Royal Caribbean Cruises Reviews 1,226

Would never sail with them again! Come back ill and now they have held £700 of my money for 30days for no reason

We are going on the Star of the Seas in December and contacted Royal Caribbean to book the shows.

You speak to someone in Asia who is working from home and unable to help

Not what you expect when you are booking an expensive cruise.

Worst vacation I have ever had, the food was awful, the staff are horrible, and the boat was ridiculously expensive. The food at the specialty restaurants was cheap, not quality, and their “Chefs” were not very good. Royal Caribbean is not the experience they promise.

This review is not about the ship or it's workers.
We chose this Celebrity cruise specifically because of the 3 islands. However,they changed the itinerary, from Nassau Bahamas to Puerto Plata & Antigua to San Juan ( been here many times ) .
Anyways, very disappointed. I asked if in a gesture of goodwill they could somehow compensate.
Response : " compensation is not applicable or cannot be provided unless legally required " " we are unable to extend any form of compensation or additional gestures beyond our established policies."

Booked one trip and it was great experience, no doubt about it… just didn’t like that i fell into a marketing trick. I thought it was a last minute deal and thought I made the real deal. Then after I came back from the trip I saw they sell the same trip at a regular price for the same amount :(

We are currently on Independence of the Sea and there a few things that have put me off using this ship again. Firstly the ship is tired, in our cabin there is mold around the shower area, one of the cupboard doors is hanging off and the furniture and decor are dated, but the main issue is that our suite is below the fish and ships bar by the pool and our room permanently smells, it’s really not pleasant. Everything extra is expensive, drinks and specialty dining. Another issue is as a wheelchair user I can’t get in and out of our room on my own, somebody has to hold the door open, there is no way to keep the door open for you to get in, so my question is what do solo travelers do? Now to the good points, the food has been excellent a very good choice in the buffet. If you’ve been on a P&O cruise you’ll realise how bad P&O are. The staff go out of their way to help you and it’s always with a smile. Embarkation was a little slow and not very clear where people in wheelchairs should go.

I'm so disappointed in Royal Caribbean. I'm taking the time to write a bad review because it's upsetting that the Royal Upgrade Bid process ruined my experience. Do not bother with trying to bid for a better room. This is your warning. It's just a way for Royal Caribbean to take more money and you could actually get downgraded. It's misleading and I paid extra for less! It's sad to think that RC would do this to their passengers. The moved me to an obstructed balcony view in SMALLER cabin on the 6th floor.
I also purchased a ring that was over $100 and stones were missing from it in 1 day

Booked three staterooms on Independence of the Seas in January and was promised a good room with sofa bed for our 6ft son. Got on board on 1st Sept to find our room had been changed and there was no sofa bed only a pullman bed he wouldn't fit in. I complained but the ship was full so they couldn't move us to the room we had booked. Why was our room rebooked? My sisters room was also changed from the interconnected room we'd booked to another down the hall. First and last cruise ever. What a dreadful company!

We recently sailed on the Voyager of the Seas for an 8 day Mediterranean cruise from Athens, GR to Rome, IT. My spouse uses a specially fitted dental splint to sleep at night due to a severe TMJ issue. This TMJ splint was kept in a container in the bathroom and suddenly came up missing on the third day of the cruise. We searched the cabin extensively but did not find the TMJ splint. at that point, we filed an incident report with the on-board security team about some missing items from our cabin bathroom. On two consecutive days, items disappeared from the bathroom after housekeeping had cleaned the cabin. The first item was a plastic shower cap and we didn't think much of it other than my spouse being irritated. However, the second item was the next day (day 3 of the cruise) and it was a $700 dental splint that my spouse must wear at night while sleeping due to jaw TMJ issues. She was without this medical split from day three onwards. A "Personal Property Report" was filed (see attached) and security came and searched the room again, but came up with the same results as we did, empty handed. This dental splint was on the bathroom counter where she could insert it each night before going to bed. We both think that when the bathroom was cleaned, the splint was knocked off the counter and possibly into the towels on the floor or into the trash. Security informed us they had video and that it didn't show any suspicious activity. Number one, is there a video camera in our cabin bathroom, and number two are there cameras in our cabin? If so, this is a violation of our personal privacy. If there are no cameras in the bathroom or cabin, how could security inform us that there was no suspicious activity? After this incident, we requested a different room steward and there were no more missing items.

I sincerely had hoped that RCI would do the right thing to bring this incident to a close. We are asking that Royal Caribbean replace the dental splint that went missing from our cabin bathroom. The local security team never responded to that request which is why I emailed corporate headquarters. Again we received no response. We have sailed multiple times on RCI and Celebrity but this incident may change our future cruise plans.

If you are a cruiser and have never had an incident, don't be like us and think it couldn't happen to you. I hope Royal Caribbean monitors social media and reaches out to us because they certainly haven't since we returned from our trip. Any help to pressure Royal Caribbean from long time status cruisers would be appreciated.

Just Spent 9 days on Royal Caribbean Independence of the seas departing 10/09/25 without stabilisers for the whole trip complete disaster for customers and some crew a money saving exercise that was hugely disappointing for many on board would never cruise again thanks for the experience not

Sailed with Royal Caribbean on 17th August from Barcelona only to find on boarding that the Solarium bistro was closed for the full week of our sailing. On return to the UK I contacted Royal Caribbean to understand why this is and complain about not being able to benefit from this. Also, I booked a year in advance and received no notification in advance of sailing to advise that the Solarium would be closed all week. Every cruise guide gives a tip to use this buffet on embarkation day and that's what we intended to do too. Jorg from 'customer service' was the must rude and animatronic person I've ever spoken to. He was dismissive, unhelpful and absolutely rude to me. For no reason. He couldn't have cared less and didn't even log it as a complaint. It is extremely unfair of RC to take these private bookings and disadvantage paying guests just in order to make a few extra quid.

On September 6, 2025, Royal Caribbean charged my credit card $966.91 for a cruise I never booked. While traveling, I needed to keep my primary credit card active until I returned home, so canceling it immediately wasn’t an option. That’s why I contacted Royal Caribbean directly — because any competent company would simply reverse an obviously fraudulent charge.

But Royal Caribbean is not competent. Their phone rep “Francisco” told me he couldn’t cancel the fraud without a booking number, as if a scam victim is supposed to magically provide one. Their chat rep “Nero” ignored the words FRAUDULENT CHARGE in all caps and kept parroting lines about “pending holds.” It was like arguing with a sack of wet cardboard.

This is the same cut-rate cruise line notorious for norovirus outbreaks, bedbugs, sewage dumping, and underpaid crew. They paper over the filth with glossy ads and puppy photos, but the reality is trashier, stupider, and more dangerous than any other operator at sea.

Royal Caribbean is a $900 bottom-feeder booze cruise that can’t process fraud, can’t protect your health, and can’t even train staff with more than half a functioning neuron.

Do yourself a favor: avoid this floating garbage barge.

My good friend and his wife are due to sail with Royal Caribbean on the Japan Islands experience. Unfortunately his mother has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and is receiving palliative care in a hospice. Understandably he wants to be with his mother in her final hours so they reached out to Royal Caribbean via their travel agent to enquire if an alternative date could be agreed as they couldn't make the original date seeing as he wanted to be with his mother. They understood a refund was not available to them. Royal Caribbean reply was "their service is available to use and if the customer doesn't take it that's not their problem ". So declined to offer them the choice of alternative dates. My friend doesn't like to create a fuss has accepted this and resigned himself to losing the holiday. I am appalled by the treatment he has received from Royal Caribbean and their disgusting, insensitive response. He has used their cruises before so they will have his details on file. Clearly they don't care about their reputation when treating regular customers like this.

This company is truly one that does not care. Royal Carribean are too large and making too much money to care about what we think. My only suggestion is to continue to report any negative experiences, and there are many on trust pilot and product review to Fair Trading. Unfortunately, there call centre in the Phillipines is what we continue to encounter in APAC. Robotic, hopeless, useless and dismissive. They will continue to talk over you, refuse to put you through a supervisor, and are the most decietful bunch of unhelpful people. I booked interconnecting rooms, and I had the other party with me confirming this, yet they told me this was not the case. Wanting me to pay change fees to amend the booking. I contacted guest relations via email, with all the information, no response for some time, and when I do, they want all our personal information. Couldnt just use the booking numbers that was provided. Well, now nothing, waiting weeks again for another response. Royal Carribean are an absolute disgrace making it extremely difficult to lodge a complaint and seek resolution. We havent even gone on the cruise yet, and its so off putting knowing this is the service they provide. Worst of all, Royal Carribean do not have the decency or ethics to respond to one persons negative response. Pure ignorance. If anything goes wrong, you will have NO HELP. Read everyone reviews! Their customer service department is pathetic.

I have already written a review prev about the poor condition of the Explorer of the Seas. I'm now writing about a purchase made on board. I bought my daughter a Guess handbag from the ship handbag shop. It wasn't cheap. However, within 3 months the handles were completely broken. I took it to a repair shop and was told that it was probably not a Guess bag as the quality was really poor. I was quoted £50 approx to repair it. I was probably mis sold it. Just another reason never to use this cruise line again! Just a rubbish company.

Terrible customer service and we haven’t even gone anywhere yet! Awful call centre that take hours to get anything done?! I’m not sure what antiquated booking system they have but it’s just awful and just charges for everything, absolutely zero compassion or treating you like a human, you’re just a number on a huge cruise ship to them. Apprehensive about the onboard experience now.

Voyager of the Seas - Royal Caribbean

Avoid at all costs. Terribly aged ship, should have been de commissioned years ago, rust all over, peeling wallpaper, stained carpets and pool beds. Policies around kids are idiotic (curfew starts at 1am!) this left unruly kids hanging out in elevators, pressing all the buttons and watching people struggle to get around the ship, kicking stateroom doors and running at all hours.

Our toilet in our room didn't flush and maintenance never arrived to fix it during the 7 day cruise. This forced us to use public toilets at all hours throughout the ship. You would think we would at least get a satisfactory room that works.

Overpriced extras (a standard massage for one person was USD$599!!), minimal entertainment with trivia being the main offering, prizes ranging from a royal Caribbean pen to a light up plastic toy. Bingo was run once in the 7 days and despite pulling in an estimated 6 figures on bingo sales the top prize was USD$1600. The drinks were also very weak.

Despite raising all these issues I was offered 10% of my next cruise. Declined as I will never book through Royal Caribbean again. When I stated to an employee that I bet I would get a better resolution to these issues if I had booked a suite, premium drinks package and onshore excursions, the agreement in their face said it all.

After all this Royal Caribbean decided to charge me again when I got home for my onboard expenditure, and after numerous calls between my bank and Royal Caribbean they wouldn't help and I had to wait 30 days for my funds to bounce and return to me.

The only saving grace was the onboard staff who are clearly just small hardworking cogs in the greasy, money grabbing, bloated machine that is Royal Caribbean.

Do yourself a favour, spend your money elsewhere, you'll thank me.

The customer service was frankly shocking. My phone was stolen and someone was trying to access my bank cards and cancelled all my excursions on royal Carribbean app to get the money to try and use my card. I called as soon as I noticed as I logged in to my email but they refused to reinstate them at the prices I got them for (6 hours later). They said "how do I know that happened?" Making out in lying. I have a police report for the theft! We won't be using royal Caribbean again now. Disgusting when I am travelling and now they want to make more money from me. All they care about is taking your money. Try and different cruise line.

To start off the boarding process was incredibly easy, staff were friendly and welcoming when boarding the ship.

My issues started when I couldn’t access the internet package that I had paid for before boarding, it was missing from the app and for some reason was under my sons name instead of mine (he’s 9 why would he be the one purchasing it?) thankfully that was sorted but was a nightmare to connect, didn’t work properly and service was incredibly intermittent. The app would hardly work and constantly had to be rebooted. Considering I paid £15 a day for this internet i expected better from it.

Second issue was prior to boarding we had requested that the coffee table be removed from the room and that the beds be split. When we arrived they obviously weren’t done. I rang guest services to be greeted by a rather rude lady that told me it would be up to housekeeping to decide if they wanted to remove it. (I have a disabled daughter, who uses a wheelchair, for her safety I needed it removed) thankfully spoke to housekeeping who was lovely and so helpful they agreed to remove it.

Next issue I had was in regards to my daughter, she has a rather rare genetic condition which makes her developmentally delayed. She’s 6 with the mind of around 10 months, she has to use nappies because she can’t be toilet trained. When we approached the pool, we were swiftly greeted by a lifeguard that demanded to know if she was in nappies. Of course she is so we were told she couldn’t go into the pool. That’s fine I understand that’s the rule, my issue was that we were limited to a couple of sprinklers. Even the water features she wasn’t allowed to use, like the slide or even the other sprinklers, when ever she would venture away from this boundary they put in place they would shout at us to keep her in that area. I tried to take her into the toddler area and was told she was too big, I later took her in there anyway as no one was as using it to be told she can’t be in there it’s for nappies only, I said she’s wearing one to which they replied she could stay but if a toddler came in she had to leave because she’s too big. My daughter is a huge water baby it’s her favourite thing in the world so having all this red tape was incredibly frustrating and was made worse that toddlers were allowed everywhere, the life guards didn’t blink when literal babies were being taken into the pools and whirlpools etc. honestly felt like my daughter was being discriminated against, by being confined to a small area all because she wasn’t toilet trained when babies and other toddlers who were no where near toilet training age were allowed to go where ever.

For SEN parents I honestly wouldn’t bother taking them on this cruise it’s just not worth the added stress, I’ve never had to deal with discrimination toward my daughter yet and this just made the whole experience miserable.

The icing on the cake was when we returned they obviously billed me and took the amount owed. Fine. What they didn’t do is release the funds they had been holding back to me, so I’m now down to £3 in my bank account as they have effectively charged me twice. After speaking to a representative twice all I got was excuses, and blaming my bank for not releasing it back even when I pointed out that they can’t with out their authorisation.

Personally was one of the worst experiences of my life and I was only on there 5 days, and the rush to remove you from the ship is insane, I would have thought that you’ve paid for these day why can’t you stay at least for breakfast before being told you have to leave

Given two stars purely for the wait staff and the stateroom attendant because they were amazing.

We were on independence of the seas, incredibly out dated rooms, even after upgrading the room was a tiny room. Absolutely will not be travelling with them again

On Nov 24, 2024, my wife and I booked and paid in full for a Celebrity Cruise Reservation 1791846 for an 11-day cruise departing Barcelona on Aug 27, 2025. On Aug 13, 2025, the security function at Celebrity sent an email stating that our reservation was being cancelled and that we would be placed on a "no sail list" for any of Royal Caribbean Cruise Ltd (RCCL) lines of business. They proceeded to cancel this reservation on Aug 19, 2025. The reason they gave for this action was that I had a lawsuit against RCCL and their travel partner World Travel Holdings (WTH) for a cruise that we took in Dec 2023. On that 2023 cruise, all of the onboard activities were conducted in Spanish, which neither my wife nor I have any fluency. The language intensive nature of this cruise was not communicated to us at any point. We complained and were given the runaround up until we filed a conciliation court action to obtain relief. Celebrity's Security team and some number of other executives decided to use that lawsuit to retaliate against us by canceling our Aug 27, 2025 cruise and barring us from traveling on any RCCL ship. This does not seem like a good business practice since filing a lawsuit is not illegal and should not be disruptive to regular business. No specific contractual term or condition was referenced in their decision. I have not received any refunds for this cruise and onboard purchases.