Summary:
Although we had a good holiday, was a bit disappointed with this ship. It was our fifth cruise, first with Royal Caribbean, and thought this cruise line was at least up there with the other big players, if not slightly bettter, but was wrong. The food was not as good as other cruise companies, the staff in dining room although very pleasant, were so slow. The excursion team were not very helpful and could not be bothered to help. The Guest Relations desk were excellent though. Then we come to the entertainment, worst I have ever encountered. No West End/Broadway type shows in theatre, like advertised on RC web site and TV adverts! On other cruises, there has always been two shows a night, for first and second dinner seating guests. There was two shows, and for second seating guests these were at 6.30pm, and first seating shows were 8.30pm, but it wasnt a problem as the shows were really rubbish.The entertainments team working in bars etc, were not at all up to scracth and mostly it was guest participation that was the entertainment, there was a couple of trio bands/singers that were ok, but just ok. Then we come to the gratuities - what is going on with these cruise ships, they charge $24/day to your account per two person cabin, then on top every single drink is charged 15%. Even the spa, the stone massage started off $149 but ended up $175 when you come to pay account, with yet again gratuity added. We are all paying part of the staff/crew wages on top of paying for cruise, why dont they just put up cost of cruise, then we would all know what the cruise is going to cost up front. I have been on Carnival Cruise which was excellent, Holland America which was excellent and twice on Thompson Cruises - whilst the staterooms were not as good as the larger cruise lines, the food and especially entertainment was excellent. Would think very hard before chosing a RC cruise again.