My complaint:
Voyager of the Seas – New England Canada
Sail Date 9182022 out of Boston
Booking 9463864
Of the 5 cruises we have taken, this was the worst, and for the record we have never complained about a cruise before. This cruise was negligent and deceiving on so many levels and in so many areas that we must file an official complaint. Since this was a northern cruise where it is cold outside, there is nobody out on deck. ( why you continued to show movies outside by the pool is a waste of time ). Everyone is inside and there is not even close to enough seating at the few bar and lounge areas on the ship. So if you get a drink there is no place to sit. They set up vendors and played games in the aisle of DECK 5. They were throwing bean bags all over the place from the cornhole game. Your lucky some person was not hit and fall. That is a law suite waiting to happen. I can’t stress enough the lack of seating on the ship when everyone is aboard.
1 Refreshment Package – We were led to believe that we had to pay for water, coffee and tea (which we now know was FREE). This was not fully explained on your website. So we spent $380 for a total of 4 non-alcoholic drinks. You can check your records. This is one of the biggest scams we have ever seen. Now, we were supposed to get free shakes at Johnney Rockets according to the drink package. The problem was…..there was NO Johnney Rockets so we could not even get a shake. This is deceitful and negligent on the part of Royal Carribbean. You sold an item that you could not deliver on as well as not properly informing people of what beverages are free with the cruise.
2 Food ( Meals) and Accessibility – The food was among the worst tasting and bland and smallest portions we have ever tried to eat at both the main dinning room and the Windjammer.
Trying to eat breakfast or lunch at the Windjammer was very difficult because there is not enough seating for everyone. Everybody was fighting for a table to eat. It was a mad house free for all. This is not how anyone likes to cruise. Some examples of unsatisfactory food:
Tiger Shrimp Dinner – 4 pieces of shrimp and a spoonful of dry white rice with 2 tiny pieces of asparagus.
Spaghetti Bolognese – pieces of very bad tasting ground meat on spaghetti with NO sauce. Sent back.
Cherries Jubilee – 6 cherries with a tiny spoonful of ice cream.
All the deserts were tasteless and very bland.
We ate pizza for several of our meals. The pizza was the best and tastiest food on the ship. Evidently everyone else thought so also because it was always crowded and never any seating available. Our desert was the very tasty chocolate chip cookies most days. Café Prominade was the best food venue on the ship and there was only one. Many times you could not get food because of the crowd. And if you did gey food, there was no place to sit and eat it. You need more of them for sure.
You have a Cupcake Cupboard venue that does NOT have cupcakes. Go figure.
3 Room Service – Was the worst we have ever encountered. Out of 3 breakfast orders, not a single one was correct. Three times we ordered an “English muffin” and all three times we received a bran muffin or some other muffin. Every time the food was so cold. We ordered cereal and coffee and they did not send any milk.
4 Entertainment – There was no shows or music performances of any value for older people. Most of the people on the cruise were over 55 years of age. The Movie choices at the theatre were terrible and very few and need to play several times a day. Forget the Bingo. Actually there was no entertainment.
5 Television – The television lineup was good if you are a child. Several channels for the 1 or 2 kids on board. The rest of the lineup was terrible. If your not going to have any worthwhile entertainment, then you should have 4 or 5 continuous “Movie channels” playing all the time, for the actual adults who pay for the cruise and choose to stay in their room. Your room is the only place you can actually sit without having to fight for a seat out on the ship.
6 Internet – We had to buy internet for one day at a whopping price of $26. The problem was that it did not work. We were not able to receive or send emails or messages.
7 Excursions – There was way to much travel time on a bus and not enough time at the destinations. On out excursion to St. Andrews, we had no time to walk around and see the sights after we spent 40 minutes to eat at a pub. It was all travel time and a useless stop at St. Johns which we were not supposed to stop at. On our Lighthouse tour, we saw one actual tall lighthouse and two mini short lighthouses for a total of three.
8 Missed Bar Harbor Port – The day before porting at Bar Harbor the Captain made an announcement that the winds and seas were to rough to port due to hurricane Ian. The morning that we were supposed to port though, the winds and seas were calm at 8am when everyone checked. We were all wondering why they did not change decisions and port. Porting at Bar Harbor was the “main” reason we booked this cruise. This was really the primary port we wanted to visit. Just another disappointment among the others.
Although the staff was generally good, they were overwhelmed by the crowd size in the lounges and Windjammer. It was hard to get coffee or lemonaide and they ran out of bacon at breakfast all the time. They were forced to wear masks all the time. Why? They serve no purpose and made the staff exceptionally hard to understand. They are not healthy for the staff or guests. Not because of covid, which is here to stay so get used to it, but because the masks hold and distribute various detrimental bacteria. Who is your medical advisor?
We are writing in hopes that you make changes. We remember the first RC cruise we took and enjoyed so much. The food was excellent and the chefs made sculptures from bread and various foods and all the guests toured the kitchen and were amazed. We never went hungry or thirsty because there were plenty on venues to get food at all hours of the day. You could get a hamburger , hot dog, desert or pizza anytime. I guess those days are gone when greed and profits took over.
Suggested solution:
A definite refund to our credit card for the cost of the beverage package ($379.96), which is the biggest scam on the boat, and there are plenty of them. The rest of the cruise, which was nothing more than a $6000 boat ride up the coast with no good food or entertainment is their decision to make it right if they choose.
