Having just read a review about our 12 day cruise to Asia out of Hong Kong, I felt it necessary to tell our impressions of one of the best RCI Cruises we have ever taken. We are Diamond Members. The first thing we did even before booking, was to read extensively on this part of the world and then specifically look at what RCI was offering. Embarkation in Hong Kong was no problem for us. We have always made it a habit to arrive early. A very nice RCI employee from Miami, personally put our luggage on the cart, we checked in and that was that! Dining was a pleasure. Our waiter from China had a great personality and was very efficient.Our tablemates from Australia were fun to chat with. We must admit that we were so tired at the end of the day that we did not attend the entertainment. The ship was satisfactory to our tastes. We had an inside cabin and the steward was great. We never had a complaint. Actually after many hours on tours, this was all we ever needed. Ship activities were available all day long, although we did not participate in many, due to the fact that we were gone on excursions, or just to tired to participate. We expected to be tired! We have no complaints about the service. When we ate at the Windjammer, the staff was extremely friendly, took off the dirty plates,asked us if we needed anything else and greeted us with enthusiasm. A previous review, had a lot of problems with shore excursions. We feel that background study is most important, in order to understand the distance from ports to cities. Actually, we never were bored as the scenery and 'people watching', was spectacular. That is just the way it is in third world countries, traffic, traffic, traffic! We felt that the tour guides were well informed, sure some tours were rushed and we would have liked to have had more time, but there always is a next time. I think everything was spelled out quite clearly about distances and times. We should also note that our destination speaker was excellent and he provided a great introduction to this part of the world.
We also had little problems disembarking. Everything was clearly stated in the disembarkation materials, as to the shuttle, etc. Read everything, that solves a lot of problems.
We can not wait for the next cruise.