Royal Caribbean Cruises Reviews 

We purchased premium beverage packages on our cruise expecting convenience, accessibility, and added value. In reality, key elements of the package (such as smoothies and protein shakes) were not available when they were actually needed – for example in the mornings before leaving the ship on port days. The only venue offering them opened too late, making a significant part of the package practically unusable.

Breakfast service was also poorly organized. In a large dining area, only one bar station served fresh orange juice, resulting in long queues every morning. Service was inconsistent, and at times we were told we could not order multiple items (such as a cappuccino and orange juice) at the same time, which made no sense and was handled differently by other staff.

Overall, having a premium package provided no real advantage – in fact, it often felt like a disadvantage due to waiting times and unnecessary restrictions.

What is most concerning is how the complaint was handled afterwards. The entire issue was dismissed based on “internal logs,” without properly considering the actual guest experience or the practical usability of the service.

This creates a clear gap between what is marketed and what is delivered.

This experience is not worthy of the Royal Caribbean brand, and based on this, I would strongly advise future guests to carefully reconsider purchasing the beverage package.

Due to a port closure, which obviously we as customers don't control, Royal Caribbean changed the itinerary knocking out two of the countries we would have visited and taking us to two others we had no interest in. A port closure making the cruise worthless to us is not our fault, yet Royal Caribbean showed no empathy or desire to compensate us for the inconvenience. We wanted to cancel the trip, but would have lost the thousands of dollars spent. They didn't care about us as customers, only the money.

Brutal policies and horrible customer service, we are never cruising with Royal Caribbean again.

I am an Emerald crown society for RC. I am not recommending this line to cruise. They do not care about customers service anymore. I had a bad experience in a cruise done at the end of 2025 and had another bad experience in a cruise already booked and not able to cancel. Do not cruise with RC.

Customer service and breach of consumer rights

Family cruise of 8 on harmony of the Seas Jan 25 th for 7 nights. if you are looking to lose weight, Royal is made for you. food was awful. our main problem is when went to the solarium bistro for lunch. mind you, there are only 2 buffet venues on the ship. we were met at the door by a gentleman stating we were not part of the organization that rented out the entire restaurant for the week. I have dispute with chase credit card. RCL are nothing but liars. YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS UP!

Entertainment was like watching a high school performance. Food was mid. Rooms had old nasty rockhard beds. The ac barely worked. Boring and not much to do.

I won't use this cruise company again for one simple reason. The cruise was good although food mediocre, but having paid my entire bill at the end of the cruise and received a receipt for about £900 my credit card was subsequently charged another £365 after tge cruise. I tried to contact Royal Caribbean but was passed from one department to another and no one had any idea and frankly didn't care. So I went through my credit card company that reimbursed me immediately. Royal Caribbean did not even give any explanation. As a result we now cruise with everyone other than this awful company.

Royal Caribbean is by far the worst cruise line I have ever cruised with, and I’ve been on many. I recently went on one as a family trip (not my choice!) and surprise surprise, it’s still terrible.

Their service is bad, food is bland, and they scam the hell out of their clients. Everything has an automatic 18% gratuity on it when you’re charged, and you are automatically charged $18.50/day per person for gratuity. Even when I opted NOT to do this (I like to take cash and do it myself because I do not trust these companies!!!). I still got charged, but because they send the invoice after the cruise is done.. they refuse to give me back the money.

Still terrible. Will always be terrible. Do not sail with Royal Caribbean.

The customer service of this company is a nightmare. I'm planning a group (10-12 people) cruise for my husband's milestone birthday. Before planning, I called the cruise line and asked for the best options for coordinating a group. Given the size of our group, I was advised to have everyone make their own reservation but link their bookings together. We followed those instructions, but a long list of issues has ensued, and customer service has been anything but helpful. Two of our guests had their reservations canceled without notice. We caught the cancelations when I called in to verify mine. When they called back to reinstate the booking, one of those guests -- a solo traveler -- was told there were no rooms left in his original price category and it would be more than double the price to rebook. Additionally, we were told that some of our guests -- even though they booked at the same time and linked reservations as instructed -- were moved to a later dine time, and there was no more availability at the original dine time.

Collectively, we all called customer service more than eight times trying to resolve these issues -- myself six times. The process of getting through to a customer service representative through the automated system is arduous. The information the customer service reps could see in their system differed from what we could see in our accounts. (e.g., Logging into my account online, I could see all our friends' names and booking numbers listed as being linked -- including the one who was told he was canceled -- but customer service insisted they saw no linked bookings.) The customer service reps simply said there was nothing they could do to help, even when I escalated the call to a supervisor. I finally asked to speak with a manager and was told they would have to call me directly. But they never did. I ended up back in the customer service queue trying to solve the issue. In the end, we aren't sure if our party -- many traveling from around the country for this celebration -- will be able to dine together, and the friend who was canceled and pushed into a higher price point won't be able to join us at all.

If asked, I would recommend that people consider a different destination, different itinerary, different ship, different anything before booking with this company. Whatever the sale, ship or itinerary looks like, it's not worth the risk or hassle.

Absolute shit show from the start. My complaint is so long I cannot even type it out. But a quick synopsis.

Room had no AC, Phone in room did not work, Door handle fell off inside the room, Dining was a disaster, moved every night and the first night the service was so bad I left after 40 min without even being served my drink.

9 year old daughter was kicked out of the kiddy area because the life guard claimed she looked older than 9 all while she had he child wrist band on.

Scuba Excursion was canceled without notice, royal promised to pay for our next excursion and that never happened. Another excursion they allowed us to set up our 19 and 17 year old sons to do together then refused our sons service because the 17 year old was not accompanied by a parent even though his adult brother was with him. But they let us sign him up for it and did not make us aware.

At the end all of Royal Caribbean upper management has ghosted us and offered us a 10% discount for a future cruise.

It was an absolute shit show and the worst vacation I have ever been on!

Would NOT recommend Royal Caribbean for younger kids. Pretty poorly catered towards kids under three. You have to pay by the hour for kids under three to be supervised in the Tots area, which isn't a huge issue, however the evening session doesn't commenced until 7pm, which is also what time the evening show starts, basically making it impossible for a parent with a child that age to see a show. We are happy to bring a screaming child to a show and will continue to so, but others won't be so happy. Intentional, poor communication between departments or just not thought of, not great either way.
All we could smell in pool on deck 11 where our kids were swiming was cigarette smoke. Disgusting! Have a designated area for smokers away from families. Poor form Royal Caribbean.
Kids need to be toilet trained to be in the pool which is fine, however they would rather risk a kid poop in the pool than to wear a nappy (as a just in case).
Now maybe you would say that a cruise is for all to enjoy, but this cruise has been marketed as a Wiggles cruise, so you'd think they'd cater towards that demographic. Clearly not.
Plus, their website states :
'No one does kid-friendly cruises better than Royal Caribbean'.
I'd hate to see what others are like then.

Do not trust Royal Caribbean - They will cancel your cruise reservation & make you rebook and pay more to get back on! BEWARE!

very Disappointing Handling of Delay – No Compensation at All
Our cruise with Royal Caribbean International aboard the Odyssey of the Seas started with a significant delay due to extreme snowfall. While the weather is, of course, beyond their control, the way this situation was handled was downright disappointing.
Due to the delay, our entire day in Nassau was canceled. This was one of the main destinations for us on this trip. Yet, no form of compensation was offered — no credit, no partial refund, not even a goodwill gesture.
What made it even more frustrating was being sent back and forth. Guest Services onboard referred us to the headquarters in Miami, and the headquarters then sent us back to Guest Services. No one took responsibility, and no one offered a concrete solution. As a paying guest, you expect at least clear communication and serious attention to your complaint.
We fully understand that weather conditions can affect a cruise. But customer focus, taking responsibility, and providing appropriate service are well within the cruise line’s control. In our view, Royal Caribbean fell seriously short here.
For a company of this size and reputation, this level of customer service is simply unacceptable.

I recently sailed on Harmony of the Seas with Royal Caribbean, and this was hands-down one of the worst vacations we’ve ever taken. We chose Royal Caribbean expecting high-quality dining and good service, but the reality fell far short.

The food was awful across the board. The main dining room meals were bland, overcooked, and repetitive, with very limited variety that didn’t improve throughout the cruise. The buffet (Windjammer) felt like reheated, low-effort options most of the time—nothing fresh or flavorful. Specialty restaurants were the only edible meals, but they come with steep extra charges on top of an already expensive fare. Overall, the onboard dining was not worth the money we paid, and we ended up spending hundreds more just to get decent food.

The biggest issue, however, was a serious breach of trust in our stateroom. An entire hanging garment bag containing 5 outfits (including formal wear for dinners and excursions) was stolen from our stateroom closet. We strongly believe it was taken by someone with access to the room—most likely the stateroom attendant or cleaning crew—since the bag was in the cabin closet. We reported it missing immediately, but the response was inadequate: minimal investigation, no real accountability, and no meaningful compensation or resolution.

For the high cost of the cruise (not including extras like drinks, Wi-Fi, gratuities, or specialty dining), this experience was absolutely not worth it. Poor food, overpriced everything, and then having personal belongings stolen with little recourse left us feeling ripped off and unsafe. I cannot recommend Royal Caribbean based on this trip, and we’ll be taking our business elsewhere in the future. Prospective cruisers should be very cautious with valuables and temper expectations for the included dining.

My girlfriend and I took a cruise on Royal carribean Odyssey of the sea out of Bayonne Nj February 7-15 2026. Was the worst cruise and experience. We have been cruiseing with Royal since 2019. Her luggage was lost on ship for two days to start. We got absolutely no help or assistance to find luggage. The room we had a balcony was filthy. We had to get our cabin attendant to clean bathroom n shower.the food in the windjammer is so bad and It is just getting worst each year. While on the ship we were so sick and tired of the excuses That we or I called Royal carribean and cancelled our 12 day carribean cruise that was booked for January 25 2027. Of course I got screwed out of the $900.00 deposit. Even though it was cancelled 11 mo the before sail date. It was well worth it as I will I NEVER ever sail with royal carribean again. They didn’t care or give a dame about anything I had to say when I called and cancelled our 1/25/2027 cruise. If I ran my business this way I would be in court every other week . Time to go back to all inclusive destinations. You get what u pay for .🙏💪🇮🇹

Utterly disgusting how they can take money from your account and not give it back, they have taken £352.53 as well as our bill amount

I have not stepped on board yet and have had the worst experience with Royal Caribbean so far. Have been on multiple cruises with other cruise lines and the shenanigans these people play are unbelievable. I paid my reservation balance 2 weeks prior to the due date. I wanted to add gratuity and pay upfront as well but couldn’t find the option anywhere online or on the app so I had to call to have it added. During the call I was told you can add it and pay anytime up to 48hrs before cruising. Tell me why my cruise was then cancelled a week later for non payment. Since they added gratuity to my reservation it cancelled my whole reservation even though the reservation amount was paid in full. I call to get the cruise reinstated… which after a 40 minute call they were able to do but my reserved dinner time could not be added as the dining team was unavailable so I was told I would get a call back later the same day to get this handled. NO CALL BACK so I had to call again and I was able to get the time added. Then I had to call back again because I realized we had also paid upfront for a WiFi package that now was $168 more than I paid. During this call the answer was to just buy it and if I see it cheaper I could call back to cancel the package to then rebuy it at the new lower price. After an hour of going back and forth on how they should honor the price I was told I needed to be called back in 24hrs because the needed to pull the phone call from when I added the gratuity to the account to make sure the representative did not tell me I had to pay the gratuity before the reservation due date or the whole reservation would cancel. 72hrs later NO CALL BACK… they tell you whatever to just get you off the phone. I had to call back to speak to another representative and explain the issues all over again… this rep though didn’t have any issue honoring the price nothing about having to listen to a call and was able to give us the wifi package at the original price paid. but where is the customer service?!? Why am I spending countless hours on the phone re-explaining the situation to get things added back on when the cruise shouldn’t have been cancelled in the 1st place. They play games with the pricing on add on items such as the WiFi package or drink package once you pay your balance. You can’t cancel at this point because you have to pay them to cancel so they know you are stuck with the reservation. Before my balance was paid the pricing was the same from the day I booked the cruise until payment was made, now everyday there’s a new “promotion” to get the most money but it’s never the same price as before you are stuck with the reservation.

Our cruise was cancelled 24hrs out from departure that we were planning for over a year, it's hard to not get mad at the cruise line for this and I'm not as they do not cancel trips easily.
What I am mad and frustrated at I still have not received 1 cent back of my promised 100% refund, some 10k as they tell me that it will be processed from the 6th Feb yes, the last day of the non-cruise, instead of the 25th Jan when it was officially cancelled.
If I did not have another cruise booked already so I can use the future cruise credits, I would not sail with Royal Caribbean again.
This is a large company holding onto millions of dollars that they owe customers for goods and services that were not supplied, earning big interest.
Pay my money back you owe me.

Didn’t go to either island as booked , we were stuck in a room with sewage smell and woke up every morning due to crew working on ship . Wouldn’t refund any money . They are a scam!!! Going to report to the federal maritime commission

Although the cruise itself was enjoyable, the guest services policies are NOT. I’ve said with 2 other lines and I’ve always had an issue with charges. However, with Royal Caribbean, if a charge is wrong, duplicated, or simply needs to be removed they DO NOT provide any receipt or proof the issue was rectified. They just say it will fall off on its own and you should just trust the process??? This is definitely a flaw in their process that needs ATTENTION!!! I’m battling a charges that should’ve “fell off” according to their reps.