We were on the first cruise out from Dubai. We have posted a letter that we sent to RCI which is somewhere in TA. This is our thoughts and experience in one liners. Please feel free to follow up with any questions. Boarding: Arrived on schedule @ 6.45 am. Taken to a derilect theme park until about 12.00 noon. Outside seeting on wooden benches or wrought iron seats... no cushions but loads of sunshine . Dockside: Queued for about two hours. All checkin terminals working just too many passengers to cope. Those who had NOT checked in on line got through in about 15 minutes... they had a different queue. Stateroom: Level 7 in the middle of the ship with a balcony. First time on any ship so no previous experience to compare it to. We were pleased with our choice of cabin and thought the extra we paid for the balcony was worth it. Power sockets in room are US style so UK passengers need an adapter or travel plug. Food & Drink: Buffet: Windjammer resturant was good with many options. Hot dogs & burgers, fish, pasta, carvery salads or pizza. Some fresh fruit but the fresh fruit salad was the usual apple & melon mix. Normal evening meals: Minstral restaruant American food i.e. mash with roast turkey. A little disappointed as dishes lacked imagination. My wife has an intolerance to wheat & dairy and was given baked potatoes four meals out of six. This despite giving the kitchen 24 hours notice. Formal: Chops Grill. You pay $20.00 pp for a slightly better menu. Fillet steak was very good. Wife had the fish, cooked without sauce, but cold and raw in the middle. Re cooked but no apology! Late night pool party: Loads of fresh fruit available. We asked why they could not supply more choice of fresh fruit during the day. Their answer was that this fruit was loaded on board especially for this party! Drinks: We bought one soda package on the www but probably would not bother in the future. Coke & Sprite were $2.00 each so we think you would need to drink 5 per day to break even. We bought Evian bottles in a 24 pack which almost lasted us the trip, although we did use it for making tea in our cabin. Going ashore: Your passports are held on board and passengers issued with a local border pass at each port as you leave the ship. The border police board the coach at the gate and you all hold your card up to show you have them. When the passports are returned they have entry and exit stamps for each stop. You return the pass when you get back on board. Generally three transport options. Shuttle to dock gates. - Usually free. Shuttle to town. - $5.00 pp each way. (Bookable on board). City tour. - Bookable on board or before you leave on the RCI www. Note... if you book an official tour the ship will wait for you to return. If you do your own thing the ship goes without you. The ship docks in Abu Dhabi on Friday morning but leaves about 6:00 pm. Not a great deal of time to explore the best stop on the cruise. Friday is their Holy day so most shops do not open until after 2:00 pm, even in the malls. Also the city tour includes a conducted tour of the biggest mosque in the UAE. Guess what... everyday except FRIDAY! Enertainment: Excellent team although I suspect it is the standard package on other RCI ships. Not a lot of info on the RCI www before you leave the UK. Good choice of live music in various bars. Overall we enjoyed our first cruise on the BOS but would probably trip a smaller ship next time.