Royal Caribbean Cruise Terminal Tampa Bay — Attraction in Tampa

We just returned from a Royal Caribbean cruise, and unfortunately, it will be our last. This isn’t a bitter rant—it’s a detailed, honest account of how a vacation that should’ve been relaxing turned into a frustrating, disappointing experience. Future travelers deserve the full picture—not just of what happens onboard, but how the company handles issues afterward.

Here’s what went wrong:

Dining room service was consistently poor. It routinely took 15–20 minutes just to receive water. The staff never learned our names, never remembered our nightly drink preferences, and frequently placed meals in the wrong spots. For a supposedly premium cruise experience, the service felt like a revolving door—impersonal and inattentive.

Excursion handling was disorganized and dismissive. Our originally booked excursion was canceled. As compensation, we were given a $20 per-person credit. Fair enough—until we went to book a replacement. The app showed a similar excursion listed at a pre-book price of $62.99. But because we had to book in person at the excursion desk (since the app wouldn’t allow rebooking after a cancellation), we were charged the full $79. We pointed out the discrepancy, but the staff refused to honor the lower app rate. They kept insisting the $20 credit brought our cost down to $59.99, but that only works if the base rate is $79—which it wasn’t. This wasn’t just frustrating—it felt intentionally misleading. The credit was compensation, not a pricing substitute.

The drink charge issue was acknowledged and resolved appropriately. My wife ordered an $18 drink. Our package covered up to $14. When she asked if it was included, the staff said yes. Later, we were charged. To their credit, Royal Caribbean admitted the mistake and processed a refund to our card rather than an onboard credit. That was the one thing handled correctly.

We were nickel-and-dimed nonstop. $2.50 for a small popcorn at a theater show? Fine—annoying, but expected. But even the main dining room included upcharges for certain meal options. Not specialty dining—the main dining room. I’ve never seen that on any cruise line. I understand paying extra for a specialty restaurant, but when you're in the core dining room and still being asked to pay more for a better cut of meat or upgraded dish? It felt tacky and excessive.

Stateroom issues were concerning. A glass shelf in the bathroom shattered the moment we opened the medicine cabinet. No USB ports anywhere in the room—just outdated infrastructure. And the air quality? Alarming. I use a CPAP machine and installed a brand-new filter the day we boarded. When we got home, that filter was pitch black. I hadn’t noticed the issue onboard, so I didn’t report it. Yet when I brought it up afterward, I was told housekeeping had “addressed” the issue. That’s impossible. No one should’ve touched my CPAP machine, and no one followed up with me during the cruise. If air quality issues are known, what exactly is being done about them?

Entertainment missed the mark. The comedian was excellent—the highlight of the theater experience. The rest felt dated and awkward. Watching a white actor portray Shaft and another attempt to rap “Men in Black” lyrics was cringeworthy and tone-deaf.

Post-cruise, I gave Royal Caribbean a chance to make this right. I wasn’t expecting a free cruise—just a real acknowledgment that things went wrong and a good-faith effort to win back our business. What I got was a partial refund, a lot of deflection, and a clear message: guest retention isn’t a priority.

Bottom line: This cruise felt outdated, overpriced, and overly transactional. We left feeling like walking revenue—not guests. The follow-up sealed it. We’re done with...

Just got off the explorer of the seas a week or so ago. The cruise itself was great. I’m not much for shows but the shows we did see were moderately entertaining. The pools were clean and well maintained as were the hot tubs. Accessibility was largely good - only lacking the ability for my wheelchair bound brother and grandfather to access the helipad. My grandfather didn’t care but my brother was put out.

The food was 9 out of 10 almost every night. When snapper was the fish of the day it was the best snapper I’ve ever eaten. The next night the snapper was a menu item. It was terribly dry and over cooked. Like shoe leather. There is no reason for the food to be in that state. It was almost like an apprentice line cook was running the pass for the night. Terribly disappointed that second night. The first night was hands down the best snapper I’ve ever had. The second night was hands down the worst. They brought me a fantastic steak to replace the shoe leather fish and I was quite happy with it.

Chops - the premium steak restaurant is worth every penny.

Ship was well laid-out and easy to navigate.

Despite their being a medical emergency that had us return to Mexico we arrived at all destinations on time and were happy with what we encountered.

Leading up to the cruise we had some issues however.

Firstly we had a large group (15) traveling together. In order to sit together at dinner we had to each call in, first give them our reservation, then the reservation numbers of the people we wanted to sit with.

So, for 5 rooms, I had to call and give them my reservation numbers and the other four reservation numbers of my family. Then they each had to do the same.

Which is all fine and good if it had worked. But it didn’t. I had to call in three times to ensure one reservation number was linked. The first two individuals were clearly from another country and struggling with their understanding of English. The third person was an English native speaker and solved our issue.

Secondly they said on the phone they could seat 15 of us together at the same table. However in practice what we had was a table for 6 and a table for 9 kinda near each other.

Every night we had 14 seats for 15 people.

The last night The maiter’d brought the tables together and connected them with a small table and made sure we had 15 seats. This meant a lot to my parents who were torn trying to eat with so many people.

Thirdly the cruise was for our parents 60th birthdays and 40th anniversaries. We asked them to do something on Tuesday and Thursday - one for each - but didn’t verify it. Apparently it was never entered into our records... so we ended up having to ask the waitstaff who were fantastic and went above and beyond my expectations.

We had 6 kids with us under 14 and had no unexpected charges. At check in they ask how you want each person to pay for what they charge and for the kids - do not let them charge is an option.

All in all though it was a fantastic time and trip. We will be going again and are already planning our next one. For a group of 9. 15 is way too many people to keep...

Horrible Experience with Royal Caribbean – Avoid at All Costs!

I had the worst experience with Royal Caribbean, and I would not recommend this cruise line to anyone. My girlfriend and I originally booked a cruise on their newest ship, the Icon of the Seas. After finding out the ship caught on fire TWICE, my girlfriend understandably tried to cancel our trip. But the Royal Caribbean app is so horrible that it still showed our trip as active. For weeks, we believed we were still booked, only to later find out through a customer service call that our booking was canceled—even though the app continued to show our reservation!

The customer service team was incredibly unhelpful and refused to rebook us on the Icon of the Seas without doubling the price to an outrageous $10,000! This was a total price gouge. Instead, we were forced to book a smaller, much less exciting ship at the last minute. Even after booking the smaller ship, the app still showed us as booked for the Icon of the Seas—what a disaster.

The cruise itself was a complete bore. There was nothing fun to do, and the events and activities were minimal and uninteresting. Everyone I spoke with onboard agreed that it was the worst cruise they had ever been on. The ship seemed more interested in catering to specific niche groups (LGBQXYZ or whatever they call they/themselves now) than offering a variety of activities for everyone. The food was bland, the drink packages were a rip-off, and the entertainment was nearly non-existent. The only thing that kept us entertained was the pool and the casino—something we could have easily done for a fraction of the cost back home in North Carolina.

It gets worse. When we arrived in Tampa for the cruise, Royal Caribbean delayed the trip at the last minute for a full 24 hours! This left us scrambling to find last-minute accommodations. We ended up having to book an expensive hotel only to arrive and find out it had no power. This forced us to drive an hour outside of Tampa to find another hotel. Royal Caribbean did not compensate us fairly for this fiasco. The lack of accountability and customer service is shocking for a company of this size.

The only silver lining to this nightmare? The original Icon of the Seas cruise that Royal Caribbean tried to price gouge us for ended up being canceled anyway after the ship broke down in the Gulf of Mexico. Karma, perhaps?

Do yourself a favor and choose Carnival Cruises—they are way more fun, and you’ll avoid the mess that Royal Caribbean puts you through. I will never sail with Royal Caribbean again, and I strongly recommend others avoid them as well.

Royal Caribbean, if you care at all about your customers, you should be reaching out to make this right.

Sorry, no photos. We didn't even take any photos because it was a trip we had no interest in...