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Couples Cruise Review part 2
Now the 'bad' and that bad is mostly not on CC but on Royal Caribbean.
We have cruised RC before on vanilla cruises a few years ago so we have some basis of comparison in this.
Over all the staff was very polite, and friendly. The reaction from the crew to the activities were sort of mixed. The white members of crew looked like they really wanted to join in (especially one female member who you could tell was having a blast). At night some of the officers would make it to the disco to observe and I heard second hand that more than a few regretted they could not join in (they would have been fired). Some seemed in shock, and some had no reaction at all. I did notice that while in our last cruise the cleaning staff was mostly female, on this cruise it was almost exclusively male. Being the crew members had a choice if they wanted to take part in this cruise, I didn't find that surprising.
The ship itself is worn out. It needs a refit badly. It smelled vaguely of sewer in places, had broken fixtures, etc. The coffee cups were not properly cleaned before they were re-stacked and unlike our last cruise the restaurant was often closed at times it was needed, especially early morning before shore excursions. Now that should have been ok with room service, only the room service was quite frankly awful. The food was bad, and it came late (plus they screwed up the order). The food itself was mediocre. If someone says they thought the food was excellent, they don't know how to cook or what good food is. This isn't an opinion, but a fact. The good news is that it kept me from gaining any weight while on board. People were actually saying Carnival cruise food was better, which is rather sad.
The service was the worst aspect. The service in the main dining room was poor at best, drink orders were not taken, if taken might not come, refills on soft drinks impossible without harping, that sort of thing. On the other hand they had no problem asking over and over if you wanted their very high priced wines. I think part of the problem was that unlike other RC cruises this was open seating, so you never had the same people at a table each night. For a swinger cruise this is very welcome, but from a service standpoint, not so much. Since everything had auto-gratuity, I think there was less attention paid than normal. I also have read the RC as a whole has declined since we last were with them, so I'm not sure how much of this is due to the fact we were on a swingers cruise and how much was just what RC is like.
Pool side service on the other hand wasn't bad, and as I said the crew over all was very polite.
Another frustrating issue were the elevators. This was just a design flaw of the ship. There were 6 of them, you could often miss yours because seeing when it showed up was difficult as they were inset. They were also programmed I think to place as many people in one elevator as possible, making as many stops as possible. I've lived in a highrise with 2 elevators which were quicker and better programed. This is a minor complaint and the joke we had was that at least on a swingers cruise people don't mind being packed into the elevators like sardines.
Overall, issues aside, it was a good time. There are some things I'd really like to see on our next cruise.
1 – Non-website based meet and greets. Every meet and great was based on websites and who you booked through. I understand they need the sponsors but AFTER they are done with those, having meet and greets every day would have been nice.
2 – Age based meet and greets. Being the main complaint with younger couples was finding other young couples (and despite us all being on a ship, there were people we never saw until we were getting off the ship). I hear this was suggested for this cruise but not implemented. This I think would help younger couples feel more comfortable.
3 – Vary the music, and less loud on the pool deck. I realize you can't please everyone, but we shouldn't hear the same songs every day repeated multiple times. I think some songs people could sing along with would help break the ice at well.
4 – More interactive type activities at the parties, name tags, etc. The music was so loud and it was so packed at times that even finding people you knew were there was difficult. People tended to just stake out a spot and chat there with the other people in that area. Minor things like a girls dirty dancing contest, or the like could have mixed things up a bit.
I'll probably add more to this review later. I thought about doing something akin to a journal of our activities, but decided not to as to protect the not so innocent.
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