My wife and I departed for our seven-day Royal Caribbean 5 year anniversary cruise on September 8th on Freedom of the Seas. This was our first cruise ever on Royal Caribbean. We were excited to depart on a relaxing romantic Caribbean cruise... or so we thought. After being locked out on our balcony and bruised from getting knocked down, it was anything but what we were expecting.

Our Cabin Steward, even though he accidentally locked us out on our balcony, we ended up liking a good deal. After coming in to bring us a bucket of ice that I requested on the first night, he found us on the balcony and wished us a good night. Out of habit, he closed and latched the door as he left. We stayed out there for a while, not realizing we were locked out before trying to come back in. At the point we realized we were locked out, we couldn’t see anyone else out on their balcony. We waited there for a portion of the night and what seemed like an eternity. Just as I started climbing over the rail to get to the next balcony and bang on their door, we caught the attention of someone four rooms down who went for help.

A couple days later, my wife was knocked to the ground in the overcrowded windjammer buffet area and a member of the staff just stood there and shrugged with a look on his face expressing “I know, but nothing I can do”. Read more