I've been a long-time cruiser of Royal Caribbean (Platinum status) and I've always felt that Royal Caribbean and their staff do a wonderful job of providing a great vacation. This time, however, I definitely felt like RCL was cutting back on its services. Our trip started in San Juan, Puerto Rico. My husband and I, in our early 30s, stayed at Hotel El Convento in Old San Juan for 4 nights before getting aboard the Adventure of the Seas. It was an easy cab ride to the pier and thanks to priority check-in and doing all the paperwork online beforehand, we were onboard within 30 minutes.

CABIN: Our interior cabin on Deck 8 aft was fine, probably one of the quietest rooms I've ever had on a cruise. My husband complained about a urine smell in our room for the whole week, but I didn't notice it. The sheets on our bed were never changed throughout the duration of the cruise. Perhaps this was a water conservation measure? On certain nights, our room steward would collect one of our towels, but not provide a replacement until the next morning.

DINING: For our meals, we'd eat breakfast and lunch in the Windjammer and had a late seating dinner in the Strauss Dining Room. The Windjammer was where we could really feel the most cutbacks. On previous cruises, the Windjammer was ALWAYS open from about 6am to midnight. On this cruise, the Windjammer was closed at the worst times: 11:00am - 12:30pm and from 5:00pm - 6:30pm. Since we try to make the most of every port, we'd wait to have "lunch" until we got back onboard, usually around 5pm. Unfortunately, the Windjammer was always closed at that time and the Cafe Promenade was the only place to get food (which my husband could not eat). When the Windjammer was open, the food selection was really lacking. There were wide gaps between each of the dishes as if another dish should have been there, but wasn't. Read more