My husband and planned this cruise for my 60th birthday.We chose Royal Caribbean as we had enjoyed a Celebrity Cruise to Alaska and thought RC had a good reputation.The itinerary was attractive offering 8 ports of call [9 including the disembarkation port] in 4 countries : Thailand,Cambodia,Vietnam and China.However,the reality turned out to be a disappointment and I doubt if we will ever use Royal Caribbean again. We started our holiday spending 3 nights in Singapore before we embarked.Our Travel Agent let us down with a poor hotel.Not a good start.Things got worse.At the cruise terminal we discovered that we needed visas for China [despite having asked the Travel Agent what documentation we needed]. It should also be noted that we only got our cruise booklet and holiday tickets on the Friday before we left on holiday the following Tuesday.No reference was made to Chinese visas although visas for Cambodia and Vietnam were identified and available on Board. 107 travellers were in the same situation as ourselves.All had tales of misinformation being given out either by Travel Agents or Royal Caribbean themselves.We have a copy of a letter issued by RC's office in England stating the the Chinese visas could be obtained on Board! At first we were denied embarkation then after 4 hours we were allowed on the ship on the condition that we signed a form to the effect that if the matter wasn't resolved in Thailand we would leave the ship.During the first day at sea,largely due to the numbers involved, RC agreed to engage an agent to act on behalf of the group to get our visas.We were charged for this. By the 3rd day of the cruise our problem was solved. Some other travellers were not so lucky.My main criticism of RC was their failure to keep us informed about the situation.There were lengthy queues at the Purser's desk to get information. Once we were sure we were staying on Board we could relax and enjoy the ship.However,that wasn't always the case.The Legend of the Seas is an old ship and was shabby and grubby in places.Service was inconsistent.Some staff were very good but others were weary and couldn't care less.Service in the dining room was not always good.Waiters had too many tables to serve and lacked attention to detail.Several times dishes were send back either cold or not properly cooked.Each time the Head Waiter promised it wouldn't happen again but it did. We expected to pay more for wine and extras but the quality of wine was overpriced[as ere drinks in the bars].It seemed that RC were charging for extras that should have been standard.eg apart from awful apple and oranges available,guests for breakfast had to pay for the better juices also ice creams and coffees. The exciting itinerary turned out to be somewhat disappointing.Our stay in Thailand was 45mins from Pattaya, the seediest place in Thailand and 3hrs from Bangkok.Similarly,our ports in Cambodia and Vietnam were hours away from the main cities advertised.Some of you may say that we should have researched this more thoroughly.Yes, maybe so, but more information and clarity would have been useful. The entertainment was not good either.Three of the speciality acts were good but the ships' own singers and dancers were amateurish.We didn't like the fact that the casino was huge and we had to walk through it and the smoke to get to the theatre. Final disembarkation communications were muddled.We had been given a pick-up time in Shanghai by our Travel Agent which was earlier that the time the ship was to dock.Trying to resolve this exposed a serious lack of communications between RC's office based administrators and other parts of the organization especially the ship itself. Many of our grievances fall to RC but their agents are culpable too.I would never consider booking another holiday with First Option Travel[Travel Dep.]They contributed to this disappointing holiday experience and their response to our calls from the ship added to our stress. Fellow guests, many who are seasoned cruisers, were equally disgruntled with their experience on board.