Royal Caribbean, Explorer of the Seas

I had been planning for months to surprise my wife for our 25th anniversary with a cruise, telling her to take vacation and telling her nothing else. Plans made for a relaxing cruise to celebrate and Thursday before we departed (Saturday) I let her know what we were doing. Being married 25 years it also meant I knew enough to give her time to properly pack and not showing up at the port and her going, "OMG, I'm not packed for a cruise." One of the secrets being married 25 years for my male friends reading this. All the planning and preparation as well as expectations could not have prepared us for the real surprise, finding out Royal Caribbean had allowed through a third party the booking for 2,200 college kids on spring break to be on the cruise.

We arrive at the ship and check in went fairly smooth, even though if you were not Gold the lines appeared to be quite long. Looking at the guests in line it did appear to be a lot of younger generation people. It wasn't until we were on the ship and my wife and I in line to get drink packages that we discovered the ship was 2/3rd's college kids on spring break. There were drunk kids falling down in the Windjammer even before we departed the port. Not a good sign! The ship departs and we get our luggage and my wife decided to get a glass of wine. I said I would wait and 45 minutes later she comes back. The lines to get a drink were crazy. We went to the casino and could not even get on the Blackjack table at first, and forget trying to get a drink at the bar while waiting. Both the first and second day you could not even get close to the hot tub and pool on the top deck, littered with intoxicated kids having a good time. Sleeping the first night was a luxury with all the school chants up and down the corridors, drunk kids bouncing off the doors, and music being played. I went to Guest Relations on the second day to tell them how extremely upset I was over Royal Caribbean not telling us it was a "spring break cruise," to be told "we'll file a report.

It wasn't until we pulled into Cozumel that things quieted down as all the kids went ashore to indulge in adult beverages. Cozumel was the first port I personally witnessed some of the kids with bags packed being escorted off the ship. Good for RC, but not good enough as the cruise was helpless with addressing all the problems. By the way we were told they ran out of Tequila and Vodka the first night. How does a cruise ship on a five day cruise run out of anything the first night?

Every night was a sleep challenge. Every day was a challenge to use the amenities on the ship. I realize the ship was going into dry dock, and definitely showed it was in lack of repair. It was also not well maintained from a cleanliness standpoint with the crew not able to keep up with the intoxicated kids and their antics, but also wonder if they were understaffed with the upcoming dry dock. Plumbing made noises in the mens room out side of Magellan. Parts of the ship were being damaged by the kids, and no one seemed to care. We even heard reports of furniture being thrown overboard and kids attempting to go from balcony suite to balcony suite on the outside of the ship. Luckily we didn't have a man overboard.

The food was not up to the usual Royal Caribbean standards as we are Crown and Anchor members and cruised with several times and were starting to become our favorite cruise line...until this. Day before we returned home the coke machines were empty. Attempted to get a cherry Coke, it was out. Went to another machine and it was out. Ok, we'll try something else and it was out as well. They run out of booze then out of soft drinks, now I'm angry. Shows were not to usual high standards, and overall very disappointed.

Overall this ended up being the cruise I regret. Guest relations didn't seem to care and in fact one crew member told me, "Sorry but there is nothing we can do. This kids have the right to be on here as well." No argument about their rights, but what about the obligation of Royal Caribbean to let regular cruise members that springbreakpartycruises dot com had book through RC to do a spring break party cruise out of the trip. The image of Royal Caribbean in my opinion has been tarnished. My anniversary surprise cruise for my wife was a total disaster and waste of money and time we took off from work. Royal Caribbean hasn't responded to my cruise review response request they sent me, and they probably are basking in their checking account with filling the ship to capacity (we heard oversold), sold an inordinate amount of drink packages, and wasn't concerned about the damage we saw because of the status of the ship going into dry dock. Shame on you Royal Caribbean! You ruined the trip I planned for with my wife, and apparently do not care.

I contacted Royal Caribbean on March 13th, and again on March 14 about the issues and concerns we had with our trip. To this date we have received no communication and RC and cannot begin to explain how disappointed we are with not only the cruise but the lack of response and guest services. Their web site says they will contact you usually within 2 days. So much for that point. You apparently do not care that you have just lost us as customers. Looking at the others that have commented on Cruise Critic and also have not received a response to date, you are "missing the boat" on this one.