We wanted to visit Australia and spend some time with friends in Melbourne but we also wanted to see a bit more of the country and decided the best way to do so was by cruise ship.

It was our first time on Royal Caribbean having mostly been on Celebrity on previous cruises. First, the bad points, or maybe just not so good. The cruise atmosphere seemed a little downmarket from Celebrity. Each day over the tannoy would be a screeching announcement that bingo would be taking place - much too hi de hi for my liking. In the MDR the service was very quick. It was as if they wanted to get rid of us as quickly as possible. A rather annoying thing was that every night we were asked if we wanted to pay extra for lobster or filet mignon. This was accompanied by a large poster with pictures as if we didn't know what a lobster looked like ! Another irritating thing was that each night the bread rolls would come out to the song 'hot hot hot' and we were expected to wave our napkins in the air. Maybe the last night it would be funny, but every night ?

The cabins were small. There was no fridge. The lifeboat drill on the first day was the longest I have ever experienced. It was extremely hot and we were made line up very close together and left to stand so long that several people fainted. Read more