We arrived at the passenger terminal fairly early as our flight arrived in Sydney at 8 AM and we really had nothing else to do. We thought we would have to wait until our deck's call time, which was 2 PM I believe, to get on the ship, however they just started letting pretty much everyone on. They would call a deck, wait a minute or two, then call the next. That's probably upsetting for people who don't know that and wait until their scheduled time to embark, however it worked out for us and I was pretty happy about this as we were very tired from the 17hr flight to Sydney. The entire process went very smoothly and quickly. We were on the ship within 20 minutes. This has never happened to me before! I have always had to wait in the terminal. So, again, this was a lovely surprise and I'm glad this terminal has their s**t together.

We LOVED this port! We didn't do an excursion here because the island is just so easy to go off and do your own thing on. We did attempt to get to the natural swimming pool, however the guide told us the "high chief" closed it to anyone that isn't staying at a resort. Okay, whatever. We still had a really fun time. The local kids were extremely nice and helpful and loved to show us the sea snakes and ride on the back of our kayaks. I'm glad they got to have a fun day on the beach! Snorkeling here is alright, not the best we saw but definitely fun for someone who maybe hasn't been snorkeling before. The current was calm enough for kids to snorkel as well. I was very upset to see many people stomping on and kicking coral, however. I didn't want to be "that person" but I did find myself explaining to people that coral is ALIVE and you shouldn't be touching it, much less stomping on it and kicking it around. I wish cruise lines had a mandatory presentation, perhaps before or after the muster drill, that explained the importance of leaving wildlife alone when out in ports. In a perfect world, this shouldn't have to be mentioned, but based off what I saw, it definitely should. There were some local food options available on this island, with a little bit of light shopping as well. We didn't eat on land, but it smelled good! I bought a few trinkets as I always do and they took AUD. There were stray dogs on this island, and although none of them seemed rabid or hostile, we did see them pee on a lot of people's bags and towels laid out. Fortunately, we had a bag we were able to hoist up onto a tree branch and we just hung everything that way.

BEAUTIFUL island, but an awkward time nonetheless. Did not book a tour through RC here because I went directly through the same company RC uses. Apparently there was a death on the mainland, so less boats were available for use by the tour companies on this island. These companies decided it would be safe to take passengers (including kids) out into the heavy surf and leave them without a boat while they used the boat for another booked tour. These guys didn't speak great english, and overall it was just a very confusing time. Hardly any food offered on this island, either, besides chips at the marketplace. Once we abandoned the idea of a tour, we just rented some cheap kayaks and went out on our own. Snorkeling wasn't great on this island unless you were able to go out by boat, and the current was fairly rough, so it was tough to swim out very far. The island has a tiny airport that actually had a plane land on it while we were there, so I was able to get extremely close to it taking off and get some cool footage. The market was fairly large but just had the same stuff over and over at every stall. Some cute trinkets, though. Overall, this is a very beautiful island but I wish Royal Caribbean would was able to have more involvement in it without ruining it for the locals. For example, RC should have a shore excursion manager present at these tour huts to avoid confusion and potential safety hazards, as Royal offers tours through these same people. I also really felt bad for most of the people here, in general. They clearly rely on tourism as their main income, but no one seemed that nice when approached. I felt bad for the kids they made sit out for hours and sing songs with a bucket for donations. They did not seem happy to have to do that. It wasn't til the end of the day that they were allowed to play on the beach, which was I was happy to see.