‘It’s Like Being At Walmart In The Ocean’: Woman Goes On Royal Caribbean Cruise To Puerto Rico. Then She Takes Off From Florida With ‘Unprecedented’ Weather

After posting a list of the things she liked on her Royal Caribbean cruise, one traveler decided post a comprehensive list of the things she did not like about her cruise.

In a TikTok watched over 212,000 times, Lindsay (@lindzor7), runs through the parts of cruising that aren’t for her after a six-night Caribbean cruise on Oasis of the Seas. Her complaints range from things as major as a missed port of call due to high seas to minor issues such as the temperature of the main dining room (too cold).

“I am a complete stranger, this is my opinion, you can have your opinion, we don’t have to agree,” she says. “It doesn’t mean you’re bad for liking cruising, you don’t have to be defensive in my comments section.”

The itinerary of the cruise included,”Nassau, Bahamas; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the Dominican Republic. The trip did not start well, she says, as “unprecedented weather ” brought six to eight foot seas that prevented the ship from docking in Nassau.

The Ship Is The Destination

Though she concedes that “everyone says that it [Nassau] is the worst port, I was excited for it.” Her reason? She’d booked a separate, special excursion to “swim with the pigs,” for her entire family.

The missed port added an entire sea day, which Lindsay said she was initially excited for—figuring she’d explore the ship. However, she ended up “feeling like she was taking a vacation in a giant mall.”

She notes that more seasoned travelers told her, “The ship is the destination, the ports are not.” But she disagrees; she’d been “excited to see what I could see.”

Her next complaint: two out of the three waterslides were broken. “It was very disappointing,” she says. “Additionally, there was one hot tub that she alleges that the maintenance crew decided to drain and paint halfway through the trip.

Crowded Out Of Enjoying The Cruise

Lindsay also wasn’t wild about the crowds and felt like people onboard lose their sense of personal space. “Everyone seems to lose their sense of spatial awareness on a cruise,” she observes. As examples, she points to “people stopping in the middle of a walkway, people with strollers not paying attention to where they’re going.”

She also hated how long it took to go from the bottom of the ship to the top, “About 1,000 years,” she quips.

Lindsay also blasted other cruisers for waking up at the crack of dawn to hoard pool chairs, leaving none for everyone else. “There were people circling and circling and circling,” she says. “If you didn’t get out there by 6 am, you weren’t going to get a chair.”

Throughout her entire time on sea, she says she felt like she was fighting for a seat. Whether that was at the breakfast buffet when she alleges you had to “attack” a table the minute one left, or figuring out dinner. “I didn’t realize people make their reservations for dinner, months in advance.” Since her family ended up making their reservations late, the meals were late.

Finally, debarking the ship was “chaotic,” she asserts. “You have to leave at the butt-crack of dawn. I don’t want to leave at like 6 am, to race to have breakfast, to leave the place that I’m staying. I like to have flexibility,” she says.

Royal Caribbean boasts that Oasis of the Seas is “bigger, bolder, a gamechanger.” With room for 5,400 passengers, Travel Weekly reports that the ship is “one of the world’s largest passenger ships.” Because of its size, “myriad accommodations and amenities are available,” the site says.

The only one that really got the seal of approval from Lindsay? The spa, where she got an hour and a half deep tissue massage. “I loved that, my massage therapist, she rocked,” she says.

How Do People Feel About Cruises?

Overall, people in the comments section were pretty understanding. Many shared that they also find cruising distasteful. “I think you gave an accurate picture of what it’s like to cruise,” noted David.

Heather Mc agreed, “All great notes. I hated it for the same reasons.”

A few people tried to convince Lindsay there are better options out there. “Try Mediterranean cruise on a smaller ship maybe,” Steve McStevenevens suggested.

Multiple users urged her to try a Disney cruise. “Disney cruise would never. Great for kids,” assured Alexandra Weber.

Everyone has their idea of an ideal vacation. For some, it’s cruises. For others, like Lindsay, it’s anything but that.

As one person deadpanned, “It’s like being at Walmart in the ocean.”

At the end of her post, Lindsay reasserts that these are her opinions, “I will probably never take a cruise ever again, but if you like cruising, there’s nothing wrong with that either.”