Just off Independence of the Seas 3/10-16

[Iamthesea]

There were over 50 in the tub itself. I blurred the photo.

 

Search for university spring break cruise 2013 royal Caribbean

 

It's the first one on the list, you can find others the same way. There were 3 other main schools represented.

 

That was some eye opener! TA sure knew what he was doing. :rolleyes: I wonder how much money this guy, Dann, made off each of the reservations. He obviously had multiple rooms blocked off since last Fall or sooner. Nice of him to tell the kids appropriate wear for dinner and formal nights. Too bad that he didn't mention proper behavior. :( What I am surprised about is booking all of the Balcony staterooms instead of Insides. Could have made the price less expensive with more bookings possible.

[Merion_Mom]

Carnival has drink packages now, too.

 

I am personally touched that you consider RC a luxury line. It's not. It's a mainstream cruise line, like Carnival and NCL.

 

I think that this perception may have created an unrealistic expectation.

 

300 people out of 4200? Pshaw. I have been on cruises with 6,000 and 3,000 of them were children.

 

I, too, wouldn't have appreciated seeing a security guard standing by doing nothing, but I would have approached him and engaged him in conversation. Perhaps he could have clarified his presence. Perhaps RC had decided that having them all gathered in one small spot made their job much easier. Perhaps they had decided that as long as no one was getting hurt, and were under surveillance, everything was ok.

 

They weren't on the Allure because the Allure is WAY too expensive as compared to other cruise options.

[Merion_Mom]

I'm thinking most of the people that didn't think the pool issues were a big deal are the people you wouldn't want to see in the pool in the first place. :o

 

 

I do not understand what this means. Would you please explain?

[Nvtitan89]

Carnival has drink packages now, too.

 

I am personally touched that you consider RC a luxury line. It's not. It's a mainstream cruise line, like Carnival and NCL.

 

I think that this perception may have created an unrealistic expectation.

.

 

Thank you!

[Nvtitan89]

I do not understand what this means. Would you please explain?

 

I can't wait for this one :D

[devvt]

Funny, I wanted to ask about that statement, too!

[rrodriquez2]

That was some eye opener! TA sure knew what he was doing. :rolleyes: I wonder how much money this guy, Dann, made off each of the reservations. He obviously had multiple rooms blocked off since last Fall or sooner. Nice of him to tell the kids appropriate wear for dinner and formal nights. Too bad that he didn't mention proper behavior. :( What I am surprised about is booking all of the Balcony staterooms instead of Insides. Could have made the price less expensive with more bookings possible.

 

The TA's I'm sure made a ton. The university you saw - those kids seemed to be fine. I talked to a few of them, nice people. The main hot tub was dominated by one particular university. The kids from the university on that page were subjected to " xyz university s*cks" chants for a few hours on the 2nd day. Rivalries I'm sure.

 

 

Carnival has drink packages now, too.

 

I am personally touched that you consider RC a luxury line. It's not. It's a mainstream cruise line, like Carnival and NCL.

 

I think that this perception may have created an unrealistic expectation.

 

300 people out of 4200? Pshaw. I have been on cruises with 6,000 and 3,000 of them were children.

 

I, too, wouldn't have appreciated seeing a security guard standing by doing nothing, but I would have approached him and engaged him in conversation. Perhaps he could have clarified his presence. Perhaps RC had decided that having them all gathered in one small spot made their job much easier. Perhaps they had decided that as long as no one was getting hurt, and were under surveillance, everything was ok.

 

They weren't on the Allure because the Allure is WAY too expensive as compared to other cruise options.

 

I dropped over 8k on the cruise, I'd say I got a premium suite. I realize now I'd have been better off spending less (smaller room) on the Allure but will still contend this would have been no problem without the group bookings of college students. We're talking 10% of the passengers causing 95% of the problems. RCCL's reputation preceded and as it turns out exceeded reality, but not expectations. You are right I should have expected funnels and chanting, after all it's spring break. I went into this blindly believe RCCL was above the college frat stuff.

[kruzerci]

I dropped over 8k on the cruise, I'd say I got a premium suite. I realize now I'd have been better off spending less (smaller room) on the Allure but will still contend this would have been no problem without the group bookings of college students. We're talking 10% of the passengers causing 95% of the problems. RCCL's reputation preceded and as it turns out exceeded reality, but not expectations. You are right I should have expected funnels and chanting, after all it's spring break. I went into this blindly believe RCCL was above the college frat stuff.

 

Like I said before, I'm sorry you were disappointed, but you can't escape it during this time of the year! They can't escort 300 people off of the ship for chanting "Indiana Sucks" and overcrowding the hottub. It's just the nature of vacationing this time of year and most people expect a more spirited atmosphere.

 

I just suggest that you take advantage of your premium suite next time, enjoy yourself on the pool deck and don't sweat the small stuff, or avoid a mainstream cruise line next year if you truly want to avoid a repeat of the same situation.

[rrodriquez2]

Like I said before, I'm sorry you were disappointed, but you can't escape it during this time of the year! They can't escort 300 people off of the ship for chanting "Indiana Sucks" and overcrowding the hottub. It's just the nature of vacationing this time of year and most people expect a more spirited atmosphere.

 

I just suggest that you take advantage of your premium suite next time, enjoy yourself on the pool deck and don't sweat the small stuff, or avoid a mainstream cruise line next year if you truly want to avoid a repeat of the same situation.

 

I don't think many knew that certain ships were being block booked with college kids. Now that we know it'll be easy to search come booking time next year and just not book those ships. Like I said it may be useful for the members here to keep a list in a sticky of ships known to be booking out as spring break trips from RCCL. It'll help the people looking for that, and the people looking to avoid that at the same time.

 

Otherwise the cruise was very good. If we do another RCCL it'll be the Oasis class. I like the dining options on the bigger/newer format ships and as others have said we're probably a few years away from the price point being such that college groups will be booking them.

[didicruiser]

I feel bad that you didn't fully enjoy the cruise. I was on 12th floor near the Sky Bar everyday except the last windy day. I did hear chanting and Indiana su**s and so on but that's it. I hope that your next cruise is much better.

[rrodriquez2]

I feel bad that you didn't fully enjoy the cruise. I was on 12th floor near the Sky Bar everyday except the last windy day. I did hear chanting and Indiana su**s and so on but that's it. I hope that your next cruise is much better.

 

Thanks but we still had a great time. It's just for us probably 70% of why we book a cruise is the pools/outdoor time. The ports are the other 30%. The shows are fine but we'll take a trip to Broadway for that. The food - again you can eat better at a local 5 star. The one thing I can't do up here is lay in the sun by the pool in March. That's why for us it had such a significant impact on that aspect of the trip.

 

I'll never get back that vacation time lost and the memories lost with my kids in the pools/tubs because we simply had no room. That's the bummer in all of this. Kids grow fast, this was our spring vacation 2013 and that part of it was ruined. Luckily Labadee and Cayman provided some great memories as did the rest of the experience.

 

You mentioned the last day. That day more than any other was the real animal house. It was also the day most critical for use of the middle pools as the kids pool was a wind tunnel and almost unusable to the point that they had to shut off all of the kids amusements. With the college kids doing funnels and everything else in the main pool it really left the kids with little to do on the last day which was a huge bummer. We made one foray over the middle pool with the kids and that's when they were asking a coed to show her breasts, we quickly exited and went back to the kids side.

 

Lesson learned. BTW the staff at the skybar bore the brunt of the nonsense. She was outstanding, we tipped her cash outside of the tips along the way on the last day. I felt really bad for her the kids were so rude to her at times.

[crisndeefromde]

Disney isn't offering drink packages and that seems to be your main concern.

Seaborn and Crystal are all inclusive also...Carnival rolled out their drinking package before RCCL...Celebrity has had one for a long time.

 

Your complaint should be taken up with Royal Caribbean and also YOU should have made a formal complaint at guest services and also with your concierge as you were in a suite.

 

No I wasn't on your sailing. I just completed two fantastic weeks on the Adventure of the Seas out of San Juan....that had just started the drink package also...no we didn't do the drink package...too much money for what we do enjoy.

 

Sorry you didn't enjoy but you spent a lot of time upset and it should have been voiced at guest services and your concierge. Now that you are home follow up with a letter to RCCL and send your pictures.

 

Enjoy your next vacation.

[rrodriquez2]

Disney isn't offering drink packages and that seems to be your main concern.

Seaborn and Crystal are all inclusive also...Carnival rolled out their drinking package before RCCL...Celebrity has had one for a long time.

 

Your complaint should be taken up with Royal Caribbean and also YOU should have made a formal complaint at guest services and also with your concierge as you were in a suite.

 

No I wasn't on your sailing. I just completed two fantastic weeks on the Adventure of the Seas out of San Juan....that had just started the drink package also...no we didn't do the drink package...too much money for what we do enjoy.

 

Sorry you didn't enjoy but you spent a lot of time upset and it should have been voiced at guest services and your concierge. Now that you are home follow up with a letter to RCCL and send your pictures.

 

Enjoy your next vacation.

 

Thanks and you too.

 

I do think there are people still not getting the value in the drink packages and the draw that it is for the college student. We had the drink package and would highly recommend it. To a college student it's far cheaper than bar hopping each night on land. I went out Friday night before the cruise in Fort Lauderdale. The average beer was about $6 or $7 at the nightclubs. A mixed drink was often well over $10. I'd say the average college student drinking 11am to 3am is doing more than 10 beers or several mixed drinks. Plus with the ability to accidentally share drinks with underage roommates...well it becomes a solid deal. Now add in cover charges at most bars which can equal 1/4 of the days package price in some cases, maybe half if you hit multiple bars.

 

We had the premium inclusive drink package. I think it's a great idea. I think it's a bad idea to have drink packages and allow students to book with other students in the same room that are under 21. CCL does NOT allow that and hasn't for awhile. It's one of the bigger changes that has trimmed their party ship reputation. Now if they could just keep their ships working.....!

 

The group policy and more importantly the individual room booking policy of CCL and RCCL is very different. Different enough that students are choosing RCCL to party on vs CCL we heard that multiple times in the Caymans. Plus I thought I heard one of them say the CCL ship that was in the Caymans didn't allow groups that week?

 

I'm not going to go complain at the desk to ruin a kids trip when they were apparently acting within the rules AND like I said anyone with two eyes and ears could hear what was going on. Security was right there, at times even the Cruise Director was there (he ran the best looking man contest on the pool deck) if they were going to break it up, they'd have done it. Heck they'd already had to boot some of the party because they'd been throwing things off the ship apparently.

 

My post was a full review, good with the bad. I loved the ship. I do think the idea of posting which cruises on the various lines are being sold to groups as spring break cruises is a good idea. If we'd known that, and particularly based on our experience on a group booked ship we'd have gone elsewhere. I'm sure based on the experiences of other people we met on the cruise with kids under age 16 they'd have done the same.

 

I think there's a better shot someone from RCCL will see this here and give more weight to the negative reviews coming in from the ship surveys than if we'd complained to someone at a desk that could really care less.

 

My earlier comment was simply that if you're not the type of person that's going to spend time in the pool this wouldn't bother you. I talked to a guy the last night who hadn't been on the pool deck once. He spent his entire week gambling and taking in shows. There are 4000 people on these ships and maybe only 500-1000 on the decks on any given day. Most do not spend that much time in the pools. For those that do, well this was a significant headache. I'm not talking about the people that read a magazine sitting on the top deck, I'm talking about the people that actively swim in the pools and sit in the hot tubs trying to have a conversation with their kids, family, friends or shipmates. That was virtually impossible.

 

Regardless nobody should have to see funnels in the pool area and have to answer questions of what the big kids are doing when your kids are getting an ice cream. Nor should a woman leaning over the deck to take a picture hear the chanting of show me your (you know what). C'mon, there's no way that's the image RCCL wants out there.

 

Great points by all.

[Merion_Mom]

 

I think there's a better shot someone from RCCL will see this here and give more weight to the negative reviews coming in from the ship surveys than if we'd complained to someone at a desk that could really care less.

 

 

Well, that is where you are wrong.

 

If you want Royal Caribbean to know something, communicate it to Royal Caribbean directly.

 

Did you fill out the comment form at the end of the cruise and put it in the box near Guest Services? They read those immediately and act on what they read.

 

Talking to the Guest Services Manager and/or the CD would have been a good idea, too.

 

Since, as was pointed out, you were in a suite, talking to the Concierge would have been a good way to make your displeasure known.

 

A message board? Way down on the list of Effective Ways to Contact a Corporation.

[sail2sea]

It was very interesting to read your account and more interesting to see how one week can make such a difference. We were on the ship the week before you and the atmosphere was nothing like what you described at all. I guess timing is everything.

 

Same here. And I suspect a 8-day cruise might be too expensive for college kids.

 

I was on a 4 day cruise on Liberty on the 7th. Had fully anticipated a massive spring break crowd. Turned out it was not that bad.

[LuckiStac13*Majesty*]

Well, that is where you are wrong.

 

If you want Royal Caribbean to know something, communicate it to Royal Caribbean directly.

 

Did you fill out the comment form at the end of the cruise and put it in the box near Guest Services? They read those immediately and act on what they read.

 

Talking to the Guest Services Manager and/or the CD would have been a good idea, too.

 

Since, as was pointed out, you were in a suite, talking to the Concierge would have been a good way to make your displeasure known.

 

A message board? Way down on the list of Effective Ways to Contact a Corporation.

 

Exactly. OP if nothing else, you let them know immediately at the Pursers desk that the behavior is unacceptable and that you are very unhappy with it, so they are aware. If you're unwilling to do that, they will never know how many of their passengers are being affected. You don't have to carry on, just let them know and move on with your cruise. At the very least you should have done that as well as a strongly worded comment card on the final night.

[micmacmissy]

I really appreciate your putting this info and photos out there. I NEVER would have expected spring breakers on a cruise like this- I would have assumed it would be too expensive for them. And I certainly would not expect that kind of Animal House behavior on the pool decks!

 

We travel with our kids and use the pool decks- I don't know what we'd do on a sea day if we couldn't use the pool decks. No kids are allowed in the solarium, and our kids actually enjoyed swimming in the pool, going in the hot tubs, and reading in the pool loungers. Having to keep them away from that area would have been a bummer.

 

I am sorry your vacation was affected and definitely think you should contact RCCL with your photos and let them know! And thanks for the info...I will certainly choose my dates VERY carefully for next year!

 

Also sorry that so many people on this thread and these boards are so rude and dismissive. Very sad to see.

[Ocean Boy]

A little more seriously, I think ship's security needs to be a little more visible during spring break but I don't see a need to crack down on every single infraction. As far as drinking in the pools that should have been stopped early on.

 

I can't say anything about how people dress in the MDR because according to the anti proper dress police as long as they were not wearing their b'day suits all is well with that. :rolleyes:

 

The odd thing is that the week I was aboard, March 2, security seemed to have a constant presence on the pool deck. I don't know how they could have increased their presence or visability.

[Ocean Boy]

Well, that is where you are wrong.

 

If you want Royal Caribbean to know something, communicate it to Royal Caribbean directly.

 

Did you fill out the comment form at the end of the cruise and put it in the box near Guest Services? They read those immediately and act on what they read.

 

Talking to the Guest Services Manager and/or the CD would have been a good idea, too.

 

Since, as was pointed out, you were in a suite, talking to the Concierge would have been a good way to make your displeasure known.

 

A message board? Way down on the list of Effective Ways to Contact a Corporation.

 

There is nowhere near enough room on those forms to give RCI any truly meaningful feedback.

[Iamthesea]

I really appreciate your putting this info and photos out there. I NEVER would have expected spring breakers on a cruise like this- I would have assumed it would be too expensive for them. And I certainly would not expect that kind of Animal House behavior on the pool decks!

 

We travel with our kids and use the pool decks- I don't know what we'd do on a sea day if we couldn't use the pool decks. No kids are allowed in the solarium, and our kids actually enjoyed swimming in the pool, going in the hot tubs, and reading in the pool loungers. Having to keep them away from that area would have been a bummer.

 

I am sorry your vacation was affected and definitely think you should contact RCCL with your photos and let them know! And thanks for the info...I will certainly choose my dates VERY carefully for next year!

 

Also sorry that so many people on this thread and these boards are so rude and dismissive. Very sad to see.

 

I agree! Also send them the video that you took, plus a link to this thread. They DO read these boards. ;)

[rrodriquez2]

There is nowhere near enough room on those forms to give RCI any truly meaningful feedback.

 

Exactly and it won't do any good at that point anyway. We know with certainty others complained we were in line getting a billing glitch taken care of when an adult came in and very clearly spelled out what was going on on the pool deck on day 2 was disgraceful. We saw security show up once that day too and do nothing. It was later on that deck chairs were reportedly thrown over. People here are acting like RCCL had no idea. When the bartenders are miserable and calling security on guests, when they're tossing people off the boat reportedly for throwing things OFF the ship...don't they already know?

 

The odd thing is that the week I was aboard, March 2, security seemed to have a constant presence on the pool deck. I don't know how they could have increased their presence or visability.

 

And that's the weird thing they were mostly absent from our cruise. I guess out of sight out of mind. If they don't "see" the problems they can't get blamed for it?

 

I really appreciate your putting this info and photos out there. I NEVER would have expected spring breakers on a cruise like this- I would have assumed it would be too expensive for them. And I certainly would not expect that kind of Animal House behavior on the pool decks!

 

 

 

We travel with our kids and use the pool decks- I don't know what we'd do on a sea day if we couldn't use the pool decks. No kids are allowed in the solarium, and our kids actually enjoyed swimming in the pool, going in the hot tubs, and reading in the pool loungers. Having to keep them away from that area would have been a bummer.

 

 

 

I am sorry your vacation was affected and definitely think you should contact RCCL with your photos and let them know! And thanks for the info...I will certainly choose my dates VERY carefully for next year!

 

 

 

Also sorry that so many people on this thread and these boards are so rude and dismissive. Very sad to see.

 

 

 

And that's the very reason we were so bummed, our vacation centers around the floating pool and we're willing to pay a lot of money to use it and be close to it. The dismissive behavior here is mostly people that wouldn't be using the pools/hot tubs anyway and/or similar to the fans of Carnival that refuse to admit there's something going on with the reliability of their ships...similar to people that fail to see their favorite sports team isn't as good as they think. It'd be like me dismissing the poster that complained about noise/security being called on the spring breakers down in the inside cabins because we never heard a peep at night in the suites area or the person unhappy about them running out of rum, or the multiple people we heard on ship unhappy that bars would run out of booze and not open visible new bottles for "inventory" reasons. If drinking on the ship is your thing I can see how that could disturb your trip.

 

This could easily have been resolved if security got involved and roughly enforced the drinking age rules, roughly enforced the occupancy rules in the hot tubs (if they had no place to go they'd have gone elsewhere on the ship JMHO), and or roughly enforced the rules against drinking apparatus like funnels being on the ship. It was impossible to miss these things so the only conclusion is that they didn't care. Maybe somewhere a bean counter has calculated the money made off of the groups on this trip outweighs the future lost revenue from frequent cruisers due to unhappiness over what transpired. That's all I can figure.

 

The tone of the people we talked to actually USING the pools was vastly different than what most are saying here that sat in the general area. And I think that's the dichotomy here. If you used the pools each and every day this was a huge hassle. We talked to parents of 20 year old kids not part of the group who refused to use the pools because of the behavior and the fact that 50 people in a hot tub is basically a human broth and even after they left they wouldn't use it for fear of water issues.

 

It is what it is. I'm sure RCCL is aware of the issues either through the booze inventory count being really messed up at the end of the trip, the incidents they did respond to (we didn't hear about the booting at Cayman until many days after but we did see the preceding behaviors) that we didn't know about etc.

 

 

Don't get me wrong. This was a great trip. The service was mostly good although as others noted the bartenders were clearly pretty miserable because they had to deal with these kids most often and I'd probably have quit if I were them! The food was good, the shows were great, the ports great. But this was a huge black mark on the 2 days at sea and the evenings post ports that just never should have happened. The pictures I took don't do the worst times justice. It was only as the week wore on and this continued that I took the photos really out of awe more than anything else that it was still going on.

[temple1]

The odd thing is that the week I was aboard, March 2, security seemed to have a constant presence on the pool deck. I don't know how they could have increased their presence or visability.

 

From what I've read so far, I really don't see where other than drinking in the pool they did anything that awful. In further posts it sounds like security was there more ot make sure things did not get out of control rather than crack down on every infringement of the rules. I wasn't there and from the folks who have posted on here who were - some had very different perceptions than the OP.

 

I am finding the entire topic a true case in message board hyperbole. The folks who have taken the OP's complaints and elevated the activities on the pool deck to a complete Animal House breakdown of all rules and behavior norms. :rolleyes:

 

I think the OP has now worked himself into a major snit about the cruise and our reactions to his indignation. Me thinks he belives there were more rules broken and infringements than actually were taking place.

 

1. If you're not 21 you don't get to order alcohol on the ship.

2. If you're not 21 you have a different Sea Pass and are not allowed to order alcohol on the ship.

3. If you're over 21 everyone in your cabin who is over 21 has to take the drink package, individuals who are not 21 cannot order the drink package.

4. I don't recall any rules about funnels.

5. Really, over occupancy in the hot tubs is a major issue.

6. I cannot imagine the cruiseline waiving it but they do have rules about the age of individuals making reservations on the ship. NOt sure what it is but I doubt it was waived for your cruise.

[rrodriquez2]

From what I've read so far, I really don't see where other than drinking in the pool they did anything that awful. In further posts it sounds like security was there more ot make sure things did not get out of control rather than crack down on every infringement of the rules. I wasn't there and from the folks who have posted on here who were - some had very different perceptions than the OP.

 

I am finding the entire topic a true case in message board hyperbole. The folks who have taken the OP's complaints and elevated the activities on the pool deck to a complete Animal House breakdown of all rules and behavior norms. :rolleyes:

 

I think the OP has now worked himself into a major snit about the cruise and our reactions to his indignation. Me thinks he belives there were more rules broken and infringements than actually were taking place.

 

1. If you're not 21 you don't get to order alcohol on the ship.

2. If you're not 21 you have a different Sea Pass and are not allowed to order alcohol on the ship.

3. If you're over 21 everyone in your cabin who is over 21 has to take the drink package, individuals who are not 21 cannot order the drink package.

4. I don't recall any rules about funnels.

5. Really, over occupancy in the hot tubs is a major issue.

6. I cannot imagine the cruiseline waiving it but they do have rules about the age of individuals making reservations on the ship. NOt sure what it is but I doubt it was waived for your cruise.

 

 

Lol, wow are you naïve about 1, 2 and 3.

 

No RCCL doesn't have a rule about funnels. I plan on bringing my funnel to formal night on the next RCCL cruise. If it doesn't bother some of you at the pools it should be fine at the dinner table or a show while my mates chant show me your ti*s. It should really liven up things, dinner can be stuffy. All acceptable behavior per some of you. :rolleyes:

 

You weren't on the ship, you haven't been on a ship booked as spring break booze cruise unbenounced to most of the ship and you probably haven't been on a ship with those factors AND the alcohol package in place.

 

If this were a CCL cruise many of you would be skewering them.

 

And you're right, aside of throwing things overboard and asking random women on a luxury cruise to show them their ti*s it was really a pleasant experience. Remember that when they do it to your daughter, your spouse or whatever. I guess what a few of you are telling us is that this is normal behavior, all perfectly acceptable, and we should have expected it. I thought booking on RCCL we'd largely avoid the frat behavior but have come to realize I was way off on that.

 

No harm no foul, was a good cruise. Next year I'll bring the funnel.

[rrodriquez2]

The bottom line is I thought the newer/nicer RCCL ships would be above the frat behavior. IE, I thought RCCL had a reputation as being more strict with other lines being the party lines.

 

I think based on what some have said on this thread they are in agreement with that thought. Sadly I learned that wasn't the case. Aside of nudity on the deck I can't think of it really being any worse and I've been to Mardi Gras, Daytona Beach, Lauderdale etc during peak spring break periods dating back to the 25 years ago. The on deck best looking man was not all that much different than the wet tshirt contests at Candy Stripers on the beach in Lauderdale in the 80s and early 90s. It's not something I'd let a kid under about age 15 watch that is for sure and I do not think that was the original intent of the cruise director but like everything else it got stampeded by the kids.

 

I DID NOT expect RCCL to cater to that type of behavior. It surprised and disappointed me. The only advice I'd give to others booking in March is search the internet for spring break cruise + your ship name come next year prior to booking. If using the pools/hot tubs is an issue I can say I'd never set foot on a ship targeted by the TA's as spring break booze cruises. Sure you're going to get smaller groups of kids on every cruise, but not blocks of 50+ rooms like apparently happened on this one. Remember this was really the first week and first year that Spring Break had the inclusive drink packages. I would almost guarantee the behavior on this cruise was far worse than the normal SB period because of it and also that there were a greater concentration of kids. I know the "small" group had 40 kids alone from one well known school. I think combined with the package/group booking it was the fact that 50-150 kids were school were there, knew one another in advance etc. It just made it 3-4 huge frat parties all the time instead of random groups of 4 or 12 meeting up.

 

Hopefully that spares someone the displeasure of what we went through on an otherwise great cruise.

[temple1]

My question - how do you know the rules were broken? I'm too a point in my life a 19 yo looks 30 and a 25 yo looks 18. If they were did you complain at the time? Have you written a letter of complaint to the company?

 

I don't see where you did anything other than complain about their pool deck behavior on here. As others who were on the same cruise pointed out -they didn't see anything that horriffic. I'm having difficulty taking terribly seriously your complaint about more than 20 people in the hot tubs. I was on Independence a couple of months ago and did not get into the hot tubs when there were 5 or 6, I can't imagine even wanting to get in with 15 or more. As for the clothing in the MDR - if you spend any time at all on the boards you will get to know the anti clothes police are in full force so, how dare you question daisy dukes and flip flops in the mdr. ;)

 

I'm glad that over all you had a great cruise. Perhpas next year on HAL things will be more calm.