What's going on with Royal Caribbean?

[Morecruisesplz]

On 1/26/2023 at 6:25 AM, CFLRetired said:

While my recent 8 day Jewel cruise was not as good as previous cruises I've come to realize it's not Royal, it's just common place.  As a whole most industries are not as good as they once were.  Where I live it's rare and surprising for someone or someplace to be above average.  The days of going above and beyond are far between.  Even people doing what they say is less common.  Something as simple as being on time, not so much.  Society has a new standard for par, and it's sub par in my opinion compared to what it used to be.  So at least Royal is trying and changing hopefully for what it once was? 

No, it's Royal. 

[Tatka]

We enjoyed our January cruise on Anthem. Good as always.

[time4u2go]

24 minutes ago, Morecruisesplz said:

No, it's Royal. 

Lol so true.

[Pellaz]

I was disappointed with my cruise on the Freedom last week, but first, a caveat:  it is a charter cruise and it's pretty obvious that Royal up-priced many things on us, and expended less effort on others.   

 

• For the first time in 20 cruises, 9 on Royal and 11 on Carnival, I did not tip my stateroom attendant...because I didn't even see him until the third day.  I've never had that happen before on any cruise.  
• My SeaPass card was not in the "inbox" on embark day, but my two roommates' cards were.  They brought a new card to me in the room, but it took 30 minutes and of course, I couldn't leave.  No idea if my original card was stolen or just overlooked, but that also has never happened before.  I was hoping that when a person buys a drink or something, their photo pops up on the display to foil card thieves.  Does anyone know if it does?  
• MDR service was lackluster.  Granted, this was a charter cruise with open seating on the first level (only) of the MDR, but it didn't seem like the staff really wanted to be there.  The menu was limited, too:  I went on "Caribbean Night" and I ended up getting the standard steak item because I'm not a fan of jerk spiciness.  Nothing for us diabetics on the dessert menu either, except a cheese plate.  No fruit plate offered.  
• The shore-excursion process was an absolute cluster.  All excursions had to gather in the main theater, get assigned a sticker with a number on it, sit in the assigned numbered area, wait for a while....   Keep in mind that the ship had already been docked and cleared.  Then we were led out onto the dock and to the usual gathering spot right past the duty-free shop.   This process took 45 minutes...when they could have simply had us go to the gathering spot onshore and look for the tour operators' signs.  This extra wasted time cost us the "beach break" portion of our snorkeling excursion -- as the tour operator was careful to point out.  
• There WERE a few bright spots:  service in Chops Grill was exemplary, the little sandwiches in the Promenade Café were much improved from last year, and the Windjammer options were also a bit better.  

 

 

Edited February 5 by Pellaz
proofreading

[SRF]

I have no trouble with the smaller portions.  If I want more, I ask and they serve it.

 

I think the food quality is about the same (first cruise was 2014).  Pretty good, sometimes great, sometimes just OK.  I do sometimes have an issue with what they call a dish versus was it served.  Like last cruise "tortilla soup" what was slightly spicy tomato soup with some crumbled up corn chips.  NOPE.

As for drink prices, they are up in restaurants on land.  As are food prices.  It is difficult to go out to dinner for 2 with one drink each for under $100.  Breakfast, with no alcoholic drinks or even juice, is $30+ for 2.

 

Try to get a hotel room for less than $100 a night these days, even under $200 in some areas.

Cruising is cheap compared.

[mrsd2fan]

On 1/10/2023 at 8:29 PM, ksuyen said:

Is it only me or Royal Caribbean cruises are going downhill? Or is this the trend for other lines as well? Entertainers are lacking, and the reason as quoted by the Director, not enough people willing to work on cruise post pandemic. Food quality is going downhill. Drinks are more expansive. And the big one: Customer Service is either bad or non existence.

 

I have upcoming cruise in 2 weeks, and frankly I am quite worried.

Just got off Symphony yesterday...food was ALOT better then the cruise we took in April on Freedom.

Drinks aren't really that expensive

Customer Service was great!

[Pratique]

The shine is off for us too. One more cruise booked with them and that might be it. We'll see how it goes.

[deliver42]

I'm Diamond, but sail on other lines too. Except for some cruise prices, i haven't seen a drastic negative change on Royal. 

[artvlay]

We are upper tier D+ so we have been on quite a lot of RC cruises. We are also stockholders .

We definitely see a decrease in everything on the Royal cruises including food quality & variety, entertainment quality, and quantity of staff onboard.

On our Jewel cruise a few months ago we decided to look at other cruises out of the NYC market. We booked a January cruise on Carnival Venezia and just got back.

The food quality was better in the MDR for both breakfast and dinner. The food in the buffet for breakfast was horrible. For lunch it was about the same as Windjammer except it had a deli in the buffet that was good. The baked goods in the Carnival buffet were light-years over Royal's gelatinous desserts. The Carnival buffet desserts were bakery quality and Royals is school cafeterias.

A huge advantage to Carnival was their free stand along food operations outside the buffet. A pizza stand made excellent personal pizzas, on sea days the seafood restaurant serves good Chinese food for lunch. There is a Mexican operation that also serves Italian sandwiches and finally a Guy Fieri's Burgers that served some of the best burgers I've ever eaten.

The design of the Carnival Venezia was horrible and nowhere nearly as functional as Royal's ships but the food was much better.

So when deciding on cruises I will now consider Carnival whereas I rarely have gone on them.

[Coralc]

We were on Serenade for 2 weeks in March. It wasn't bad, just kind of mediocre. Room Steward was great and fun. Long time employee. Pool deck bar service was bad the first day but improved over time. As always, had fun and met nice people. 

It was by no means a bad cruise, but I'm just not sure we are willing to pay high prices for a so-so experience. 

 

[grandgeezer]

24 minutes ago, Coralc said:

We were on Serenade for 2 weeks in March. It wasn't bad, just kind of mediocre. Room Steward was great and fun. Long time employee. Pool deck bar service was bad the first day but improved over time. As always, had fun and met nice people. 

It was by no means a bad cruise, but I'm just not sure we are willing to pay high prices for a so-so experience. 

 

We came to that conclusion even before the shutdown, and no regrets.

[Mark122]

Agree RCL has completely lost its touch and appeal.  On Oasis of the Sea now and multiple people commented on how bad it’s gotten.  We are debating finding another cruise line or just giving up cruising all together.  So many better ways to spend vacation dollars than the disaster RCL has become!  If you are considering a Royal Caribbean cruise, don’t waste your time or money.

[Tree_skier]

6 minutes ago, Mark122 said:

Agree RCL has completely lost its touch and appeal.  On Oasis of the Sea now and multiple people commented on how bad it’s gotten.  We are debating finding another cruise line or just giving up cruising all together.  So many better ways to spend vacation dollars than the disaster RCL has become!  If you are considering a Royal Caribbean cruise, don’t waste your time or money.

Welcome to Cruise Critic, thank you for digging up this valuable, over one year old, thread.  Royal Caribbean will certainly be sorry to see you go 🙂 

Edited February 27 by Tree_skier

[Engineroom Snipe]

7 minutes ago, Mark122 said:

Agree RCL has completely lost its touch and appeal.  On Oasis of the Sea now and multiple people commented on how bad it’s gotten.  We are debating finding another cruise line or just giving up cruising all together.  So many better ways to spend vacation dollars than the disaster RCL has become!  If you are considering a Royal Caribbean cruise, don’t waste your time or money.

 

I have to tend to agree with @Tree_skier, for your first post, it was COMPLETELY negative.

 

Where there any positives at all?

 

Maybe just one?

 

Throw us a bone here.

 

 

[tserface]

On 1/10/2023 at 5:29 PM, ksuyen said:

Is it only me or Royal Caribbean cruises are going downhill? Or is this the trend for other lines as well? Entertainers are lacking, and the reason as quoted by the Director, not enough people willing to work on cruise post pandemic. Food quality is going downhill. Drinks are more expansive. And the big one: Customer Service is either bad or non existence.

 

I have upcoming cruise in 2 weeks, and frankly I am quite worried.

I think the prices are going up and the level of service (like only making up room once and higher gratuity) is going down.  There are also fewer food choices except, maybe, on the mega ships like the new Icon, but you pay a premium to go on those ships.  Drinks and drink package prices are also skyrocketing.  That said, for family cruises, Royal is still a good value.  Just not as good as before.

[Engineroom Snipe]

1 minute ago, tserface said:

I think the prices are going up and the level of service (like only making up room once and higher gratuity) is going down.  There are also fewer food choices except, maybe, on the mega ships like the new Icon, but you pay a premium to go on those ships.  Drinks and drink package prices are also skyrocketing.  That said, for family cruises, Royal is still a good value.  Just not as good as before.

At least you gave us some examples of your reasoning. We can appreciate that.

[Mark122]

Ok so some positives.  Checkin and boarding for suite guests is great!  Room steward top notch!

 

Specific negatives, compared to Previous RCL CRUISES:

 

Food quality down in some instances significantly.

MyTime dining process nothing shy of a cluster

2 of 3 cabins started off with busted AC

Casino staff out right rude

Guest services mediocre at best.  I guess that can be a positive since it’s at least mediocre.  
 

sorry first post was so negative but this was one of the first sites on google when trying to figure out when this all went down hill.  

[artvlay]

We have 87 cruises under our belts. Probably 45 are Royal, 25 Celebrity and the rest spread out among other companies. 

In the last six years we only took Royal and Celebrity but that is changing. We agree with others posting on this thread that RC is going down hill and getting much higher in price. 

This year we have five cruises booked and only two on Royal. Last month we went on Carnival Venezia. We like the Royal ships layout much better but the Food on Carnival was much better in both selection and quality.

We are going on Princess and Cunard later this year and hopefully they will fill in the gap of the lapses of Royal.

[Ocean Boy]

11 hours ago, Mark122 said:

Agree RCL has completely lost its touch and appeal.  On Oasis of the Sea now and multiple people commented on how bad it’s gotten.  We are debating finding another cruise line or just giving up cruising all together.  So many better ways to spend vacation dollars than the disaster RCL has become!  If you are considering a Royal Caribbean cruise, don’t waste your time or money.

Sorry that Oasis has so many issues. I was on Odyssey 3 weeks ago and really had a very nice cruise. I'm not a fan of RCI's pricing lately but the product still meets my needs. Of course, I understand that everyone's needs and wants are not the same as mine.

[Ocean Boy]

11 hours ago, tserface said:

I think the prices are going up and the level of service (like only making up room once and higher gratuity) is going down.  

I agree that we are paying more for less service and I am not happy about that. I did, however to my surprise, find that I prefer once a day cabin service. I didn't feel rushed to get cleaned up for the evening and then get out of the cabin so the steward could get his job done. I could take sone time to relax on the balcony with a glass of wine before heading out for the evening. And since I am an early riser, the steward started with my cabin in the morning and was done before I had any need to return.

[TeeRick]

There are negative threads like this for every cruise line here on CC.  If everything is this bad, why are there record bookings announced for the RCG cruise lines like RCCL and Celebrity?  and other cruise lines too?  Must be something right going on.  People are focused on prices vs a few years ago.  Hyper-Inflation kicked all of us in the butt in every area of our lives.  Including vacations.  

 

Anyway- just recently back from a cruise on Symphony.  It was honestly wonderful.

[Ocean Boy]

18 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

There are negative threads like this for every cruise line here on CC.  If everything is this bad, why are there record bookings announced for the RCG cruise lines like RCCL and Celebrity?  and other cruise lines too?  

Must be all those first time cruisers who haven't figured out yet how much cruising sucks.😉😀

[BecciBoo]

15 hours ago, Mark122 said:

 If you are considering a Royal Caribbean cruise, don’t waste your time or money.

Glad this is just YOUR opinion,  Haven't had a bad cruise yet, but I guess that depends on your outlook on life.

[BecciBoo]

Years ago we spread our RCCL wings on a Carni Ecstacy cruise which was glaringly horrid, filthy ship, terrible service and swore off them for good.  That's never happened on Royal.  But we just booked a Voyager B2B with Carnival Jubilee in a couple weeks and I'm honestly excited about giving them another try.  This newest ship is eerily similar to Icon.  Luckily I'm not a very picky cruiser, just happy to be at sea again.

[time4u2go]

16 hours ago, Mark122 said:

Agree RCL has completely lost its touch and appeal.  On Oasis of the Sea now and multiple people commented on how bad it’s gotten.  We are debating finding another cruise line or just giving up cruising all together.  So many better ways to spend vacation dollars than the disaster RCL has become!  If you are considering a Royal Caribbean cruise, don’t waste your time or money.

That's pretty much how I see it as well.