Activities and sports staff on Royal

[Dan83]

In true cruise critic fashion, I’d like to get critical about Royals sports staff and onboard activities. We just finished a week on Harmony OTS. A common theme I saw is new reasons why you can’t do something. And the sports staff seemed to have a bad attitude about it. All in the name of safety. I get it, we all need and want to be safe. Lots of attention paid to safety with my job.  No problem. My suggestion for Royal is to provide more solutions. Royal’s solution is “no you can’t do this activity because”. One little example, I can’t ride the zip line because my cell phone in my pocket. Ok I get it, safety issue, how about a simple solution provided? Maybe a shelf, table, anything really where I can set it down. Nope. No items left inside the rails. People were stacking phones, wallets, sunglasses, etc on the floor beside all the people in line. People in line actually stepping over this stuff left in the floor. Ok so I have an outdated iPhone 11 with a cracked screen but I still don’t want to leave it on the floor for people to step over and I don’t want to walk back to the room.  Whatever, silly rant. 
 

My next gripe is the flow rider. I haven’t rode the flow rider since before Covid. I was never good at it and never will be. But before Covid I could load myself, and maintain enough control to move around and stay up long enough for them to tell me my time is up. I would ride it a few times and be done for the rest of the cruise. I was never one of those guys living in the flow rider line for a week showing off. I’ve been on several cruises since covid but this time I decided I wanted to try flow rider again. But I’ve apparently forgotten my previous flow rider skills and my control wasn’t there. Two attempts per day is what you’re allowed. I could still load myself, and I made it back and forth across the wave about 3 times. But that’s about all I could do. I just wasn’t getting it. And with the psychological pressure of only two attempts, it just wasn’t happening for me. And the staff would only provide minimal basic instructions. During these “tryout” sessions, there was basically no line. Most people were getting their two wipeouts in short order and then sent packing. I’m sure I could have relearned it fairly quickly if I’d had more time and a few more attempts. But the process had me soured a bit. On the third day, I went for my 2 attempts at this coveted white wristband. Nobody in line, the staff was busy shredding, cutting, riding, or whatever you call it. They were noticeably bothered that they had to stop playing and let me have my 2 attempts. It didn’t go well and I gave up after that day. Of coarse they cited safety for these new procedures but one of the sports staff admitted it was because flow rider lines were getting too long. So they added a barrier to entry. 
 

The rock climbing venue seemed to be a lot more chill. Even though the sour staff members would rotate through occasionally, there were a few very nice ones. In my opinion, the rock wall is an under rated workout venue. Get to the top a few times and then try to get faster at it. Pretty solid workout. As long as they’re not busy they will let you have at it. 

[Biker19]

4 minutes ago, Dan83 said:

On the third day, I went for my 2 attempts at this coveted white wristband.

Count yourself lucky as many times they don’t allow subsequent attempts on a different day. Also, “passing” and ability to get the blue wrist band is very subjective based on staff- you just happened to get some not so friendly ones. Many times your described attempts would qualify for the blue wrist band.