What Royal Caribbean is actually like, and who it suits
Royal builds the biggest ships in the world and fills them with things no ship needs: ice rinks, surf simulators, a ten-storey slide, in one case a roller coaster. That is either the entire appeal or exactly the problem.
For families with kids over about six, it is very hard to beat. There is enough onboard that a sea day never runs out, and the private destinations are genuinely well done rather than a beach with a bar.
The cost of that is crowds. Six thousand passengers means queues for the good stuff, reservations for the shows, and lifts that never come. People who love Royal have made peace with it. People who hate Royal usually hated the crowd, not the ship.
Ship choice matters more here than on any other line. An Oasis-class giant and an older Vision-class ship are barely the same holiday.
If you have sailed both a big one and a small one, which would you book again? That question comes up constantly and the answers are all over the place.
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