My Post Cruise Review

[MAS from ATX]

I received and completed the RCL survey this morning... but wanted to add my review comments here as well. Your thoughts are welcome

Let’s start at the end… We just booked out 2024 cruise with Royal Caribbean for February  – that’s how much my wife and I enjoyed our trip.

With that out of the way, let’s look at some of the components that made our trip this year so enjoyable. Elana and I haven’t cruised in about 15 years and the difference is astounding.

Entertainment – 10/10
I never expected such quality and quantity as we had on our cruise. A different show almost every night. A couple of the shows were just amazing (Hiro and Hairspray) while others were amazing well executed nonsense (1977 and Flight: Dare to Dream).

Staff and Service – 11/10
From our cabin steward, to the people at the various dining venues, to the island staff at Coco Cay, everyone was so nice and so friendly. RCL has done a great job sourcing and training their team.

Featured Dining - 9/10 
We ate at a number of places on board during the cruise (Chop House, Izumi – for dinner and the sushi class/brunch, as well as Jamie’s Italian). In each case the quality of the food (ingredients and preparation) was excellent. The service level superb, but I have to give a point off due to the value – it’s just a bit too expensive.

Main Dining Room – 5/10
I’ve heard and viewed a ton of stories about the new menu in the Main Dining Room. Sorry, the food just does not cut it. The first night of the cruise, we ate at the main dining room. The New York Strip steak and baked potato reminded me of Sizzler (a chain of low-priced steak houses that went bankrupt a few years back). Just basic and cheap. 

To be totally honest, I think the MDR is an idea whose time has come and gone. I would like to see smaller, specialty venues integrated with the Featured Dining program so that cruisers have more choice and more price points.

Other Dining 8/10
The two buffets were very good (Windjammer Marketplace and Solana Bistro). The only thing was that they were very crowded. I think many diners there were refugees from the Main Dining Room. 

Cabin – 9/10
We got an ocean view balcony and I wouldn’t have it any other way… We watched several sail aways from out balcony, and my wife love them. It also was a great escape from sea days when the pools were overcrowded. 

Activities – 9/10
Just a lot of stuff to do. On my last cruise, Sea Days were boring… not on this cruise. I even did the Zip line, what a rush!

Tech – Too new to rate
RCL is investing in technology throughout the ship. But a number of the improvements are new and will still take time to shake out the bugs… 
•    WoW bands – NFC tags in a plastic watchband. Royal Caribbean needs to go all in on this tech. Our cruise was the first to make them available to all passengers. But it was still hard to use them at bars and to get on or off the ship. 
•    RCL app – There’s a ton of stuff going on within the app. But I’d like to see the NFC capabilities of the WoW bands integrated into the App. A number of hotels already use NFC and Bluetooth to add your hotel key to your phone. RCL should as well. The physical bands should be used for those whose phones don’t have NFC chips (which most phones have).
•    Starlink – YES, YES, YES! Real internet on board. RCL continues to roll this service out to their fleet and I’m very happy about it. Still some bugs and $500 for a week is expensive, but it’s real progress. 

That’s it… looking forward to next year and my next cruise.
 

 

 

[CrimsonCruiser]

Glad to hear you had such a great time! It sucks to keep hearing that the new MDR is letting so many people down. I don't think I've heard one good thing yet.

 

I did want to comment on the NFC in the app - it's sorta there, I think, but only on Odyssey (and maybe Wonder?). In the app you have tons of automated room controls (curtains, light, HVAC) and the ability to use your phone as your key. I think the only reason it's not fleet wide is because they haven't yet made the door readers NFC compatible. Might not even be worth it cost wise unless they were to phase out the Seapass cards entirely.

[DoomSlayer]

Glad you had a wonderful trip.  I think there a ton of people that would agree with you on the MDR.  Personally, my first cruise will be next week since they started rolling out the MDR changes across the fleet this year.  We will be traveling with my teen age kids next week. In your opinion would you recommend Windjammer over the MDR for them considering what you saw on the new menu?