We had never cruised in Asia and my husband was a little leery of taking this cruise. But then he did a complete turnaround and decided we had to do it. We loved the cruise itself and our destination port. Beijing we were not enthralled with. Not a beautiful city. Too many people. Crazy drivers. Our Marriott hotel had hardly anyone working there who could speak English. However we were glad we got to see the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. And we were lucky that we visited during the APEC conference so there were far fewer vehicles on the road and thus less pollution than normal.

But getting to the cruise. Somehow we managed to get all the way to the id scanning station onboard the ship before we realized we had managed to bypass the princess checkin. It was a little disconcerting but the security people did not send us back. They got us cards as we stood there and it was all okay. We liked the ship very much. We had great service in the dining room (traditional dining). Our cabin steward was okay. We seemed to get our nighttime chocolates only occasionally, not every night as we used to get. There was a mixup on our first formal night and we almost missed it because the suit we sent to be pressed came back with the wrong jacket. We did make the dinner but we were late. The ports we visited were on and off okay. Busan was not very interesting. Nagasaki was beautiful. We chose a bad tour for Shanghai. Calling the little village we visited the Venice of the East was really a stretch. We loved Hong Kong and Macao. But be forewarned. Getting the Macao visa is a process that does not end with your visit to Macao. We had to cut our sightseeing in Hong Kong short the second day because the day after our Macao visit we had to present ourselves to the Macao officials onboard our ship to complete the visa process! Not just us. Everyone on our tour had to. Really annoying. Loved our extended land tour to Angkor Wat. An unforgettable experience. Not to be missed. Unfortunately we didn't get to see much of Ho Chi Minh City or Bangkok because we opted for the land tour but it was worth it. Loved Singapore and plan to go back in 2015.

Our cabin was on the eighth deck forward so we had a window with a view. Do not be deterred from choosing a cabin with a window on a promenade deck. I had to press my face against our window to see into the cabin and it was still hard to see in. After I did that I had no hesitation to leave our drapes open. There was an outbreak of norovirus during our cruise. The ship's routine changed a bit because of this. No self service at horizon court. No bread and butter or salt and pepper shakers on the tables at meal time. Service was slower because of so much hand washing and individual service. But we did not get sick and we appreciated how the ship's crew handled everything.