My wife and I had some concerns prior to starting our cruise, after reading some of the bad reviews, however, we soon realised that the version of events portrayed by many of the negative reviewers was very far from reality. This was effectively our first cruise and although everything was not perfect all the time, we cannot fault Royal Caribbean and their excellent, committed staff. Embarkation was straightforward and we were soon in our balcony cabin which was extremely well appointed, with plenty of room and lots of space for clothing, etc.

We had most of our breakfasts and lunches at the Cafe 270 which was rarely busy and had a good selection of mainly healthy foods. The waiters were very prompt in clearing dirty plates, etc. We had pre-booked all of our main service dining rooms and speciality restaurants which I would definitely recommend. They were all of a good to very good standard, though some of the starters were disappointing. Our favourite restaurants were Silk and Jamie's Italian, where the service was always very good.

There was some very good entertainment on board, particularly 'We Will Rock You' and Bobby Davro and also the house band at Solero's Bar. Though 'The Gift' was not to our taste and we left after 10 minutes. Read more