Royal Caribbean Reviews

If you are the kind of person who likes a nice holiday, but is also excited by the prospect of being left stranded at a foreign a airport with no or guidance, then The Royal Caribbean is for you!

My wife and myself had spent a lovely week aboard the ‘Odyssey Of The Seas’ in the Mediterranean. While on board we became aware of flight cancellations from the Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Italy. A passenger had informed us that their flight was cancelled, due to a strike at the airport. Apparently this strike had been arranged for some time. We checked the airports website and it showed morning flights, but not afternoon flights. So, knowing about this possible dilemma, I visited Guest Services on the ship and asked if they could confirm our flight.
The assistant could not find the flight on her system, which she found odd, but still assured me that the main booking had confirmed the flight and therefore we had nothing to worry about.
On the day of departure, we queued to disembark only to be told that we had to visit the guest services regarding our bill. We were owed money back, which although I had been assured would be refunded onto my credit card, was actually given to me in cash. This slowed up our departure meaning we missed the allotted coach. We caught another coach going to the airport but we were the last ones to arrive. We were told to go to gate 46, and that was it! We entered the airport, went to the gate ... but no one was there!
It was at this point we were told that the flight had been cancelled due to the strike. No Royal Carribean rep was there to explain. People were frantic, one poor lady was crying whilst on the phone to someone. The staff were helpful, but after queuing for three hours, we were told that the next available flight to Heathrow was two days later. Eventually, they agreed to give us accommodation in an hotel, but only for one night, not the second!
I was on the phone to the emergency contact number to Royal Caribbean but was cut off after 45 minutes. We were left high and dry. Luckily we had booked with a small local family run travel agent, so in a last desperate bid for help, I phoned her. Even though it was a Sunday, she helped and tried to contact them herself.
While I don’t blame Royal Caribbean for the strike itself, nor even the striking staff at the airport, I DO blame the company for NOT having a plan to help its passengers. It clearly states in our guest ticket booklet:

"We will endeavour to contact you should a major change occur to your air itinerary. "
BLATANT LIE!
We never received an email, a text or a call. And still two days after arriving home, we still haven’t received any correspondence.

1: What annoys me is that Royal Caribbean knew about the cancellation.
2: They blatantly lied to us about the flight not being cancelled. The police and local news teams were at the airport. Why? because they knew the flight disruption was due between 12-6pm. Everyone knew except us passengers!!!
3: There was no advice, nor advisor to help at the airport.

We now have to fight for compensation for the extra money we have had to pay out for the hotel and food.

Advice… book with P &O or another cruise company. You have been warned!

Just of the Anthem of the Seas and well it was not good experience I must say.

It all started from winning on a royal up. Upon boarding the Anthem on deck 5 I was asked to show my sea pass which I did. The pass was throwing up errors on the staff members scanner. My wife's was the same. They check again by using the pass on the app and not by a screenshot I took and this was the same. It took about 10 minutes to get this sorted or so we thought. The lady had to manually enter it and said that it's fixed like I said or so they thought.

After this I suggested to my wife we go to muster station to carry that out and get out sea passes checked there and guess what? Same situation again. They suggested that we go to guest services and speak with them which we did. My issue at this point is I should not be experiencing this I should be enjoying my time on the ship.

So off to guest services we both go. Well as you can imagine the queue was somewhat long but nether the less we eventually got to speak to guest services and informed them that we were upgraded and as mentioned also to boarding crew on deck 5 that maybe this is the issue. Lady checked our account and said all is fine and our state room keys should be fine.

Now things start to get worse.

Prior to boarding I purchased room anniversary decorations for our anniversary to surprise my wife and also purchased flowers from a local florist to be delivered to our room also for surprise and when she opens the door she will be surprised and delighted to see them.

So when I got the email I instantly thought should I call RCI to ask if they decorations and flowers will be sent to new room? I thought no as RCI should automatically transfer all purchases and items to new room surely... they huge company and have technology to do this.

So after speaking to guest services off to room we went. We got to room and wife lifted state room keys and I had my video camera recording for my YouTube vlog to upload to YouTube for her huge surprise. Well! She checked the keys and guess what? Different names on the keys wife said. I replied what? Which name is it? Wife replied I don't know but it's not ours. I stopped recording and checked and confirmed this is not our names. I then instantly thought uh oh..I bet room decorations and flowers not be in room. I then went and got room attendant and informed him of the error. He checked and confirmed the error. He then went and got supervisor. So at this point we waited for supervisor who eventually came and confirmed the error and said I will need to get new keys made. So again we waited.

Superior came with new keys and I started to record again in the event that the flowers and room decorations would be there. So I took deep breath as wife scanned the key.........she opened the door.....and yes...you thought correct no room decorations or flowers. So as you can imagine my heart ache... sadness...months of planning and waiting to be let down by RCI. So instantly went to guest services after telling my wife what I had planned. I explained to them my plans and issues I had after boarding the ship and het reply was I'll take note of this. I also had no welcome note when opened the door and never did get one or anything about our crown and anchor benefits.

We did eventually get the room decorations and flowers delivered later that day but the surprise was ruined. Also our room door happy anniversary love heart was stolen from our state room door . And did get it replaced.

I have read that Manu royal up guest had similar experiences on boarding day.

I shall share the experience on my vlog along with the videos I took of our disheartening surprise ?

From our first cruise I have praised RCI and have only ever cruised with yourselves but after this .. I am in two minds to cruise again as you only celebrate your silver wedding anniversary once.

I witnessed some pretty awful things from finding toe nail clippings on the floor on deck 14 at a seat. To teenagers scaring guests at lifts. I know these things cannot be controlled but as a guest it's awful to witness and see especially when your eating an ice cream and to see God nail clippings.

I think I have put my views across clearly now and I wait for your response on this email.

We recently finished an amazing cruise around the Mediterranean (26/6-3/7) from Barcelona and although the experience onboard the wonder of the seas was excellent and the staff wonderful, it was our experience leaving the ship that has left us incredibly upset and angry. As directed we left our luggage outside the door the night before departure. We left the ship in the morning and three of four suitcases from our two rooms were missing. We notified the staff, and along with us the staff searched the terminal as late as we could before we had to fly out. The paperwork we given at the terminal and told to follow up with had a phone number that was disconnected, and after numerous phone calls and waiting were told to fill in online form describing our cases. Since then we have heard nothing apart from automated emails stating that if they are not found in 30 days then the case is closed. My husband and father in law have both numerous times phoned and been on hold for hours to talk to someone to get an update and talk about the process but nothing! Not one phone call with an apology or an outline of what happens in this process! We are all so disappointed and upset with what has happened which has been made worse for a lack of care and respect from the royal Caribbean post cruise staff.
We have lost so much in these cases I cannot name, and the inconvenience in replacing nearly everything so we could continue to live day to day has been truly stressful. Overall what was some of the party’s first ever cruise it has now left us so angry and upset. It seems once they have your money and the cruise is over they don’t want to know you, except to promote further sales. Disgraceful!

While I’ve had positive experience with Royal Caribbean in the past, our upcoming cruise on the Ovation of the Seas on August 8, 2022 has been a disaster to manage. One disappointment after another, from repeated canceled excursions, to an itinerary change and cutting out our glacier visit as a result of the fact that two engines are not fully functional on the ship so we have to go slower. We planned this trip for 10 people in the family and chose a cruise thinking it would be easy to coordinate. At this point, we are seriously considering canceling, which means we have to eat the nonrefundable plane tickets. We have found RC customer service utterly unhelpful and unimpowered. Be wary!

If I could give them zero/negative stars, I would. My grandmother got diagnosed with cancer and we could no longer travel. I called Royal over 5 times to explain this. They made me get a doctors note only to penalize me severely anyway, not return my money, and give me only partial future cruise credit. The thing is, I can't even use this credit in the time allowed because my grandmother will be on her deathbed. Royal's customer service is horrible. There are many other cruise liners out there. I highly suggest you go elsewhere.

Spent 7 nights on board the Rhapsody of the seas ship recently for a Greek Isles, Adriatic cruise. Most important to note is that this cruise begins in Athens and ends in Venice(Ravenna). Ravenna is a port 3 hours bus ride South of Venice with a €54 transfer price tag.
There are serious staffing and customer care issues on board this ship. The staff in the Edelweiss restaurant are obviously inexperienced, serving is slow, not in sequence and in one instance when cod was ordered a small tail fillet was served.
The customer service desk staff were obviously poorly trained. I pointed out these staff issues to Roy Caribbean customer service who acknowledged my email and said they would respond within 3 days. 18 days later, no response, I sent a second email. It remains unacknowledged. Since our return I have discovered that Royal Caribbean treated their staff poorly with the onset of COVID. As a result many long serving experienced staff have not returned to the company. Like so many sectors that made large numbers of staff redundant due to the pandemic Royal Caribben are struggling to find staff. My simple advice is, don't book a cruise for a year or so until the covid staffing issues are resolved. As for customer Service, well that is attidudinal and comes from the top. My advice, there are other Cruise lines than Royal Caribbean.

If I could give them negative zero stars, I would. We booked a cruise May 30, 2022 and paid immediately. Their website advised that a Covid-19 test needed to be done three days prior to sailing. We did so on July 5 to be ready for July 8.

We arrived at Terminal 2 in Galveston at the time Royal Caribbean told us to and they refused to let us board because they said the tests were not recent enough.

They then told us they would escort us from the terminal like criminals. Now they refuse to refund any of my money or reschedule the cruise. Their “customer support” line is completely useless.

I WOULD WARN ANYONE NOT TO CRUISE WITH royal caribbean UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. Carnival sails from Galveston and they are reasonable with guests

This was my first cruise so I had nothing to compare it to. We booked in 2019, but like most others the cruise was cancelled and put off a couple of times.
I sailed on the Anthem of the seas on 24th June on a Med cruise.
My observations are as follows and may not be everyone’s thoughts, but here we go.
Boarding the ship was a dream, it was so easy, 10mins and we were in the bar.
The ship was large with a variety of bars, restaurants and entertainment areas.
We bought the deluxe drinks package which was £1280 for the 2 of us for 2 weeks. We had a balcony room 9174. It was comfortable and very well kept by the cleaning staff. Having the balcony was a good choice as it gave us the chance of letting in a bit of fresh air.
The food was good, a little repetitive though disguised in different terminology. But more than happy.
You must not miss wonderland it was brilliant, very different. Staff were very attentive and it’s a dining experience.
Chops grill was average in my opinion, bit if you like steak it’s a good night.
The windjammer was ok for food, usual buffet food you would get in most places. Lots of choice though.
Didn’t do Jamie’s Italian as we had heard disappointing feedback and it’s $50 supplement.
The bars were excellent, good drinks and excellent service.
The entertainment was a bit hit and miss, but the stand out acts were Jon Courtney from BGT. Jack pack from BGT and the Beatles celebration who were excellent, best tribute band I have ever seen.
So overall it was a good holiday, good service, good food and reasonable entertainment with the outstanding acts above.
However I will say the ship is looking quite tired and in need of refurbishment, the chairs were threadbare, two of the chairs in the bar we were in had broken legs and were dangerous.
Our friend was in a wheel chair and the metals strips on the floor to the different parts of the ship were all different levels and the wheelchair could not get over them. So for people with disabilities it could be an issue.
In my opinion it was average and I think that RC need to up their game to carry on getting customers in the future.

Due to cruise canceled because of Covid. It has been not a pleasant experience dealing with customer service and supervisors in billing . I was suppose to receive c credit back from my cruise. It’s a very long story. But the short version is they credited back another card on the account which wasn’t mine. I had told them over and over to use the other card on the account. They all agreed, and was never told otherwise. With that being said the credit card company where the credit went to was willing to release the money back to Royal Caribbean, but they wouldn’t make the call. I lost my cruise credit and my money. I have been a few cruises with them in the past. You would think they would try to be more accommodating. I would never cruise with them again. Horrible customer service

If I could put negative stars I would. They are forcing people to get vaccinated to board the ship even if it’s for religious or medical reasons. I submitted a request due to religious reasons and it was denied. Fine. I then cancelled my trip because of this and they had said they would issue me a full refund. Here I am 3 months later with no refund. I am going to escalated this into a law suit. Everytime I try to contact them I am put on long holds or somehow I get transferred and then we get disconnected. I have tried several times to speak with a supervisor or manager and they cannot connect me. Don’t waste your time. Plan your own vacation and go to a resort or something. This company is extremely unprofessional and untrustworthy. Save yourself the headache. I would never recommend them to a family member or friend. I WILL NEVER use this company again for anything. It feels like a scam and they don’t care what happens once they get the money. Extremely disappointed in this and I will continue to tell everyone I know and meet not to even attempt to use Royal Caribbean for anything.

Let’s start with the boat, serenade of the seas; it’s a work of modern art. A little bit of everything, but very compact and dirty… really dirty. Old black hair ( more then one strand ) was found on the window sill of our stateroom… none of us have black hair. There was a smear of some sort of brown in between the bunk beds that drop from the ceiling. ( grease, or melted chocolate, hopefully not poop ) do better. Clean the rooms…

The food is nasty, the entire cruise. We could wait to get off the boat to eat a meal, real food. Do better, multi million dollar company.

The staff is awesome, in fact the only reason why this is getting two stars. The wait staff and the host were very accommodating to our family and our infant. Mr. Martin who was a host made our daughter smile every time we would pass him for food the windjammer.

The communication from RCC is miserable. I’ve sent several emails, asking a simple question and hours on the phone on hold and nobody will respond. You get so frustrated, nobody has 45 minutes to sit and wait on the phone. Reply to your emails.

We booked a boat to airport transfer in Vancouver so it’d be easier with our infant to swap to airport. Instead, we get through customs and wait an hour for the line to begin to move. Once the line moved we weren’t able to get on the bud because it was freaking full, we called an Uber. Thank goodness because we’d been standing there with our infant for another hour in a hot nasty room full of hundreds of people. I’d like a refund for this, since it was not used, and not nearly as described. Direct transfer my ass.

We were booked on the Royal Caribbean (RC) Odyssey of the Seas for a trip from Rome to the Greek Isles from 26 June - 04 July 2022. We were required to produce a negative Covid test taken no more than 48 hours prior to boarding. We were already in Italy and went to have the test in Florence and were very surprised that it came back positive. We had to submit this information online and, within seconds, received a terse 2-word response, "Boarding denied." As we now had no accommodation and having tried various means to contact RC and the ship, we had no choice but to fly back to South Africa. On return I completed the form on their website twice, 28 June and 01 July, but have yet to receive any more than the automated response saying that they had been received and that someone from RC would contact us, A week later and we are still waiting. We have received not a single message from RC except to ask if we are enjoying the cruise. They don't even seem to know that we never boarded the ship. Ph nos were either said to no longer exist or would simply cut off. Such shocking service from Royal Caribbean.

1. If you stay at a hotel prior to sailing do not book with Royal Caribbean. My boarding time was 11:30 am but the shuttle I paid for was not coming until 12 pm. I just paid for taxi out of pocket to go to the port terminal.
2. The emergency number for Air2Sea is no help. I was not able to board my departing flight because my husband got stuck in the TSA line for the 2nd time and they would not hold his seat. We arrived at MIA at 8am and checked in our bags so they knew we were there on time. They gave our seats to standby and that is why they would not allow us to board. We had to be on standby for the next flight 5 hours later. Air2Sea would not book another flight for us because AA put that we were late. I asked him if I could just pay for the flight and if they can reimburse me, he said no because AA put us as late arrival, which is a lie.
3. 5 MEMBERS OF OUR FAMILY CAUGHT COVD-19!!!. We were wearing masks and are all vaccinated and boosted. Royal Caribbean guests should be tested daily to avoid the spreading of the virus. It is their responsibility of keeping us safe and healthy.
4. There is no fan in the bathroom which causes mold to grow. In the small tiny shower, there is no air coming through and black mold was growing at the bottom of the door and wall. It is not the stateroom cleaners' fault although they clean daily they are not allowed enough time to thoroughly clean. There is no air in the bathroom and that is why mold grows.
This was my 1st time sailing with RC and although the crew was beyond friendly and courteous customer service is terrible!

I haven't even been on board yet, but already got a lot of hard times with Royal Caribbean Cruise line. From the beginning they held my money for two and half years due to the COVID19 pandemi until last week they told me that 7 NT Alaska Glacier Experience cruise was not a guaranteed ocean view order although I paid with price they asked for. From end of May till end of June, I have received at least 10 emails regarding the payment I didn't complete. I had to phone them many times to argue with them for the payment. Finally, they asked to add the tax and fee of C$ 536 and assigned an ocean view room to my friend and I. However, they told me the price of C$ 1119 each person is not a guaranteed ocean view price meaning we will be degraded to lower class room. I am wondering if Royal Caribbean Cruise Line is a world class company since they behave dishonestly to, and bully their customers.

We recently took a cruise with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines on the Liberty of the Seas out of Galveston, TX. This was our second cruise with Royal Caribbean. The first was pre-covid out of Fort Lauderdale on the Oasis of the Seas and we really enjoyed it, enough to book again. Normally I do not write reviews, however based on the poor experience we had on Liberty of the Seas, I feel it is necessary to share so that others can be informed and can decide if they should choose Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and this ship.

Room-We upgraded to a balcony ocean view room, cabin 8266. It was decent size with a small bathroom and had average amenities. About what can you expect on a ship for most room types. Balcony was nice for getting some fresh air and watching the scenery go by. Where things went sideways was that we had a major issue with the toilet. The toilet leaked leaving a pool of water on the bathroom floor as well as a urine smell, pretty disgusting. For 4 days of the 7 day cruise we woke up by stepping into gross toilet water and the stench of urine each morning. It took the maintenance team 4 days to finally fix it. Once finally fixed I spoke with guest services hoping to get a partial refund for the hassle. Their initial offer was a 10% discount on a future cruise, my response “No thanks, we probably will not be cruising again.” Their alternative offer was a $100 onboard ship credit. I felt this was a very poor response for the unsanitary conditions of the room. However, there was no negotiation. I would avoid this cabin.

Food-Here they fell very short of the mark as well. Food was of low/poor quality. I should have taken some pictures to show the detail. We tried the Main Dining room, the Windjammer buffet, Johnny Rockets, room service and Sorrento’s Pizza. In my opinion, the best food was found at the buffet and the pizza place. With that being said, the primary reason is that I had very low expectations for the buffet and the pizza. The opposite is true for the main dining room. They expect you to dress formal most nights and then serve you substandard food. Overcooked meats and very small portions. Although the desserts were okay. You will find much better food at Applebee’s and not have to wear slacks and a sport coat. Where they also went sideways with dining in the main dining room was hair in the food. On 2 occasions I happened to catch it before I ate it. Who knows if I sadly missed any, pretty gross. After the second hair encounter, we no longer dined in the main dining restaurant. Room service is also very underwhelming. We ordered The Royal Burger, supposedly 8 ounces of waygu beef. Patty looked smaller than the meat on a McDonalds hamburger and was so over cooked you could use it as a coaster and came with like 10 french fry’s. Maybe it is just this ship; however if you are expecting good food on your cruise I would avoid Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines especially Liberty of the Seas.

Activities/Entertainment-Here the Liberty of the Seas did well. Outside, the water slides, rock wall and flowrider were fun. Plenty of bars for drinks. Only issue was that the pools were pretty small and crowded and the hot tubs closed early in the adult area. Inside, the entertainment was plentiful, good quality and enjoyable.

Crew-Another highlight was the service crew, everyone was kind and helpful. Always smiling and saying hello.

So overall, based the high cost of travel these days, the quality of the food and poor room experience, I would avoid Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and the Liberty of the Seas. Spend your hard earned money where you can truly have a top notch experience.