After reading some quite negative reviews my partner asked me to pen something in the hope that future cruisers may get some good feedback. We are a couple of older working people who looked forward to this cruise for 9 months from the time it was booked - they say anticipation is half the fun and it sure was.

We spent a lot of time checking out the RCL site and lots of review and information sites so we could make our holiday a memorable one. We booked all our excursions, restaurant bookings and wine package so they were paid for before we left dry land.

We spent a couple of days in Perth prior to the cruise and this was a really lovely wind-down from work time, we arrived at the terminal in Fremantle and were not surprised at having a wait - there were so many people all wanting to board so we sat and people watched - always a good pastime. After we boarded it was very easy to find our way to our stateroom (we had looked at the deck plans online) and after leaving our carry-on bags went to explore. The Promenade was a good place to start so we had a look around and settled in with a welcome drink. After that we went and explored then went back to our cabin - our luggage had arrived so we unpacked and as we had booked dinner in Portofino for the first night headed there and what a lovely experience to start the cruise with - beautiful food and wine, fantastic service - perfect. We then went back to our stateroom in time for departure and watched the farewell in the balmy night air. The whole of the trip up the east coast of Australia was so calm, you hardly knew you were afloat. Read more