Had a great cruise with friends. The service could not have been better--we were treated like family by everyone. Pretty good mix of slots though I would have liked to see the more recent Huff and Even More Puff. Casino host was fantastic. Won two poker tournaments and multiple jackpots. That said, the casino is really cramped and hard to move through and the amount of smoke is really challenging--the separation with non-smoking doesn't really work. I would love to see a non-smoking casino. Also, it would be great if someone who actually runs poker tournaments improved the structure--given their new relationship with Hard Rock this should be easy to do. Finally, like others I found the food to be sub-standard throughout the trip--hard to believe with so many asian crew members that the indian and chinese food could be so bad. Improving the food would make this cruise a perfect 10.

I had an expectation that Royal Caribbean was higher class brand than Carnival, but... I was a bit disappointed. The food tasted pre-packaged/frozen, even in the main dining room. The main dining room never served lobster, and the NY Strip was small and just ok. Drinks were $15, and Cokes were $5. The Main Dining Room service was horrible. Service on average took an hour and a half to complete our meal, and the waiters never did anything other than bring our food out. They didn't remember names or preferences. I ate one meal without anything to drink. I spoke to the head waiter the day before the last day... and service improved tremendously... but, it was too little too late. In all, the crew was just as friendly as any ship I've been on... The smoking policy was liberal and you could smoke in the casino. No Masks or Weird Covid Rules. The shows were not very entertaining... The dancers were very professional, and the choreography was amazing. But, the composition of the shows was lacking and the singers were mediocre. Our port of call in Costa Maya was only about 4 hours (starting at 1PM)... and the ship changed their time for the timezone, which was confusing. We almost missed the boat at both port of calls. They also had no food available after 1:30PM... Surprisingly, my kids had a blast with the Ocean Adventure, and after discovering it... that is all they wanted to do. Since the cruise was comped and the casino was not tight, we would cruise on the ship again (with lower expectations).

We loved the ship! For 20+ years old, it was in excellent shape. The crew was wonderful. We enjoyed the casino which offered a good variety of old and new slots. The air filtration system worked exceptionally well so smoke was never an issue, if you are a non-smoker. The slot areas were pretty "snug" and could be a little too crowded. The minimum bet on multi-hand video poker was $.25, which kept me from playing as much as I liked.