This was our first experience with RCCL and one which we really looked forward to, given the hype around the arrival of this new ship to Sydney, the largest ever to call Australia home, albeit only for 10 weeks. 'Supercruising Has Arrived' is what we were promised, but what was delivered was far from that, sadly.

Take nothing away from the ship itself, it is beautiful with lots of lovely 'spaces', bars and restaurants, gadgets like the Bionic Bar, large touch screens everywhere etc, but the biggest let down was the quality of the food in the main restaurants. Bear in mind, this was the first ever cruise out of Australia for this ship, having come from and being built for the Asian market. It was Christmas as well and I we paid a pretty large premium to be on this cruise compared to others in it's short Sydney season. We certainly did not get value for money.

My wife is a chef and she generally drives her friends crazy on holiday, posting pictures of food to Facebook. We have certainly done this many times on Carnival and Princess. However, on this cruise, she did not take one picture of any dish, such was the lack lustre presentation of the food, let alone the poor quality of the cooking. Read more