Holiday was a disaster from start to finish. My mum and Partner booked this as a surprise for my 30th and my dads 60th birthdays. We were travelling as 4 adults and 1 child (age 3). We were travelling on Anthem of the Seas. We arrived at Newark Airport from London Heathrow and were told by our Tui Rep who we booked the holiday with that we would be met by a RC staff member to tell us where to pick up the transfer and there was not one. An hour later we found where to go and then another 2 hours of waiting our transfer to our hotel the night before collecting the ship arrived. (we were not the only ones in this position). The next day we were due to collect the ship, again was told our transfer from hotel to ship was included. After ringing Tui several times that morning costing me money by calling from abroad we were told that there was a miscommunication between Tui and RC and our transfer hadn't been booked so had to pay out $120 for a taxi. No welcome pack was received which is why we didn't know our onboarding time for the ship (apparently this was meant to be given to us by RC rep at airport!). We tried booking several activities on the ship even through the customer relations desk, and they were well aware my son was 3 years old, happily booked him on the north star, bumper cars etc to find out when we got to them he wasn't allowed to go on them as he had to be 5! Why did the staff allow us to book him on, constantly having a disappointed 3 year old wore thin!! Leaving an island early to get on the north star that we was reassured my son could go on, we get there and he was turned away. Bionic Bar never worked the whole time we was on it, apparently it broke NYE, we had no courtesy email to warn us before embarking that the bionic bar was out of action, complete waste of space and meant to be one of the main features of the ship yet never works. We had my time dining on the ship, yet everytime we tried to go to the dining room we had to wait an hour and half for a table for dinner, then when we got in there it was just a constant rush to get us out to get the next table in. From what we heard a lot of people said the same so ended up going windjammer most of the time, but that was constantly packed and you had to run / fight for a table cos it was sooo busy. It was my mums birthday whilst on board, I ordered her a cake through guest relations and asked for it to be put in her room the afternoon of 21st Jan, (I paid $25), next minute we go back to the room and find a cake sitting there (5 days early!!!!!), completely ruined the suprise and absolutely no apology yet still wanted me to pay for the cake. Swimming pools closed for the first 3 days of sailing, kids pool never opened before 11:30am on any day!! We were informed we would get emailed a copy of our room statement when we disembarked the ship, 2 months later and I am still waiting for it. Booked dolphin excursion on the ship, turn up to a massive group of people, couldn't fit us all in the pool, dad was stood halfway up the stairs trying to encounter with the dolphin, waste of money. Tui rep has been trying to get hold of RC to complain and get our room statement on our behalf by phone and email yet nobody getting back to her or us. Booked Ifly again through staff and not the app as the app was never working, got to the ifly and no booking had been made. Paid for internet package for 2 devices, only ever worked on 1 device and very very intermittent. Disembarked the ship at 8:30am as requested on 24.01.2023 was taken to the airport by transfer and the driver didn't have a clue where he was going and we had to direct him, got to the airport and had to wait over 12 hours for our flight. Baggage went missing on way home. Some of these points I know are not RC's fault but a holiday of a lifetime, cost ££££££ silly amount of money for what was ultimately a disaster of a holiday. It was rubbish. I'm not normally one to complain but constantly disappointing my son who was told he could do everything on the ship and ended up not being able to do any of the fun stuff, just made the holiday a shambles. And now even more frustrated that we can't even get someone from RC on the phone that is willing to get us a room statement emailed over and tells the Tui rep to email them and whatever email address is given just bounces back is actually now beginning to be a joke. Never ever again will I travel with RC. This is my 2nd cruise with them, the 1st for my partner and several times for my parents yet completely feel that RC has gone down hill and not anything like it used to be. None of us will be travelling with RC ever again. Shambles
