Royal Caribbean Cruises Reviews 

Awful food, awful service, mediocre ports. Would not recommend this boat. Very tacky and staff were often rude. You couldn’t pay me to eat the food!

We were also told we can’t refuse to tip and then charged 18% on top of everything even though we prepaid our tips.

So @RoyalCaribbean, a global cruise giant, is apparently too small to offer me a joining opportunity from Europe? Quite surprising for a company that operates around the world. Disappointed with the recruitment process and lack of transparency. #RoyalCaribbean

Sailed with my parents on Liberty of the Sea on 31 May this year. The staff in the restaurant who served us were lovely. However, I have been scammed out of just over £600 due to being charged gratuities. They have taken £303, which I highly doubt will be passed on to the hardworking staff that deserve it. I was then charged an additional holding fee of a further £303. They are telling me it will take them a month to returned the holding fee! This is on top of being hounded before the trip for over priced drinks packages and extortionate WiFi packages. The ultimate insult is the fact my mother and I are now being inundated with emails from them on ‘discounts’ for future cruises while they are refusing to pay me back the £303 ‘holding’ payment. This is a total scam and Royal Caribbean needs to be called out on it! This has ruined what should have been a lovely trip. I’m not holding out much hope of ever seeing that money again.
DO NOT BOOK with these scam artists!

The room was nice, the balcony a lovely bit of private space to rest in the sun. The ship was clean and the food nice. The cruise took a few days before they tried to take my wife’s lactose intolerance into account and they weren’t always successful. The buffet had a good selection but no information about what was in the food. Staff in the main restaurant, were friendly and attentive.
Internet cafés weren’t available; despite being advertised and staff had no information to help us with self-led excursions. Thankfully there was a leaflet in our cabin with some helpful information (I don’t know why other staff didn’t mention it or the information it contained). If you’re looking for self-led tours, you can do internet searches when the ships docked. Japan has clean, regular trains with colour coded lines and numbered stops. Shimizu is a lovely town and had a mini festival when we docked (probably a regular thing). Local friendly guides with good English took us around the shrines and museums for a wonderful experience.
On board English was poor in many cafés, bars and customer services- so it was hard to get help/answers to questions. If tap water isn’t drinkable there should be a sign- but this could have been customer service misinformation as they struggled to understand us. Tip required for Bionic bar- why?
The ships architecture was nice and the selection of shops was okay. The pools were pleasant, if a tad small and it was hard to find a seat around them. We also enjoyed using the bumper cars and the Casino was okay. We did struggle to understand the slots, but we doubled our money. The shows were good with excellent choreography.
At the first port too many people were let out at once, causing a crush-could’ve been controlled better. We were given a departure time later than the Wendy Wu coach departure.

Went on a royal Caribbean cruise ovation of the seas and it was a total disappointment. I bought the drink package like I thought I should you get there and in order to use the soda machines you have to buy there cup which cost $5.00 and pack it around all week. The food totally sucked unless you paid for it and the whole time you’re eating they have people bugging you trying to get you to go to a restraunt you have to pay for.
The things they have set up for you to do are a joke like they have karaoke at a certain time and you show up and they start setting up at the time there supposed to start and nothings ever right by the time they get it going it’s time to quit. The whole trip was a joke don’t spend your money on these clowns and the food is cold ever eat cold fried potatoes you will on royal caribbeans ovation of the seas. I should have stayed home and lit my money on fire it would have felt better. The ship is outdated stuck in the 70’s and they should pay you to be on it not the other way around it sucked!!!!!!

Worst cruise company in the world, you cant sleep well in the cruises, too expensive for what they offer. Just a one time experience, not a second chance ever. MSC cruises are way better option to choose.

I requested a refund of my pre paid gratuities whilst on the Brilliance of the seas during the transatlantic crossing which ended on 11 May. It is now a month since I requested the refund of over £421 and despite calling almost daily I have not had my money, this feels like theft. I have had interest charge on my credit card because of the pure incompetence of Royal Caribbean. Customer service used to be great now it’s appalling and Michael Bayley and his team simply don’t care

We got screwed on a cruise booking, we went with 3 parties in our group who booked together, the 2 of them were able to book an "XB" cabin which is any available balcony, (and subsequently, about 25% cheaper) than picking your own balcony.. we were not able to select the XB option, of course until the next day it magically appeared again for us later that week. We ended up paying +$300 more than everyone else in our group because of a technical error. Not fun! Will never use them again, total scam and not worth it. I called to get it adjusted 1 day later and they said it was "too late" -- thanks for nothing, Thanks for allowing us to get ripped off +25% on our vacation compared to the other 2 groups who booked at the same exact hour as us. Fun start to the trip!

Have not even started the cruise and its a mess. I have been on over 20 cruises, but this time booked a group cruise for my 65th birthday in November. The entire process has been nothing but aggravation, With setting up the individual reservations, packages, access to the group. I have booked 10 rooms for 22 guests. NEVER AGAIN!! There is no special treatment when working with a " Group specialist" This whole experience has me never wanting to go on a RCL cruise again!!!

I have the worst experience on this cruise the staff treated us like trash we waited at the bar for 20 mins before we where acknowledge but everyone else that was white got royal treatment my shower was cold I had to shower in the sink and I bought a drink package and they keep telling me my card was inactive I had to go to customer service several times daily just to be able to get a drink after we spent 300 per person on UNLIMITED DRINKS. We had a family of 61 on board and the experience was not at all good they where very nasty and rude to us for no reason and I’m very upset I spent all that money for a bad experience. Even when we where at coco island my card didn’t work for drinks and I was told we had to go alllll the way back to the ship to get it fixed smh never again .

I sailed on Icon of the Seas 4/11/2026 through 4/18/2026 Eastern Caribbean Cruise for our Honeymoon. We live in Orange County Ca and selected Icon for its 7 waterslides onboard, spa services, and culinary options when compared to Carnival, Virgin and NCL that leave from San Pedro Ca for 30-50% less. We are EXTREMELY disappointed with Royal and will NEVER sail on any Royal cruise ship. We paid $2,000 to fly roundtrip from OC to Miami where the ships port is, and another $8,000 for 2 people mid ship floor 7 balcony sea view room. The staff are very rude with the exception of housekeeping. The dining room looks great but tastes awful. We tried several dishes from the main dining room over our 7 day cruise and they were TERRIBLE. The waterpark onboard had 6 of the 7 slides out of service the entire cruise. Complaints were made by numerous guests and maintenance never fixed or even attempted to fix the problem. The had a lifeguard blocking all 6 slides with a "down for maintenance" sign the entire cruise. The cruise ship is the destination and why we flew from OC to Miami for $2k and paid $3K more just to sail on Icon. The biggest selling point of Icon is the drop slides, no other ship has the type or number of water slides Icon has. The only slide that was open was a super slow, zero drop boring slide. I wasted 3 hours of my cruise waiting in line for a disappointing kiddie slide. The CASINO is a SCAM. The dealers, and casino staff don't give the correct credit for hours played or average bet. I had a discrepancy and received 4 separate answers from 4 different casino managers even after the cameras were checked. They casino staff especially Crescenzio are delusional. Crescenzio refused reward credit and accused me of not playing at a table when I was. After he insulted me by saying, "It's not like your going to get a free cruise" and re-checked the cameras they supposedly already checked...Crescenzio apologized after he realized I was playing there for over 2.5 hours at a $25 minimum table. On top of Crescenzio over the top rudeness he asked me to point out other cruise guests on the casino floor to verify my play. This was beyond unprofessional, none the less I obliged and spotted several guest on the casino floor to verify my play/average bet. I wasted 4+ hours of my last night sailing disputing my casino play. The casino acknowledged their mistakes and unprofessionalism by Crescenzio by offering me a $100 onboard credit which was beyond insulting. The Spa sauna didn't work the entire cruise due to "maintenance". The staff was aware, and again nothing was done. This was a serviced paid for and not received. Royal Caribbean is extremely over priced, provided a terrible experience, staff has terrible attitudes, rude, and food is TERRIBLE. I cruise Carnival and NCL yearly. Carnival and NCL is 100 times better value, cheaper, and main dining room food is very good. Royal Caribbean is a bait and switch, they advertise cool ships, you pay, board, and everything cool and different from typical ships is "down for maintenance". Royal stated they knew about this issue 10 days prior to my sailing. They never sent an email stating the slides will be down the entire cruise, BUT Royal continued to push and sale us onboard amenities and activities even while aboard the ship on departure day. The service is HORRIBLE! After my cruise I spent 6+ hours speaking with representative Louis, Sky, and Carlo with zero care or solution to my issues. The representatives spoke broken English and very hard to communicate with. STAY AWAY FROM ROYAL CARIBBEAN!!

Is there any option less than 1 star? No compassion for a military family! All we asked for was to move the date or for a credit and nothing! They will keep 75% of the paid in full amount and a big old screw you to us! Stay away from this place. Better off on the SS Minnow!

I would give 0 stars if I could! This company hates wildlife, they are about to destroy the habitat of turtles, jaguars and other endangered species.

The Hispanic and white/European staff clearly treat black customers different. The Hispanic and white/European staff were intrusive, rude and disrespectful.

If we could give a 0 we would! This was a horrible experience. No prices are listed on the RC app. When we visited the spa no prices for any services were posted, nor were they communicated to us when we booked a couples Swedish massage. In the RC app, the massages are clearly stated as “priced per couple.” We checked twice with the staff to make sure it was priced per couple and not individually. After our massage we saw we had been charged individually. We went to guest services twice and both time they told us that we would be issued a refund. No refund was ever issued, and upon our 3rd time visiting guest services they put us on the phone with the spa manager, Tailyn, who was extremely rude and unwilling to even listen to our concerns. DO NOT BOOK THE SPA!!!!

I booked a family cruise for my 3 children, brother, sister-in-law, my husband and myself on Allure of the Seas, Royal Caribbean for June 13-21st, 2026.
Royal Caribbean placed my children on the 14th floor and my husband and I on floor 3!
I called customer service to have the cabins closer together, and they are willing to change cabins if we pay additional fees 😡
I have been cruising with Royal Caribbean for over 10 years and this will be the LAST cruise! Never again!! 😤😡🤬

We were booked on a cruise from Sydney to New Zealand on 27th January 2026. The cruise was cancelled at short notice and we were booked on to another cruise by our travel agent. When we returned home, Royal Caribbean asked us to send receipts for our incidental expenses which we incurred before we started our new cruise, along with hotel costs for two nights. We submitted the receipts and Royal Caribbean agreed the amount we were owed. We are still waiting for the money! We have spoken to Royal Caribbean on several occasions and each time have been told to wait 7-10 days and the money will arrive, only to find they haven’t even sent it. Would never use them again and would not recommend them as a company

We have a cruise booked for October was going to pay in full today but. Noticed my deluxe beverage package was missing we saved it when it wss 55 percent off now they want us to pay 500 plus dollars more we have 8 plus rooms booked the person I talk too said he could only had the new price what a joke Norwegian cruise has frre booze with there packages look to transfer all our rooms hate being scammed

I’ve cruised Royal Caribbean since 1997 but never again.

We were sold a cruise where the marketing featured the Cococay stop as a massive part of the experience but the call was deleted on sailing day with no replacement and no compensation unlike a similar issue in 2019when we got a pro rata refund. We had a truly awful experience in Japanese Hibachi restaurant, mediocre service elsewhere and found 2/4 slides oou. Complained by email and basically told to get stuffed. Escalated twice and third response said we won’t respond if you write again. Like WTF? Truly dreadful - off on MSC in August with a status match!

Not an avid cruiser.
The expectations were missed by A LOT!!
$85 parking lot fee
Miscommunication across the board on ship.
Food was disappointing unless you wanted to pay for dinner.
Lots of walking...
I didn't see the value personally. Won't do again.