15 Weirdest Complaints about Cruising on Royal Caribbean

Many of us cruise lovers would be familiar CruiseCritic.com. It's often seen as a source of "feedback" from other cruisers and some of use make our decisions whether to book that certain cruise holiday or not based on the feedback. However, some of the complaints on the site are downright hilarious. Here are just a few taken from the last 6 months on Voyager of the Seas sailings around Asia and Australia.

Voyager of the Seas (Source: RCI)

1. “They are here to make money and not friends.”

Seriously, what were you thinking when you booked that cruise? Every holiday service provider is out to make money and a cruise is no different. You have the choice to choose not to spend any extra money at all – which is not impossible. If you have a serious problem of not being able to say “no”, I suggest you spend your holiday somewhere else.

2. “The small fridge in cabin, is so small and under performed it did not keep drinks cold, let alone make ice or be food-safe to keep fresh food in.”

Do you actually need to keep fresh food in the fridge when you are on a cruise? There is so much free fresh food out there 24 hours a day. If you need a cold drink or ice, there are so many bars just a stone’s throw away. Even if you have serious difficulties getting out of your cabin, from 5:30am to 11:59pm there is even free room service!

3. “Some very obvious cocktails were priced 70 cents more than the package allowance, yet purchasers were not allowed to pay the extra 70 cents for these cocktails - you have to wonder what the thinking is there?”

Get your facts right. You actually do only pay the $0.70 difference. You might be confused with other liners like Holland America where they have such rules. If you are going to buy an alcoholic package, I suggest you do your homework before you buy it. Just like anything else expensive you buy in your everyday life. Find out what drinks you would drink by looking at various menus, and do a rough calculation of how many drinks you would buy before you purchase. It’s not rocket science.

4. “Due to a cyclone brewing, we never saw Fiji which was why we went on this cruise, only to be taken to Hobart for 2 days which was way too cold to enjoy the outdoor activities... Spent $10000 including passports for a tropical holiday only to see Hobart & not even a sorry sir have a $10 voucher for a drink on us - poor poor poor.”

Are you kidding me? Did you expect the cruise to sail into a cyclone just for you to get into the tropics? Are you wanting to get blown off risking life or limb? Stop whinging. They did take a diversion out of a natural disaster not by any choice to go to one of the vessel’s normal port of calls.

5. “We were only to be in Wellington from 3pm until someone on board got sick and miraculously were able to arrive at 9am.”

Seriously, what were you thinking when you whinged? Did you read the cruise itinerary before you booked?  It clearly said that the Wellington stop was for 3 - 10pm? If you don’t like the cruise stop to reach the city at 3pm, you can chose not to be on that vessel. Find something else that suits you.

6. “...we went at half speed from Adelaide to Fremantle (two and a half days at sea). Why couldn't we have stopped at Esperance or Albany?”

Another itinerary complaint. You knew that there wasn’t going to be a stop when you booked. If you wish to get off the boat, it does take 2 days and a bit to drive from Adelaide to Fremantle. That might be a better holiday for you. You can always book partial cruises from RC directly. In addition, if the whole vessel of 3000+ guests and even more staff offloads at Esperance, do you actually think the community of 9000 will appreciate it? It’s a quaint town! Also, every port stop increases the cost of your cruise.

7. “No value being a Crown and Anchor member, as we were, (cruised once before with RC), the only benefit was if/when you bought something (which we didn't want or need) you got percentage off.”

LOL. A Gold member complaining about getting only Gold privileges! Maybe when you get on more than 1 cruise and a few tiers up where you enjoy the differences. It’s like a entry tier “frequent flier” complaining of not being able to get free use of airport lounges.

8. “Everything is in US$ on the ship so if your an Aussie u start to loose big time with the exchange rate being so low for us now.”

I’m sorry. You knew when you booked on a US cruise liner that you will be paying USD. If the exchange rate is poor, maybe chose somewhere else to travel. Or travel on P&O.

9. “If u like your coffee like we do, - OMG, IT WAS SO BAD.”

Yes, this is an American cruise liner and American coffee is peculated the way Americans like it. If you want espresso, buy one.

10. “SHIP EXCURSIONS - Cost heaps $$$. We did our own thing at a much cheaper cost also.”

This is a known fact on any cruise liner. However, if for any reason the vessel doesn’t make it to port, for example a Cyclone, you get a refund on your ship excursion. That refund won’t be possible if you pre-booked externally and you’ll have a ‘fun’ time with your travel insurer trying to recoup costs.

11. “After we looked over the cabin and had unpacked some of our luggage we went to explore the kids pool area (which my daughter was excited to see as she was looking forward to playing in the advertised kids pool area). When we got to deck 12 where the kids pool was meant to be there was no pool at all and when we finally found a crew member and asked him where the kids pool was he said you are standing where it use to be.”

Rookie error! If you want to know what your ship layout is, always check the official Royal Caribbean website. They do keep different layouts of ships at different periods especially when your ship is undergoing refits.

12. “The kids....oh the kids.... I adore kids but not 1200 of them running amok.....not so much. They were everywhere - in the lifts, the bars, knocking on people's stateroom doors all through the night, phoning random stateroom at all hours, stealing from people's suitcases on the last night when people put their stuff our for disembark meant.”

Ever thought of not travelling during the school holidays? Remember that school holidays all over the world are during different times. Just be aware when you book your cruise, if you don’t appreciate a vessel full of kids, do some research on when the school holidays are of the port where you are embarking.

13. “FlowRider- I waited 40 minutes in a line for 1 staff member sign a waiver. Once I had that the wait wasn’t too long to have a go. Good fun. Putt Putt- never got a chance. Queues in the sun all day just to get a putter then wait to start.”

Have you thought about signing the waiver BEFORE you board? Also, choosing which day to get on the FlowRider or Mini-golf is just as important. Traditionally, days like embarkation day and port days are typically days with significantly shorter queues.

14. “The windjammer was also a disappointment. In 14 days the food barely ever changed (only when they started running out of food towards the end of the cruise). Breakfast was exactly the same every morning, and there was the same food served for lunch as for dinner, and this had very few variances. I am vegetarian, and I basically ate either pasta and sauce with salad, or vegetable curry, for lunch and dinner for all 14 days! (We don't eat in the restaurant as my husband gets seasick in the closed in room. On our last cruise we found that the buffet was a nice option).”

Well, with all due respect to your beliefs or food choices, vegetarians are a minority. Furthermore, you have limited yourself by with only choosing to dine at the Windjammer. I don’t see how Windjammer isn’t a closed room as much as MDR is! MDR is brilliantly spacious and a lot less occupied especially during breakfast and lunch seatings. You can also grab food from any cafe and have it on the pool decks. I’m sorry you chose to eat all your meals at the Windjammer.

15. “We both had the alcohol package which had advantages and disadvantages. You had to specifically request by name the champagne or alcohol you wanted, or you were poured the 'cheap stuff', but servers didn't like this and often tried to pretend not to understand.”

When you are on dry ground and if you went to a bar, do ever not order your alcohol by name? How is it different when you go on board a cruise then? Do you rock up a bar and say “Hey, could you give me a cocktail?” when there are 20 different varieties?

For all my Aussie friends, going on Voyager (or any other Royal Caribbean Cruise), it isn't like going on a local cruise liner. It does feel like a trip to the US. Also, cruising like any other holiday takes extensive planning. It's not just buy the cruise and forget planning.


Related Posts
Top 20 Tips for Cruising with Royal Caribbean

References
Cruise Critic
Royal Caribbean International

To subscribe to my blog, please Like on our Facebook page.
To support my blog, please click on one of my sponsor's advertised links :)