Royal Caribbean faces backlash for failing to disclose attraction issue before customers booked

Royal Caribbean passengers have criticized the cruise line for reportedly shutting down popular activities on board without telling travelers beforehand.

The global vacation companyis known for offering extensive water parks on its newer ships, including Category 6, with six slides for children and adults, and Splashaway Bay, featuring canons and drench buckets for younger kids.

However, according to multiple passengers on Reddit, many of the slides at these waterparks, including Category 6 on the Icon of the Seas ship, were closed on a recent sailing.

“We specifically booked this cruise for the water park,” one person wrote. “Unfortunately, the majority of the slides have been closed for multiple days, including sea days, with only ONE slide intermittently open. What’s been frustrating isn’t just the closures—it’s the complete lack of transparency.”

They went on to claim: “Staff are all giving the same scripted ‘maintenance/manufacturer maintenance’ response, no one can provide a timeline, and there’s been zero proactive communication to guests.”

“They advertise the slides on these ships, especially the icon, I can't imagine what the kids would have been like if nothing was open. It's really a bad look,” another wrote in a Royal Caribbean Reddit forum.

“The two-race slides in the tower with the gravity drop were closed. The green tube slide and the yellow short one were closed as well,” a third wrote about their trip on the cruise line’s Star of the Sea ship. “So basically we waited an hour and a half to ride two slides.”

When contacted by Fox News Digital, Royal Caribbean confirmed that a few rides were closed on two ships for maintenance, but did not confirm which vessels were affected. The Independent has contacted Royal Caribbean for comment.

Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas and Star of the Seas are two of the newest ships to be introduced to the cruise line’s fleet; the former debuted in January 2024 and the latter in August 2025.

The ride closure reports come months after a Royal Caribbean passenger was injured on an Icon of the Seas water slide. In August 2025, a man was headed down the “Frightening Bolt” when his skin was “sliced through” by the ride's glass, according to his attorney Alex Perez. The lawyer told Miami news outlet Local10 that the cruise guest was planning to pursue a lawsuit in response, though it's not clear whether one has been filed.

A Royal Caribbean Group spokesperson issued a statement to Local10 after the incident, saying: “Our team provided medical care to an adult guest when acrylic glass broke off a water slide as the guest passed through the slide.”

The water slide was closed for the remainder of the trip and underwent an investigation.