We flew in from Australia and stayed at the Lago Mar for 3 nights before our cruise. The Lago Mar was wonderful to recharge our batteries before the cruise. Our room was old, but very clean and huge. It even had a kitchenette which was totally unexpected. We were travelling with another party of 8 Australians who had a beachfront suite. They loved their accommodation too.

Boarding the cruise couldn't have been easier. We left the hotel at12pm. It took us about 20 minutes from the time the shuttle dropped us off until we were onboard. Our cabin was ready about half an hour after we boarded. We booked a Central Park View stateroom on deck 9 to be close to our friends who were in a Royal Family suite. Our cabin was similar in size to the other cabins I have cruised in, except no balcony. The window seat was really a waste of space though it seemed like a good idea when we booked. The shower was TINY! A little circular thing that if you dropped the soap, you couldn't bend over to pick it up. Other than that, the cabin was fine. Our friends were very disappointed with the size of their suite. It was much smaller than it appeared in all the brochures. The master bedroom and ensuite were great, but the second bedroom had barely enough room to walk around the bed, and the 2 bunks were right over the top of the bed. They also had to use the sofa bed in the lounge as there were 8 of them. Luckily they had 3 kids, as there was no way 8 adults would have fitted comfortably. There was also very little storage space for prams, suitcases etc for 8 people. Their balcony however was huge and they would have slept out there except that people above vomited over the side, threw drinks over, cleaned off shoes etc and everything seemed to land on their balcony.

Anyway my biggest gripe with the cruise was the number of people. You had to queue for everything. Their venues were no bigger than on smaller ships but they carried 3 times as many people. You had to book to see shows, which I've never had to do on smaller ships.We were not allowed into one show because according to the rude woman on the door we were late, and even though the standby people were not allowed in, she said she would put them in ahead of us, even though we had a booking. The food was ordinary compared to other cruises, but I guess it's hard to cater for over 6000 passengers. We did eat in the Italian restaurant one night and that was very good. The service was very good in all the bars and restaurants and the staff were extremely good, except for the woman on the door of the Comedy Club. Read more