Royal Caribbean Cruises Reviews 

Terrible customer services. When I booked the cruise my wife was pregnant. As she was pregnant she is not allowed to drink. The sales agent on the phone said they had an exemption for people who can't drink. This was the reason I booked the cruise. Then when I called to ordered the drink package for myself. The agent said there policy has changed and that they cannot honor their own policy as it has changed.

Some good...some bad
Entry time...excellent
Room...excellent

You are only allowed to bring 12 cans of soda on board...but the options for drinks are flavored disgusting water...coffee/tea/hot chocolate...no juice for breakfast.
They are forcing you to buy a drink package...which is not worth it in cost and what you get.

Food is so recycled...If it's not consumed...Breakfast will go in with lunch and dinner...and so on-lunch dinner and breakfast...dinner the same. Food was very bland.
1st excursion was canceled during the cruise with no app notification. When I asked about it I was told a letter was mailed to my home...but I am forced to use the app for communication. We picked another one that was no where on the same level.
Really a waste of money. It was not for the full time...we were returned back early.

Parking across from port shows $14 day on your site...but when you arrive and in a long line behind you I was told $18 a day.
There was no announcement for the 1st day off...was told by cleaning room attendant to just wait...but then when we decided to go out anyway...we had to run and almost missed the bus.

You give close to $19 a day for each person in the room for gratuity. About $342 total...then asked the day before to give more...
The announcements in the room did not work until the final day.

Royal Caribbean has consistently provided disappointing service. Our experiences have shown the company to be profit-driven rather than customer-focused. During the COVID-19 pandemic and global lockdown, Royal Caribbean refused to cancel and refund our booking, requiring us to cancel ourselves and pay associated fees or forfeit the entire amount. Additionally, although we paid in USD, the company issued the refund as a credit in NZD, resulting in a further financial loss.

When we eventually rebooked and secured a guaranteed ocean-view balcony, we were notified—just two weeks before departure—via a “do not reply” email that our cabin had been changed to a balcony with a 50% obstructed view. When I contacted customer service, they declined any negotiation and stated that this was “the risk you take.”

Based on these repeated issues, I will not book with Royal Caribbean again. Their policies and customer service practices indicate that revenue is prioritized over customer experience.

I recently came back from a 4 days cruise in general I love it, we have a lot fun and the staff was great, food was great, price and activities also great, I only have 2 complaints. One, they won’t let you purchase your pictures after the trip, we took a lot around the ship and even did a photoshoot, but I wasn’t aware that I won’t be able to purchase our pictures after and that’s a very big disappointment. Two: Why you guys are allowing the smoking area to be in the main pool?! The ship has a designated adults only area, why the smoking area is not there? Please, change this, is not fair that kids and families have to deal with that. Thank you.

Sailed last year on one of their ships Brilliance of the Seas. Staff onboard were nice and so was the food and activities. They were able to help us cancel a shore excursion for another one on board and said we’d get a refund. The issue was actually getting the refund…Refund never came so I reached out to customer service a few weeks after the cruise (some time January) via phone to be told the refund is on its way in 10 business days and to contact them again if we don’t get the refund. Reached out to them via email in September and took a very long time to get a response but I wasn’t in a rush. A few back and forth emails over the span of months and was told recently there’s no record of a refund and that the physical tickets have been thrown away because the cruise happened over a year ago.. Partly my fault for waiting so long to follow up about the refund but you’d think such a big cruise line would keep track of these things digitally and follow through on their word. Other than that and pushy sales reps in jewelry store, the cruise wasn’t too bad. Will definitely keep this in mind though and will likely not be booking with royal again.

Side note: the arcade had some games but almost all of the games didn’t work and we were charged on our cards without actually getting to play unfortunately. ):

Horrible expirence. We bought a gift card of $250. And our charges were about $450. We were expecting it to take out automatically as we had to put our information of our cruise in before. Nope. After spending about 2 hours on the phone with customer service. Apparently it has to all be on 1 card. So we aren't able to use our gift card. What a scam royal. Never again will we book with yall.

Dont read reviews here.. its always some people who are not satticfied out of million cruise tourists.. The ones who are happy do not write reviews.. so i decided i would do it.. i was on 3 RCCL cruises Adventure Symphony and latest odyssey of the seas.. all was great.. top notch.. food was super.. rooms clean and super.. staff super friendly..

We've been loyal Royal Caribbean cruise clients for about 15 years. So it was very surprising when we were treated the way we were. After booking a trip and later realizing we wouldn't be able to make the cruise, we asked if we could rebook a later cruise. We were told that would be impossible and we had to take our originally booked cruise or lose our deposit of $600. We told the representative that would be impossible and that we were very disappointed in RC. The rep was extremely rude and uncaring. About a week later, RC called us to ask about the experience and wanted to know what they could do to fix the situation. We were pleasantly surprised and said we could take a cruise the following year if they could apply our deposit. He said that would not be a problem and said he would call back later that evening to see which cruise would fit us. We were delighted that RC had called us back and wanted to make us happy. However, he never called us back. So we called RC and they said they had no record of any call and became very accusatory as if we had made up the phone call. We spend well over an hour trying to explain to their customer service rep(s) what happen to no avail. Considering the amount of money we've spent over the past decade plus with RC we felt we should be getting better service. We were even told they didn't care about the amount of time we had been loyal passengers that it was simply their policy. We've decided there are many other cruise options, and we will certainly be traveling on their ships and will never set foot on a RC ship again.

If I could give zero stars, I would.

I booked this cruise 10 months ago, expecting to receive proper reminders for the final payment. The first email in October went straight to my spam folder, and the second one, which I finally received on 3 November, had a confusing title —
“Notice of Balance Due for Reservation ID: 8728922 LEE AN 17 JAN 2026.”
There was no clear warning that my booking would be cancelled if payment wasn’t made immediately.

Then, without any notice or final reminder, they cancelled my trip the very next day (4 November) and kept my $200 deposit. My family and I were extremely disappointed after planning this holiday for months.

When I called the resolution team, they were rude and unhelpful, and one staff member even hung up on me, saying there was nothing they could do.

This feels like a tactic to keep people’s deposits through vague and misleading reminder emails. A simple “Final notice – booking will be cancelled in 24 hours” message could have prevented this.

Very disappointing experience — I’ll never book with them again.

The ship I took call VOYAGER OF THE SEAS. Be careful when you make booking, the room is old and the ship layout very strange. Evenytime you want to access front of the ship from back of the ship. you need to go 4/F walk from back to front. Also, the onshore tour some are pricy and short time for visit. One tour I join to visit Pompeii but only have 1 hour spend in Pompeii. And 30 min spend in a tourist shop, wasting my money. Also, they won't get in touch with you even you leave a negative comment in the survey.

We just completed a 8 day 9 night cruise on the Oasis of the Seas that with port's of call of Curacao, Aruba, DR, and Coco Kay. All in all the cruise, the staff and the food was good, we had a suttee and was Star class which is always very good, nothing disappointed us here. However, the ports of call changed due to a medical emergency, we went to Falmouth Jamacia to drop off a very sick crew member which I totally understand, the Captain changed our Curacao port time and we headed there, then we entered the front end of Tropical storm Mellissa, this slowed us down and the Captain cancelled our port stop in Curacao all together. When I went to Customer Service they stated we missed the port due to weather, which is hot the truth, we missed the port due to a 10 hour differtion to Jamacia. RC is trying to keep this very low key, other cruisers were given credit for their cruises up to 50% when they went to Customer Service and threw fits, that isn't me. I called RC 3 times and spoke with their post cruise desk about this, a case opened and they keep telling me weather, but they will continue to research and get back to me. Honesty is always the best way to handle issues, RC is this case hiding behind the truth.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I was unable to attend and requested a refund. Royal Caribbean refused, citing their “non-refundable” policy, even though the service was never rendered.

I submitted a dispute with my bank and contacted Royal Caribbean in writing, including formal complaints through the BBB, yet their response was to uphold their policy rather than address the fact that the cruise did not take place.

It is disappointing that a company of this size refuses to offer a refund when the service is clearly not received. I hope Royal Caribbean reviews their policies for situations where customers cannot use the service and responds more fairly to future disputes.

We did a Japan Cruise on the Sprectrum on the Seas. One of our luggage was damaged, they were not able to fix the damage and offered us a 10% discount on our next cruise, as we had booked other holidays for next year they extended the duratation of the discount for 2 years. They said they would send a certificate out after our cruise. We received the certificate but was only £ value and not 10%. We replied back to the email over a month ago and not had a response

We took our parents, sibling and nephew as a special treat and had the worst experience ever! Broken luggage, daily trips to guest services which never resolved our problems. Issues with incorrect billing, cancelled excursions, violence on board!! Definitely not the Royal Caribbean of old .. avoid at all costs and find another cruise company!

I booked 2 rooms for a Royal Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas. When I booked I inquired about drink & gratuity it ended up not what the rep told me.
1st issue I see is charging a gratuity fee & then again.36 percent overall$37 for a 4 year old kid to get a soda. $700 plus dollars of tips, 7 people for 3 days-real joke. Min wage in our area of the country is $15p/hr. We are paying for 66 hours of service. Very disappointed.
The other major disappointment is the gratuity & drinks costs more than the cruise.
I cannot wait to see what other money surprises i see onboard.

Went on my first cruise with RC with my 12 year old son...Very impressive on entering the ship but did not have a clue who to get to our room..never got our cases until 6.45pm so we were wandering about in our travel clothes..... Disappointing bars....too much karaoke in the main bar... After a few days it was mind numbing.... Most of the shows were fantastic Mama Mia and the water show etc ..but Bruno Mars was torture.
Be aware that when you dock for Rome and Pisa you are almost 2 hours on a bus each way...not worth the stress and hassle..... Food was quite good but waiters a bit annoying.....kids club was great (can't fault it). Take travel sickness pills ..they work... One last thing.. RBS Royal Bank of Scotland is not compatible with Royal Caribbean.. I had to use the cash machine to withdraw US dollars daily to pay my bills.....NOT GOOD ...

AVOID AVOID AVOID

Worst pre-cruise experience ever and this is my 23rd cruise!

Bid for a cabin upgrade for it to be cancelled as RCL changed my cabin. I bid again for the same thing to happen! Complained and was told “it won’t happen again” 7 times I went through this then discovered by accident that my original booking had been upgraded and when I bid for an upgrade they were downgrading my booking so I’ve ended up worse off than if I hadn’t bid at all!

They don’t even read their complaints just send an automated response thanking you for your custom!

I’ll be booking elsewhere in future!

We have not even taken our cruise yet and are already disappointed. VIP of Royal Caribbean stated that taking an elderly person is great for them. So when we found out that my sister who wanted a premium drink package had to pay for one for herself and my 89 yr old mother as well was absurd. Our mother has a dr.'s note that she can not drink. They refused to make any exceptions to the rule. Therefore my sister has to pay for 2 full premium drink packages. That does not even make sense and is not good customer service at all. I called Royal Caribbean, I chated, I tried everything and no budge. We're sorry they said, no exceptions to the rule any longer. We are not going a one of these huge ships. It's a small ship out of Tampa that most seniors go on and now they are making that unaffordable as well. Guess it's all about the money these days.

Don't bother if you are disabled. Gangways not suitable for disabled scooter I feel off mine because I had to get off to access the gangway.
Also very expensive for drinks and what you get.