We are senior, experienced cruisers. Most of our cruising experience has been on Princess ships. We joined this ship immediately after it had undergone a major refurbishment in Singapore. It was a re-positioning cruise to Sydney. It was a good fly/stay/cruise deal so we thought we would try a RC ship for a change.

Well, NEVER AGAIN!! Firstly, we waited several hours to board because several hundred drunken passengers from one of the ship's suppliers refused to leave (why didn't they just call the police??), plus they had fouled the ship with vomit etc. and that had to be cleaned up. The balcony cabin was very nice, once we managed to get there. But there was ZERO staff service provided. Nowhere to sit quietly and be served upon; coffee, drinks, snacks etc. You had to line up EVERYWHERE, buy your drink etc, then walk huge distances back to find a seat! The staff were incredibly incompetent and unbelievably rude! A Starbucks counter in the main dining area dispensed the usual garbage they call coffee at a high price. The food was very poor and always the same. Staff guarded the ice and drink dispensers with their lives, and diluted the drinks (orange juice etc) so much it was undrinkable! A huge queue of disgruntled passengers were lined up at the Customer Services desk, most of the day, every day! We, like many others, demanded a refund of our gratuities; I mean, gratuities for what? There was no service provided!!! Although we gave a good tip to our cabin attendant; he was good.

There was a 'meet the Captain' Q&A session in the theatre. Most passengers wanted to vent their spleen at the pathetic "service". But the Captain didn't want to listen; he dismissed the complaints as 'teething problems' after the refit, and made fun of unhappy passengers. His view was that RC had spent millions of dollars on a refit, and now people want "chocolates on their pillows"!! How impudent of them!! The Captain clearly didn't give a d**n about what the passengers thought! Read more