Cruise review- first time on Royal Caribbean

juju12345

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
I just got back from my first Royal cruise. I did the 3nt Navigator of the Seas out of Miami. Previously I’ve sailed Celebrity (once) and Disney (five times).

Stateroom- we had a balcony room 7234. It seemed clean enough but there was trash under the bed from previous guest so I don’t know how detailed they cleaned it. We never met our stateroom attendant. On Disney they always make a point to introduce themselves but this guy just left a card with his name on it in the room. The room did not have enough places to charge things- I’m used to USB chargers by the bed but this room only had 2 plugs by the desk and that was it. The sheets had some weird moldy smell to them. I would’ve tracked down housekeeping but on 3nt cruise I just didn’t have time to complain.

Food- we did the main dining room on first 2 nights but food was just okay and the service was very slow. We were eating quickly and dinner was taking about 2 hours. The 3rd night we just did the buffet which was way better. I would do the buffet every night next time. The breakfast buffet was great. The only other food I tried was the pool Mexican restaurant and it was awesome. The bar by the pool was good too.

Employees- mostly great but I wasn’t prepared for a hard sell on everything. We weren’t going to get the drink package but as soon as we stepped on the ship we got talked into it- I’m talking timeshare level hard sell. Also the employee kinda lied about how much drinks onboard would be so our calculations were off - she said beer would run $10 and cocktails $14. In reality most beer was $6-7 and cocktails $8-11- the most expensive I saw was $13. It was buy one get one half off so we probably broke even but we were drinking more than we would have just bc we had the package. I felt like everyone had the package so lines at bars were sometimes so long I just would leave- the bar at Coco Cay I waited almost 30 minutes. Also we were approached the first day least 5 times by people trying to get us to book speciality dining- it was almost comical bc one would leave us and someone else would appear trying to sell it to us.

Port- booked the luxury yacht in Nassau and it was great- met at pier at 8:30am and got tour of marina area and had great snorkeling followed by delicious lunch and all you can drink. Back at 11:30. Then we walked around Nassau a bit.
Coco Cay was beautiful. We didn’t go to water park or any extra charge things. We just got chairs at Chill Beach (got there an hour after ship arrived and there were still lots of chairs with umbrellas). Lines at bar were crazy (there was another ship there at same time) so I learned it’s quicker to wait for waiters to come around and bring drinks. The food was delicious - taco bar, hot dogs, hamburgers, ice cream etc.

I didn’t have a chance to even get in the pools but they looked fun and they had huge hot tub that looked nice. I did one slide but had to wait in line 30min so only did it once.
Got my hair done at the Dry Bar- blowout was $59 and I felt worth it. The casino was a lot of fun but couldn’t stay too long bc my eyes were burning from the smoke. The magician Bill Cook was awesome and so was the cruise director Marcello.

Overall it was a very fun weekend getaway- I don’t know how much I can judge Royal as a whole bc I understand the 3nt is more of a party cruise so it might be different on longer one.
 
Thanks for this review. Yeah, I was not fond of the smoking in the casino on our recent Carnival ship, and that was a 7 night one. Have not been on a RC ship in almost 30 years, but will next year, as we booked the Harmony for 7 nights. I do agree, the shorter the trip, the more party atmosphere is found. Mostly because they tend to be the cheapest cruises.
 
I had a very different experience on a 7 night on the Allure. Tons of interaction with our stateroom attendants for both my room and my kids room. And not one person trying to sell us a drink package. (My husband had one, I didn't. My name was attached to the kids room.) We also never had lines at bars, minus in the theater right before Mama Mia. We found the only cocktail that was reasonably priced was the drink of the day, so I would get the drink package (on sale) next time. Also for fresh juice at the gym/spa and good coffee.

Glad you still had fun! The 3 night is probably a lot different. People more rushed trying to jam everything in. That was how my first Disney cruise felt.
 
With regards to USB ports, I've only noticed them on Harmony. Allure still has a docking station for iPhone 4 and below. Having learned my lesson, I usually bring a 4 port charging hub and loooong lightning cables.

count me in as someone who isn't a fan of the new menus. The food is fine, but I'm not on the ship for "fine", y'know?

not sure what you can do about the upsells. I must have"the look" of a person who won't be upsold or something. I hope that never changes.

sucks to hear that Navigator's casino ventilation sucks. Independence didn't filter away all the smoke from the non smoking tables, but it was always good enough to prevent me from smelling like an ashtray after 30 minutes. About as much as one can hope for,I think.
 


I found that my cruise (also 3 nights) on Navigator had a very different experience with the stateroom attendant than the other 4 Royal Caribbean Cruises I’ve been on (all 7-8 nights). On the longer cruises we always got to know our attendant, he or she always sought us out to do introductions and addressed us by name. On the 3 night one we barely saw him, and never even knew his name.
I’m going on a 4 night cruise on Mariner in April and I’m curious to see which way it goes. I’m thinking on the shorter cruises the attendants have so much to do with turning over the boat so frequently they don’t have as much time to get to know the guests and interact with them.
 
I also just wanted to add— hands down Royal beat Disney with embarkation and debarkation. I could not believe how easy it was on Royal! Really seamless process.
 
I found that my cruise (also 3 nights) on Navigator had a very different experience with the stateroom attendant than the other 4 Royal Caribbean Cruises I’ve been on (all 7-8 nights). On the longer cruises we always got to know our attendant, he or she always sought us out to do introductions and addressed us by name. On the 3 night one we barely saw him, and never even knew his name.
I’m going on a 4 night cruise on Mariner in April and I’m curious to see which way it goes. I’m thinking on the shorter cruises the attendants have so much to do with turning over the boat so frequently they don’t have as much time to get to know the guests and interact with them.

Got off of a Mariner 4 night'r last Friday and pretty much flawless other than weather and still booked another 4 night'r same time next year. Cabin attendant was GREAT, dining staff were GREAT, crew in general were GREAT, food was GREAT, but then DW and I are LOW MAINTENANCE so never really stress out about little things that go wrong since "THAT'S LIFE."
 


Got off of a Mariner 4 night'r last Friday and pretty much flawless other than weather and still booked another 4 night'r same time next year. Cabin attendant was GREAT, dining staff were GREAT, crew in general were GREAT, food was GREAT, but then DW and I are LOW MAINTENANCE so never really stress out about little things that go wrong since "THAT'S LIFE."
Trust me, I'm not complaining about the cabin steward. He was great and all our needs were met. It was just a different experience from all the other cruises where they were always chatting us up and always seemed to be around.
 
I just got back from my first Royal cruise. I did the 3nt Navigator of the Seas out of Miami. Previously I’ve sailed Celebrity (once) and Disney (five times).

Stateroom- we had a balcony room 7234. It seemed clean enough but there was trash under the bed from previous guest so I don’t know how detailed they cleaned it. We never met our stateroom attendant. On Disney they always make a point to introduce themselves but this guy just left a card with his name on it in the room. The room did not have enough places to charge things- I’m used to USB chargers by the bed but this room only had 2 plugs by the desk and that was it. The sheets had some weird moldy smell to them. I would’ve tracked down housekeeping but on 3nt cruise I just didn’t have time to complain.

Food- we did the main dining room on first 2 nights but food was just okay and the service was very slow. We were eating quickly and dinner was taking about 2 hours. The 3rd night we just did the buffet which was way better. I would do the buffet every night next time. The breakfast buffet was great. The only other food I tried was the pool Mexican restaurant and it was awesome. The bar by the pool was good too.

Employees- mostly great but I wasn’t prepared for a hard sell on everything. We weren’t going to get the drink package but as soon as we stepped on the ship we got talked into it- I’m talking timeshare level hard sell. Also the employee kinda lied about how much drinks onboard would be so our calculations were off - she said beer would run $10 and cocktails $14. In reality most beer was $6-7 and cocktails $8-11- the most expensive I saw was $13. It was buy one get one half off so we probably broke even but we were drinking more than we would have just bc we had the package. I felt like everyone had the package so lines at bars were sometimes so long I just would leave- the bar at Coco Cay I waited almost 30 minutes. Also we were approached the first day least 5 times by people trying to get us to book speciality dining- it was almost comical bc one would leave us and someone else would appear trying to sell it to us.

Port- booked the luxury yacht in Nassau and it was great- met at pier at 8:30am and got tour of marina area and had great snorkeling followed by delicious lunch and all you can drink. Back at 11:30. Then we walked around Nassau a bit.
Coco Cay was beautiful. We didn’t go to water park or any extra charge things. We just got chairs at Chill Beach (got there an hour after ship arrived and there were still lots of chairs with umbrellas). Lines at bar were crazy (there was another ship there at same time) so I learned it’s quicker to wait for waiters to come around and bring drinks. The food was delicious - taco bar, hot dogs, hamburgers, ice cream etc.

I didn’t have a chance to even get in the pools but they looked fun and they had huge hot tub that looked nice. I did one slide but had to wait in line 30min so only did it once.
Got my hair done at the Dry Bar- blowout was $59 and I felt worth it. The casino was a lot of fun but couldn’t stay too long bc my eyes were burning from the smoke. The magician Bill Cook was awesome and so was the cruise director Marcello.

Overall it was a very fun weekend getaway- I don’t know how much I can judge Royal as a whole bc I understand the 3nt is more of a party cruise so it might be different on longer one.
Would you sail RCCL again or stick with DCL?

I have been on the Navigator twice (7 night cruises) and it is past due for a little TLC. I have been on the Allure once, booked again for next year so I am anxious to see what it looks like after its dry dock refurb.
 
Navigator just got amped in 2018, so I doubt any new changes are coming in the next couple of years.
 
Would you sail RCCL again or stick with DCL?

I have been on the Navigator twice (7 night cruises) and it is past due for a little TLC. I have been on the Allure once, booked again for next year so I am anxious to see what it looks like after its dry dock refurb.
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I’ll stick with Disney for Bahamas / Caribbean cruises in off season but I am looking Into doing Royal in a few years for an Alaska cruise bc Disney’s Alaska prices are way too high for me.
And I saw that some Royal ships have kids clubs age 6-12 together so my kids being together in the club like Disney is a definite plus for us.
 
We did a 12 day Royal cruise in the Mediterranean. Interaction with staff was wonderful and our cabin steward became our "new best friend". I will say we preferred the buffet over main room dining and the shows were not Disney level. We booked specialty dining prior to the cruise and turned down any drink packages. Passed through the casino a couple of times, but did not spend any time there. Had a good time overall and way less than Disney would have charged for a 7 day Caribbean cruise.
 

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