Almost 4 hours - seriously, that is how long it took us to complete the boarding process on Radiance of the Seas on 20th October in Sydney.The Sydney Terminal is undergoing redevelopment and that added perhaps ten minutes to the usual boarding time. The rest is all down to Royal Caribbean - it was nothing short of complete mayhem.

Firstly the on board camera broke down and hundreds of passengers came to a standstill for more than an hour while that was repaired - is there only one camera to record guest ID on Radiance? We lined the length of the deck and back again (another 45 minutes) before ID photos were taken. We entered the ship on Deck 5 where less than friendly staff gave us Indonesia Visa applications which had to be completed and handed in with our passports for photocopy. There were hundred before us, we stood and shuffled for a further two hours. As it later became apparent, none of this had to be done on boarding, but it was more convenient for ship management for it to be done that way. Too bad for the passengers, most of whom were elderly and suffering from the usual aged related conditions. There was little seating or water, and no food, which. seriously compromised the health of diabetics and arthritics. At no time was a general apology made to the passengers. Very poor guest relations all round.

I have completed on line feedback and written separately to RCI , it will be interesting to see if they care enough to respond. Read more