PreCruise: Fabulous stay at the Bangkok Intercontinental - newly refurbished, lovely room on the club floor, wonderful included breakfasts, snacks, afternoon cocktail hour, concierge services. We booked with Oriental Escape for 'door to door' service - airport pickup, tours, drop off at the port, pickup on our return and drop off at the Novotel, another very pleasant hotel with excellent service. Must sees in Bangkok are the Grand Palace, Wat Po, the Golden, Jade, and Reclining Buddhas, a long tail boat ride and, if you can manage it, the morning floating market. Tailor made clothing is high quality and relatively inexpensive - DH had a wonderful dinner jacket and tuxedo trousers, dress shirt made to order in a mere three days and fit and finish were exquisite, from Rajawongse Tailors adjacent to the Landmark Hotel.
Embarkation: Not as bad as some, but a long drive out from Bangkok, and roads are not the best, and crowds were pretty heavy, even though we arrived later in the day. Not much going on in the way of 'expedited' boarding for Platinum and Elite passengers. Luggage arrived promptly, once we were on board.
Cabin: We booked one of the fabled aft corner cabins on Caribe deck - C748. Cabin size is typical of a BB balcony cabin, balcony size is somewhat larger, views from the balcony were nice, but the cabin had significant vibration during certain maneuvers and some engine noise as well. Bottom line - not sure what the fuss is all about and we won't be trying that hard to get another aft balcony cabin - it is a long long way from everything!