This was our third cruise, we've previously cruised the Mediterranean on the Adventure of the Seas and the Baltic on the Brilliance of the Seas and on both occasions we had nothing to complain about. When we went on this cruise we were Gold members of the Crown & Anchor. There was no Welcome Back party which is a good opportunity to meet people. We are creatures of habit and in the evening on the Brilliance it was the theatre at 18.30, the 2nd sitting in the Minstrel Dining Room at 20.20 and then drinks in the Colony Club while listening to live music. That is no longer possible. The quality of the shows was generally poor compared to 2012 and 2015. Some nights there was no show, only a film. The timing was bad, 21.00 and 23.45. 21.00 interfered with dinner and 23.45 was too late. The Colony Club was mainly used for Karaoke which is not Karaoke as we know it in Europe. Passengers were entertaining passengers, very cheap for the cruise line obviously.

Most live music was in the Centrum which has very little seating compared to the Colony Club. The free glass of wine courtesy of the Crown and Anchor club is now only available after buying a glass of wine at full cost. A backward step. Some of the crew do not have sufficient command of the English language, this led to a decision being taken, [not by us], to change our waiter from the 2nd day onwards despite the fact that we speak fluent English, French and Spanish. We had no idea where we were going to arrive on the Cote d'Azur until we arrived and were tendered to Antibes. At different times we were told Villefranche, Cannes and Nice. At some ports of call little or no information and no map was provided about the port town. That was the case in La Spezia, a very pleasant town, Civitavecchia, another pleasant town and Piraeus. Information was only provided about Florence, Pisa. Rome and Athens. The RCL excursions that we took in Antibes, Athens, Mykonos, Santorini and Malta were good but very tiring. Embarkation and disembarkation at the beginning and end of the cruise was dealt with very satisfactorily. We are now at the point of being slightly hesitant about recommending RCL. On the 18th of June 14 family members will be embarking on the Brilliance and 4 of them will be expecting to enjoy the welcome back party. They will be disappointed.