Royal Caribbean Cruises Reviews 

Royal Caribbean and Silversea say that status matching is automatic. But I have been going in circles for seven months with both organisation's saying the other is responsible for matching. Absolutely useless on customer service and really needs consumer regulators to look at false and misleading statements on their websites.

Royal Caribbean need to be more transparent about their terms and conditions.
We were told by Virgin holidays that RC could take over a cruise booking that we’d made ourselves. Royal Caribbean are not only saying it has to be within 48 hours of booking they also can’t tell us where it says that in the Terms and Conditions and instead referred to a very open ended statement about USA customers being able to transfer to booking agents within 30 days but note this may not apply to other countries’ !!
Well please in the name of transparency list those countries and the timelines don’t leave it open ended so you can make up your own rules as you go along!
Always been loyal to Royal since the 80’s but no more!
What difference does it make to RC? None!!! You still get the same money from the same people! Our holiday though doesn’t have the security that a package holiday gives.
Hope people take note of all the bad reviews on here and make a sensible decision to avoid, avoid, avoid!
They sadly won’t care though ….

We booked a cruise to leave Nov. 2025. Stopping in Seattle and then Hawaii. Didn't see that it was a non-refundable deposit. Would have never booked that. Then with everything going on in the
US we decided that we do not want to go there. Changed the cruise, charged $200 for that. Now we received a email that they are changing where the cruise is going.
Asked if we could postpone to a future cruise and they want to charge another $200. We are not giving them anymore. You would think out of customer relations that they would wave the extra fee. So guess we have no choice but to cancel and lose our deposit😡

Review of Rhapsody of the Seas (Royal Caribbean International)
The dining staff on this ship were outstanding. Easily the best part of the trip. They were kind, attentive, and handled my husband’s food allergy with real care every day.
Beyond that, the experience fell short.
This ship is not well-suited for families or anyone expecting a range of activities. We were stuck at sea an extra day due to weather, which we understand. Safety comes first. But guest experience is still within the company’s control, and this is where things broke down.
There was very little to do. Programming felt repetitive and limited to things like bingo and karaoke. Even the movies were on repeat. When you’re already limited on activities and stuck onboard longer than planned, watching the same movie again doesn’t cut it. Three days onboard felt far longer than it should have.
The gym was also small and not equipped for what most people expect today, which only added to the lack of options.
Service overall was inconsistent. Outside of the dining room, several bartenders acted bothered by basic requests, which made the experience uncomfortable.
The spa experience was also disappointing. While the woman who did my hair was excellent, the rest of the interaction felt off. Asking about services or trying to book something felt like an inconvenience to the staff, which made what should be a relaxing experience feel awkward and unwelcoming.
We also asked about purchasing a short-term drink package due to the unexpected extra day and were told no because of policy. That felt like a missed opportunity to take care of guests in a situation outside their control.
Food overall was fine, but desserts were underwhelming and forgettable. Simple upgrades, even something like fresh or warm cookies, would make a noticeable difference.
This experience has made me rethink booking with Royal Caribbean again. I came in with higher expectations around client experience, especially in situations that don’t go according to plan. To be fair, I own that expectation, but it also highlights a gap. When plans change, this is exactly when policies, flexibility, and service should step up.
This feels less like a frontline staff issue and more like a management and operational one. The dining team proved what great service looks like. The rest of the experience did not reflect that same standard.
At the end of the day, cruise lines should be asking: what will make guests remember this trip, and what will make them come back? Unfortunately, this experience felt very basic. We’ll be exploring other cruise options moving forward.

Royal Caribbean International has always been our preferred cruise line, which is why this experience was both surprising and disappointing.

During our recent sailing on Star of the Seas (March 29 – April 5, 2026), my daughter (teenager) was confronted and intimidated by a group of adults late in the evening in a public area of the ship. The situation involved verbal aggression and threats, which understandably caused significant emotional distress.

While the incident was reviewed by onboard security, what was most concerning was not only the incident itself, but the lack of visible security presence at the time and the absence of any follow-up support afterward. As parents, we were left to ensure our daughter’s safety for the remainder of the night.

Equally concerning was the handling after the cruise. Despite escalating the matter to the Executive Office, the final response was limited to confirming that the issue had been reviewed internally, without additional clarity, reassurance, or resolution offered to address the impact on our family.

As frequent guests, now recently at Diamond level, we have always trusted Royal Caribbean to provide a safe and supportive environment, especially for families traveling with minors. This experience fell short of that expectation.

I share this not out of frustration, but as constructive feedback. Situations involving minors and guest safety require not only internal action, but also visible support and meaningful follow-up for those affected.

I hope Royal Caribbean continues to strengthen both its onboard security presence and its post-incident guest care, particularly in situations where young guests are involved.

No complaints about the rooms, food, and shows
BUT BEFORE YOU BOOK;

RC advertises the slides a lot. During our trip, only 1 slide was open. Every time, they said it was maintenance and that more slides might open tomorrow. That wasn't the case. Only 1 slide out of 6 was open the entire trip. They advertise the slides and are not honest. When you complain, they say there are other activities on board. That is true, but with the slides closed, they are already fully booked. Or they recommend activities that require an extra fee. I find it disgusting that they even dare to suggest paid activities, because you already pay so much for the cruise. Some did receive compensation on the cruise in the form of arcade game credit, but they do not give this compensation to everyone. Why not???

RC is not honest and transparent
INFORM YOURSELF WELL BEFORE YOU BOOK

Despite providing details of disability well before travel, no adjustments are made, it seems the paperwork did not make it to the ship. The result was an unsuitable room, intrusive questioning, and a disabled person left sleeping on a mattress on a dirty floor in a way that wasn't safe for the other users of the room. Customer service ignored our requests for changes, explanations and partial refunds - we're contacting the bank with evidence of disability discrimination to pursue a payback. We also filed an ADA complaint with the DOJ

Poor experience with the staff. Have of them are on their instagrams making anti religious remarks while on duty.

Suyash Sarharkar if you think we wouldnt notice, now you do.

We were forced to cancel our August 2026 cruise in January 2026. It was financed through Affirm. March 20, the flights portion was refunded. At that time, Royal Caribbean said that on March 17th, the refund has been dispersed to Affirm. Affirm says it has not. They have received nothing. I can only assume that Royal Caribbean lied to me. More than 3 months after I canceled with Royal Caribbean, I can only assume that either they or Affirm has stolen my money. I will never make reservations with Royal Caribbean again! They appear to be either liars or thieves or both.

We recently returned from our cruise on Independence of the Seas, and overall, we had a truly fabulous time. The onboard experience was excellent—from the high-quality food to the fantastic entertainment and consistently friendly, hardworking staff.
​We also enjoyed our shore excursions. We chose to book our own outings, including stingray swimming in the Cayman Islands and a submarine tour in Mexico, both of which were highlights of our trip. We also participated in a rafting excursion in Jamaica organized through the cruise line, which was a great experience. Additionally, we opted for the refreshment drinks package, which we found to be an excellent value, providing a great selection of fresh juices, coffee, and water throughout the day.
​However, we were very frustrated by the cruise line’s policy on automatic gratuities. We were charged $18.50 per person, per day, which was deducted from our account without our active consent. While we were aware this was an option to prepay at the time of booking, there was no way to opt out—the only way to challenge this was to go to Guest Services during the trip. This process is inherently confronting, which I imagine leads most guests to simply pay it to avoid the hassle. For a family of four, this adds up to a significant, unexpected expense.
​We feel strongly that if gratuities are mandatory, they should be clearly included in the initial cost of the cruise, rather than added as a compulsory surcharge. We believe in tipping for exceptional service when we choose to do so, but we dislike having it forced upon us. It was incredibly uncomfortable to have to go to Guest Services to request that these charges be removed. To make matters worse, we were left an envelope in our cabin suggesting we provide additional tips, which felt very cheeky given the high mandatory fees already applied. Considering the scale of the ship, the total revenue generated from these automatic fees is significant, and we hope the cruise line reconsiders this policy for future guests.

I recently booked a family holiday on Icon of the Seas (9–16 May) to celebrate my 40th birthday, and my experience so far has been extremely disappointing.

The main reason we chose this cruise was the onboard waterpark, which is heavily promoted in Royal Caribbean’s advertising as a key feature for families. However, after booking, I discovered (through passenger groups and recent reviews) that 5 out of 6 waterslides are currently closed, and that the main pool has also been closed for significant periods, leading to overcrowding in the remaining areas.

This was not disclosed at all during the booking process.

This is not a minor issue — the waterpark is clearly a major selling point of the ship. If around 90% of those facilities are unavailable, that is something customers should be told upfront. Instead, I had to find this out myself through Facebook groups, which is completely unacceptable.

When I contacted customer service, the response made things worse:
• One advisor questioned why I hadn’t asked if the slides were open when booking — which is frankly ridiculous. Customers shouldn’t have to ask whether the ship’s main attractions are unavailable.
• Another advisor said booking agents may not be aware — which I do not accept, given these issues have reportedly been ongoing for over a month.

I was also told they need to “listen to the call” before responding. That’s fine — they will clearly hear that no mention was made of any closures during the booking.

To make matters worse, I tried calling a UK customer service number and was asked to choose between “pre-boarding” and “post-boarding.” When I selected pre-boarding, I was told the line was only for people who had already completed their cruise. This says a lot — it suggests customers are not being properly informed beforehand, are experiencing issues onboard, and are then pushed into complaints after the trip.

From what I can see online, many customers are then offered future cruise credit, rather than a proper resolution.

On top of this, the terms and conditions link in my booking confirmation doesn’t even work, meaning I can’t properly review my cancellation rights. That is unacceptable when customers are being asked to make time-sensitive decisions.

This has left us in a difficult position — we don’t even know whether to book flights, as we’ve lost confidence in the holiday entirely.

This trip was meant to be a special 40th birthday celebration and was chosen carefully as I am disabled, with the expectation that a cruise would provide a straightforward, accessible experience. Instead, it has caused stress and uncertainty before we’ve even travelled.

Overall, this feels like a lack of transparency and poor customer service, and I expected far better from Royal Caribbean.

Cancelled my cruise two days before departure and was promised a full refund in writing. Three months later, I’m still waiting for part of it. Very poor communication and failure to honour their own refund commitment.

I recently had a disappointing customer service experience. Due to scheduling conflicts, i requested a one-time courtesy change to my cruise date. While i understand companies operate under specific policies, I was hoping for some level of flexibility given the situation. Unfortunately, my request was denied without any accommodation or alternative solution. What stood out the most was not just the decision itself, but the lack of empathy or willingness to consider a one-time exception. In an industry centered around hospitality and customer experience, this felt particularly discouraging. I respect the need for consistent policies, but I believe there is also value in building long-term loyalty. As it stands, this experience has impacted my perception of the company, and I would encourage others to carefully review change and cancellation policies before booking. I hope Royal Carribean considers incorporating more flexibility into their customer service approach in the future

I tried the royal carribean sprite and i think it was DISHSOAP!!! DISHUSTING! the rest was good so 2 stars.

1 of 6 water slides working on theor crown jewel ship, Icon. Mis-assigned the 2 adjoining rooms I had booked for our family months ago. Still nothing from them to address the issues after multiple attempts to contact their service team, both through their app and on the ship. TERRIBLE first experience with Royal Caribbean. If we could disembark now and optimize the rest of our family vacation on a land experience we would do it in a heartbeat. Instead trapped here. Absolutely terrible. We’ll be vocal about this experience with RC, forever.

This was the best cruise i’ve been on. The lighting is nice and the rooms are clean. The housekeeper does a great job cleaning up the room. I like when gives towel animals very creatively made. I also enjoyed the food but there wasn’t much halal food so only ate some foods. My favorite was french fries and salmon best combo. At the 6th day, they gave lobster and it tasted amazingly well. Also, the free drinks was nice like the strawberry-kiwi combo. The royal cup had free cola drinks which was nice. I would recommend lowering prices because my dad bought a watch but found the same one on Amazon which was cheaper. I also loved the countries that we went to. The water park was great but can you add smaller hight pools because I could not go 4.9 feet down. Also can you add a bigger water playground and the slide isn’t fast. Can you add smaller waterslides and add more water slides. Last thing I would recommend is adding a lot of dry slides at playgrounds. This cruise was still great though. I played no internet games and watched tv when I was bored. I liked the live tv episodes of Spongebob. Really nice cruise to be honest.

This is my story on a failed Caribbean cruise back in December 2025 Xmas week.

Due to unforeseen delay at the Toronto airport that took around 1.5 hours to clear the 🇺🇸 security checks.. I missed my scheduled flight to NJ for the cruise boarding call. After taking the next available flight down, I made it to the cruise port just in time to see the cruise ship 'Odyssey of the seas' leaving out to sea.

I then decided to catch a long 12+ hours expensive bus ride down to Orlando Florida to hopefully catch the ship there at their next stop since there were no available train tickets at the time.

After getting to the Orlando airport and booking myself a shuttle service to the port of call for the next day when the cruise ship was scheduled to arrive for an 8 hours stay. I was then contacted by the shuttle service and was advised that I won't be able to board the cruise ship in Orlando or any other port of call locations after that due to some ridiculous 🇺🇸 laws in place.

So the entire cruise trip was a failure and a waste of time and money. I ended up staying in Orlando for that Xmas week and it wasn't cheap of course as a tourist costing similar as the cruise itself.

I contacted Royal Caribbean a few times already on my situation and they have agreed on the phone to refund me around $860 for certain taxes and fees but not on the cost of the cruise itself. The only refund amount I saw was around $35 back in January. No actual full refund on the amount that they claimed that they'll do to date.

This was supposed to be my 1st cruise ever and this really unfortunate experience is not a good 1st impression on a new customer like me. I'll surely think 2-3x beforehand going forward if someday I ever consider using them on any cruise trip.

If anyone is thinking about going on a cruise, use Royal Caribbean at your own risk and make sure that you don't miss your cruise ship from the start. Otherwise you may go through what I did and good luck on getting any money back.

Beware!!! I am currently on a royal Caribbean cruise and they mischarged me at the casino by hundreds of dollars in one day. I stated they had done so and they told me that they would investigate it. I stated I would like to see the camera footage that shows me charging that to my room and they said they could not show me that but they looked and it was correct per video. I know how much I spend per day in the casino. I don't know what my next steps will be. I'm not accepting that.

Beware of deceptive sales tactics. I’ve been cruising with Royal Caribbean for decades and was told when I booked a recent cruise that if a better deal came along I could switch without penalty. I’ve taken advantage of this in the past without issue but when a better rate became available, they would not switch me to the lower promotional offer. So don’t fall for the “you have nothing to loose by booking now since you can switch later if we lower the rates” sales pitch. They wanted $500 to change it. This is a change in policy that they are not telling you about and are still using the same tactics to get you to commit early. I couldn’t believe it and spoke to several customer service reps to correct it, without success. I went so far as emailing and escalating it to upper management with the same answer - we apologize but no resolution offered. Buyer beware, sadly this company has change. My ask was simply to offer me the currently available promotion.
I booked the Brilliance of the Seas, 9/21/26 sail date.

I am filing this complaint due to extremely poor customer service both at the port and afterward when trying to resolve the issue.

We were scheduled to board a cruise departing from Los Angeles and were driving from San Diego. Due to a major car accident causing unexpected delays, we arrived approximately 10 minutes after the check-in cutoff time. However, when we arrived, the ship was still at the port and the boarding gate was still open.

Despite this, we were denied boarding and not given any reasonable assistance or flexibility at the port. The ship had not yet departed, yet no effort was made to accommodate the situation.

Following this, I spent approximately three hours on the phone with customer service (from 3:30 PM to 6:30 PM) trying to resolve the issue. I called six separate times, and each time the call was disconnected before any resolution could be reached. I did not receive any callback, despite the repeated disconnections.

During one of the calls, a representative verbally confirmed that we would be eligible for a refund. However, due to the repeated call drops, I never received any written confirmation, and no follow-up was provided.

This experience reflects a serious lack of customer support—both at the port, where no reasonable accommodation was offered despite the ship still being present, and through customer service, where I was unable to get consistent or reliable assistance.

I am requesting that the company honor the refund that was verbally confirmed or provide an appropriate resolution such as a future cruise credit.