I just returned this morning from seven long days on the Mariner of the Seas. This was my first, and LAST, cruise on Royal Caribbean. The food, as several people have noted, was awful. It was bland, mass-produced and microwaved by the "chefs" I saw wearing the toques I suppose. While I understand that feeding several thousand people three times a day will obviously mean that the food quality will never be five star, the food on this cruise was atrocious...and paled in comparison to the food on the last cruise I took, which was with Disney several years ago. The other complaint I have is that I just received my final account statement and on the statement is a seventy five dollar charge for three unreturned pool towels. My family and I returned all the towels we checked out, as I knew I didn't want to spend seventy five bucks for those rough and occasionally stained towels, so I was very conscientious about making sure they were returned as soon as we were done with them. My SeaPass card was scanned each time and the attendant acknowledged getting those nasty towels back, but I'm getting dinged seventy five bucks anyway. I'm surprised they didn't hit me with multiple charges for the other towels I returned as well. I tried calling their 800 number and of course their office was closed, so I sent them an email and I'm waiting on a response. I'm not holding my breath, but I also let them know of this issue in their "how'd we do" survey seeking pats on the back.In the spirit of fairness, the staff members were all very nice and did their best to accommodate me and my family, especially our room attendant. He did an excellent job and we left him a decent tip on top of the automatic gratuities the three of us had to pay every single day of the cruise. Long story short, don't book a Royal Caribbean cruise if you know what's good for you.
