for an hour's worth of WiFi for $15. Makes RC look so petty. The common areas of the ship are very nice, only one formal dinning room so be sure to make reservations. All of our interactions with the staff were very pleasant.

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.