Royal Caribbean Cruises 

Royal Caribbean issued me a credit for a cruise I had to cancel. I was told originally that they would refund the money I had paid toward the cruise but that was a lie. Weeks went by and no refund. Finally about 4 weeks later I was issued a refund without my $500 deposit that Royal Caribbean was keeping. I argued until finally they issued a credit. A credit that I have not been able to apply on any cruise. Now its a year later and they will not extend the expiration date that I will lose my deposit. They have given me the run around for almost a year and just want to keep my $500 deposit. Shame on you! I will never travel on Royal Caribbean. Beware! Liars and thieves! I have been on the phone with them for hours and hours. Such a waste of time!

I honestly want to give less than a star. Because I'm highly dissatisfied. This is my first time ever cruising with Royal. I was really excited to book this cruise, having heard that it is one of the better cruise lines. However, upon booking my cruise and making my payments, they changed the entire itinerary of the trip, removing two islands, I specifically wanted to go to without compensation. To change or cancel the cruise, I would have to pay an additional amount. I was told that they have the right to change the itinerary at any point in time. I am highly dissatisfied, I will never cruise with Royal again. I was going to spend a thousand dollars on excursions with them, which I won't be doing.

DO NOT RECOMMEND ROYAL CARIBBEAN

Let me be clear before the defenders pile on. I understand medical emergencies happen and the guest’s health should always come first. That is not the issue.

The issue is Royal Caribbean’s complete lack of contingency planning and accountability.

Because of a medical emergency, our ship turned around, returned to Miami, and sat docked for roughly 8 hours, impacting more than 4,000 passengers. After that, Royal Caribbean downgraded our itinerary by canceling Grand Cayman, the primary reason majority of us booked this cruise, and replaced it with Freeport, Bahamas, after we had already been to Nassau earlier in the trip.

If the situation allowed for an 8 hour return to Miami, it is fair to ask why no alternative medical evacuation options were pursued earlier, or why the entire ship had to absorb the consequences of poor decision-making. Helicopters, intercept vessels, coordination with authorities, something. Royal Caribbean is a multibillion dollar company, not a mom and pop cruise line.

What really sealed this as unacceptable was the response afterward. No ownership. No meaningful compensation. Just a canned “sorry, this is out of our control.” That excuse doesn’t fly when customers paid for a specific itinerary and that itinerary was materially changed.

Emergencies are unpredictable. Planning for them is literally Royal Caribbean’s job.

This was my first and last Royal Caribbean cruise.

If Grand Cayman matters to you, or if you expect transparency and accountability when things go wrong, think twice before booking with Royal Caribbean.

I've been on more than 20 cruises in my life. I'd say about 3/4 of them were with Carnival. Carnival is usually a little cheaper, but Royal Caribbean has some incredible giant ships that are different than Carnival. I can tell you one thing about Royal Caribbean, if you get sick on their cruise and it's due to their food, they'll give you one free trip to the clinic with some medication. If you need any more medical assistance after that during your cruise, they will charge you a fortune. They did that to my girlfriend who got food poisoning from a sunny side egg in the morning. Of course they didn't want to admit that it was from their food, but it happened about three hours after she ate and she did not eat anything anywhere else when the symptoms started. She had to get intravenous antibiotics every six hours for three days. They wound up charging my account over $2200 for this service. The doctor in the clinic said my girlfriend would've died if they didn't give her this intravenous antibiotic. One of the nurses felt bad and she went against the regulations and removed about $1000 in charges, but left a balance of about 1200.
My girlfriend's Humana insurance would not pay the claim because they claimed it was not a hospital emergency room. When you are in the middle of the ocean, that is an emergency room by all means.
My girlfriend had to sue her Humana and they wound up paying the claim to settle it. But I thought Royal Caribbean was really bad not paying that medical service considering the doctor knew it was their food that did it.

I was in this Mariner of Sea by Caribbean for 4 days and that was my first cruise, the first night in my room I couldn't sleep because it was something biting my body in the bed, my skin start etching and become all red, I had to call in the middle of the night and ask to check the bed from Bed Bugs, they had to replace everything in the bed and I was sitting and shaking from cold for 2 hours when they are doing their process to look for the bed bugs and changing the sheets, when I did asked to be compensated for having a nightmare on my vacation, supervisor on charge told me that they don't compensate people, Note: I also saw one roach caroling by the wood cabinet, I believe I didn't pay all that money to have that bad experience and I do deserve to be compensated. My 2 stars are for the staff because they were very nice and helpful.

Hidden fees, we were charged 20% not optional after we had a massage. We were told on boarding there is no expected gratuity on an Australia cruise.
I didn't mind paying tips when they are deserved but to be told it's not negotiate and wasn't on the promotional material.

I have to tell you that I was very embarrassed.My last three night cruise.I am a diamond club member.And I told my girlfriend how we will get chocolate covered fruit chocolate covered strawberries.And we never did.Can you please tell me why we never did?And I was embarrassed

This was the first time I have been on Royal Caribbean cruise, I was on the odyssey of the seas. The ship and staff were great. My issue is with the food options, first the high cost of the fare there needs to be more or better food options. This line seems to provide multiple stations for dessert, vegetarian, deli ,while the food choices are limited and seems recycled. A pasta section, hamburger and hot dog station really. The food stations are strategic to appear like there are more options but not the case. The breakfast and lunch are similar with the breads, desserts with rhe exception of swapping out breakfast for some lunch items. I was really disappointed. There are more food options choices at the speciality restaurants you have to pay extra for.

So I absolutely love royal caribbean and there ships .however I will advise never to book a group. Keep your reservation individually unless its for a large company but if your a family or have even 12 rooms or less keep it as individual. Ok why am I saying this so I had booked 10 rooms for my family cruise . I was able to make 2 different log in for royal on there app and I was able to link them so at first I was able to link all of them on one but something happened after one of my family members wanted to move there room so after that I was not able to link it but I just used another email and linked the 3 rooms that it effected and was able to still do what I needed. So before you make your individual rooms into a group your able to see the ballance of each room if u need to switch people from room to room you can as long as the primary guest remains the same . Your able to have much more freedom without putting your reservation into a group. I found the group to be more problematic as even the breakdown on the invoice they send you much more confusing and if you dont pay attention you will pay more or something is not correct. I have to call everytime I need to do anything and sometimes the wait is crazy and it takes about 30 to an hour each request u might have. Another issue I had was after my group was created and again I regret it. Is that I called to give the crown and anchor number to certain members in my group and somehow the rates of the room ended up going up . I was told that this was fixed but as I noticed the following day 2 of the rooms lost the deposit that was in the rooms and back to like not having a deposit so it was the full price again. And once again having to call for them to fix there mistake of not finishing the problem in the first place was another hour on the phone waiting for someone to again fix the issue . So this is the biggest problem and I would never say its worth the agervation even if u got the tour conductor credit. If time is money you will find it not worth the added stress and additional forced communication

Allure January 3 3026
Warning: if you carry and depend on injectable medication that requires refrigeration beware.
The staff provided me with a portable refrigerator because the one in the room isn’t cool enough. While I was out of the room, they took my insulin out of the room cooler and put it into the one they brought in. Problem was, they did not turn the switch on the unit from hot to cold. They essentially fried my insulin. It took 3 days to recover my medication at the islands. They also tried to charge me for a trip hospital visit unsuccessfully. Could have ended up badly so be careful. They shouldn’t have touched my medicine without my knowledge.
Update:they denied the incident happened until I provided them with documentation. All reports were in their system.

We booked a Royal Caribbean family cruise for March 2026 well in advance. Despite this, our cruise was later cancelled because Royal Caribbean provided incorrect information about infant age requirements.

What followed was very poor customer service. Communication was slow, call backs didn’t happen, and our clear request to move to an alternative sailing was dismissed unless we paid significantly more, even though the problem was caused by Royal Caribbean’s own error.

The booking was ultimately cancelled and refunded without our notification, leaving us without a holiday and no realistic alternatives at short notice.

Booking early offered no protection. Based on our experience, this is not a company you can trust!

Lovely cruise around the Greek islands. The boat was lots of fun and very well presented.

Boarding was easy and quick. The staff couldn't do enough for us. The guys in the schooner bar were particularly awesome.

Down side the formal night was a bit of a miss. You could be in a nice suit in the main dining room sat next to a guy in shorts and flip flops. That kinda ruins the experience a little.

Apart from that we were very happy.

Horrible and scary experience with this cruise!!
We took a cruise Symphony of the Seas for new years, 2025. Our toddler became sick in the middle of the cruise and so we went for medical help to the 'clinic' within the cruise. The doctor there could not have been more incompetent - he wanted to inject our son with various things including steroids which our son DID NOT need (we were speaking with our own pediatrician back in the USA while at the clinic and he urged us not to give him steroids and other medication that the cruise doctor recommended (very condescendingly by the way)). We ended up leaving the cruise the next day to get help in Jamaica and that turned out to be a nightmare as well but our son finally did get what he needed to get better so the decision to leave the boat was a good one.

Parents of kids out there, know that cruises are NOT safe for children, particularly small ones, and in this case this particular cruise was not equipped to handle urgent medical situations as proved by the doctor. It was coincidence that we had a stop in Jamaica that day. Imagine being stranded at sea in that situation?

There is a reason the employees of the cruise have to sing songs in every buffet so that you will stop to wash your hands before going in. This is because no matter what they do to make people be clean, cramming 6,000 people in a boat and expecting viruses, bacteria, and all sorts of things not to spread is ridiculous.

Think twice about going into a cruise as it was one of the scariest experience for us. Safe to say I will not take a cruise ever again.

Hope this review will help you make a wise decision.

My 10th cruise love it!

We attended the Chef’s Table on our first night onboard, with dinner starting at 8:30 PM and not finishing until nearly 1:00 AM, which was far longer than expected and exhausting.
Unfortunately, the experience did not live up to the premium price. The wine pairings were switched from what was listed on the menu to what appeared to be inexpensive, grocery-store level wines, with no explanation or acknowledgment. For a Chef’s Table experience, this was extremely disappointing.
The five courses reused the same accoutrements repeatedly, making the meal feel repetitive and uninspired rather than thoughtfully curated. Ironically, we found the food in the main dining room throughout the rest of the cruise to be consistently better in both quality and presentation.
Given the time commitment, cost, and expectations set by Royal Caribbean, the Chef’s Table was a waste of both time and money. Starting our cruise with this experience left a bad taste that carried through the rest of the sailing.
We would not recommend Chef’s Table on Allure of the Seas and would advise guests to save their money for other dining options onboard.

You couldn’t pay me to board a Royal Caribbean cruise. It’s become painfully clear that safety is not a priority for them. Time and time again, decisions show that profit comes before people. When a company is willing to cut corners and downplay risks at the expense of human life, that’s not a vacation — that’s a liability. No destination, discount, or luxury experience is worth gambling with safety.

We went on 4 different cruises on 4 different ships . The one thing I've learned is don't tip , I've tried on the very first one to tip everyone and it doesn't matter, you don't get any better service. Infact it took 4 hours for the cabin stuart to unlock the balcony door, the sheets had holes in them the waitress at dinner keep telling us how poor she was and contradicting us at every turn , and stop tipping for drinks , you aren't made of cash so save it , remember your trip is all inclusive and you already paid for everything! NO MATTER What OtherS TELL YOU. This tipping culture has gotten out of hand ! So save your money . The smaller the ship the bigger the cabin . Because on the small ships the "entertainment" goes on the same level as 7-11 drunks and midnight. Get a drink package because you'll needed ! And please DON'T go and see "Cats" it's a 4 hour nightmare and you will be dreaming about "Jericho cat" and will end up with PTSD from it ! On bigger ships there is more leeway because you will be walking a lot , to destinations .
The elevators break a lot, the older the ship the less it's maintained so you have to watch out for that .
AND PLEASE WASH YOUR HANDS ON WINDJAMMER!!!!! It's for everyone's safety !

We did 22 cruises with RCI. During this cruise we were assaulted by a very aggressive man. The man hit me in the back and assaulted and intimidating me. I ask for security. But the way security handless this was poor and disappointing. Because we didn't feel save with this man on the ship. We stayed the last two days in our cabin. And the aggressive man could enjoy his vacation. We are Diamond Plus members and now say goodbye to RCI.

I cruised on the Liberty Of The Seas. It was quite hideous! Within the first 15 minutes I entered Windjammer, I’ve never experienced anything like it. The only option for healthy food options were dried out chicken breast and unripe melon and pineapple. I sat down and one of the other guests on the table next to me started screaming and swearing on her phone. A foul mouthed rant completely ignored by the staff on the ship. This was one of my main concerns on the trip. The staff are so nice the are unable to deal with any kind of anti-social behaviour. My room was old fashioned but clean. No USB ports to charge phones. No iron to iron clothes and a 24 hour turn around on the ironing service which means you have to wear creased clothes on one of the 3 nights. Not that it matters as not many people on the cruise seem to take their appearance seriously. The Promenade area at night is not a pleasant place to be however, first thing in the morning was the best time to visit. The artisan coffee is not artisan coffee. I tried 3 days in a row to get them to make a flat white to my satisfaction and they just couldn’t manage it as they aren’t trained baristas they are just nice friendly people who have been moved into a barista position. I wanted to spend time on my balcony but I had serious cigarette smokers on one side of me and dope smoking, loud music playing people on the other. The handle of my balcony door was hanging off but in fairness it was fixed quickly. To find some positives. The gym was exceptional but the extra charges for the classes seemed unnecessary. The main dining room team provided good food and service at dinner. I had no idea the dining room was open for breakfast and lunch so missed out on that the app doesn’t provide you with the information you need and the WiFi on board is really bad considering how much you pay for it. Doesn’t work well in areas like your balcony which is the one place you want it to work.

I have a long comment, but it won't allow me to post it here. So I summarized it:

We booked Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas to celebrate our first wedding anniversary and our first cruise. While the ship is beautiful and the crew was wonderful, the overall experience didn’t feel worth the price.

The cruise was advertised with four destinations, but after multiple cancellations we only visited two ports, and the refund for three cancelled ports was just over $60 on a trip that cost over $5,000. They lack accountability and initiative on making plans in case there's any cancellations. Onboard, many basics like drinks outside of breakfast required extra charges, and there were communication issues between departments. Called Guest Services to replace the broken lounge chair in the balcony, no follow-up call received and took time for them to fix the issue. I have to call multiple times. Another example when we call the Guest Services to ask if there's available spots for ice skating, we were told none. However, when we arrived at Studio B, where ice skating took place, the staff there happily accommodated us.

There were positives, like great shows and food, but overall, the negatives outweighed the good for us. Sharing this to help others set realistic expectations before booking.