We stay in Hong Kong before the cruise which is the best thing to do. We embark very smoothly in hong kong and disembarkation in Brisbane was great. While the ship is looking old and could do with revamping, I really loved the cabin, while I normally don't like a soft bed it was okay. I ate in the buffet for most lunches and the selection was great especially as a diabetic I loved having choices of dessert that are sugar-free and tasted great. Entertainment and activities where good but more activities that tailor to the guest would great i.e more craft. The front desk had long lines during the first 2 days of the cruise. While the tender ports you had to wait longer if you were not an organized tour but as experience cruisers, we expected that. Of all the sun princess have some great points and only a few issues that can be rectified Read Less

We chose the cruise for the Ports of call & arrival destination of Brisbane (our home city). Sailed from Hong Kong with stops in Manila, Puerto Princess, Kota Kinabalu, Bali, Darwin, Cairns & Airlie Beach. The ship has been sold & it felt evident during our cruise. Staterooms very dated. Food in dining room very disappointing (numerous meals sent back). We had room key issues with having to get one sea pass replaced 8 times during the journey. Wifi advertising misleading so we opted for none. Shore excursions misleading (wildlife sanctuary in Kota Kinabalu is a Zoo). Cruise arrived in most ports after 9am which meant that you couldn't book a local tour of the reef as they all depart by 9am, one staff member said they have to sail slowly because there is shopping on board. On board activities - not enough indoor - didn't improve until last 3 days. Housekeeping staff were excellent. Cruise Director - WHO? Saw the Captain more than the CD. All that said we had a lovely holiday. Read Less

We chose this cruise for the itinerary. The port experiences were as expected, quite happy with the ports ..... all first time visits except Australia. It was a very low budget cruise ..... but the cruise price wasn't!!!! Embarkation was very smooth at the Kai terminal. It is huge, the team were organized and kept the crowd moving smoothly. It was nothing like the mess we had heard of from previous cruisers. They have listened to previous reviews .... thank you for that. The cruise clientele was mixed, Australian, US, Asian, Canadian and European. A wide range of tastes to accommodate. The food was repetitive, and pretty much boring. The beef was horrible, there was more salmon served then I have ever seen. The 'used food' in the buffet had no flavor and obvious ..... last night's Yorkshire pudding, veggies, roast meats chopped, sliced etc and recooked..... tough, dry and tasteless. Small but I loved it .... there were poached eggs and hollandaise in the buffet every day. =0) Many of the staff were new, lacking training and nervous for the first few days of the cruise. No one seemed to know what they were doing. The dining service improved as the days went on. Many officers seemed to be in active clean up duty. The bar staff were all excellent. The CD team was wonderful. We really enjoyed James, Sophie and Shreta (sp), they are personable, professional and top notch. The spa offers were generous. I had my gel nails repaired, excellent service. The comedians, musicians, hypnotist, orchestra and small bands were all very good. The officer entertainment was the best! It was really nice to see the officers in events during the cruise. The dance team were good, the shows were not what we have come to expect from RCCL. The Diamond teams in both the lounge and Viking overflow and our cabin staff Okle and Ide were also excellent. The ship was in good condition. We weren't sure what this would be like considering it has been sold, delivery to happen in 2017. It was not a good example of an RCCL cruise, many first timers we met said they would not choose RCCL again. We took the Legend in 2007 to the Mexican Riviera, and it was pretty much the same. We found it very strange and interesting that it hadn’t changed. The ship won’t be available …. But not sure we would do this itinerary again. Read Less

The embarkation process in Hong Kong was smooth and quick. The Legend of the Seas, whilst small, was a great home for 18 nights. The crew were helpful, although a few of them were new and learning it didn't interfere with the amazing service. Our cabin, with balcony, was clean and big enough for the 2 of us. Our cabin steward was excellent and kept it clean and tidy the whole time. We dined in the dining room very night and our food was delicious and plentiful. The staff there ensured my gluten free diet was looked after properly. There was plenty of activities and entertainment, although there was a bit of time in the afternoons where not too much happened. Either way you could find something to do if you went looking! Overall,the service was excellent and given this was our 6th cruise with Royal Caribbean, we will definitely cruise with them again. In fact we have booked son Anthem of the Seas next September! The experience was a great one! Read Less

This was a really relaxing cruise. Legend have great staff who go out of their way to help. We had an issue with our cabin (#3533) which was located under the glass washing room for the R Bar and Schoner Bar. So every night between 10.30 - 2.30 was a bit of noise. Day 6 we spoke to Adeline from guest service and we were shifted to #8075. An awesome cabin and location. We were surprised she shifted us, as we said we were happy where we were, but could they ask to get them to control the noise. The only real issue, if you can call it that !!! was at Bali. Royal Caribbean used local tenders as this was a tender port. The tender ashore went well, but the winds came up around 11.00am. We returned at 11.30am and it was a slow return and very rough. Because the tenders used carried 150 - 180 pax, loading and unloading was really slow, because numbers as well as a lot of disabled people on this cruise. (Which was great to see, as in Pacific Island tender ports "if you can't walk on tender, you don't go")so this meant tenders were sitting and waiting to unload on ship for 20-30 min. But weather isn't Captains fault, and he has no control over the speed of local tender operators. I think the only downside for us was the constant whinging from so called well travelled cruisers about everything (24/7). Some people just need to chill out and smell the roses. We always dine in the Main dining room, as not a fan of the buffets. Think they bring the worst out in people plus they always over eat. Dining room food and service was great. People on our table had some meal they didn't like or wasn't what they expected, but waiter replaced it straight away with what ever they wanted. Keith and Sanie were awesome as always, and the staff all over the ship were really helpful, I think it's a same RCI are selling the Legend and moving to bigger ships. We like the small ships as you get to know all the staff and know your needs with in a few days. Thank you Legend of the Seas for a great cruise. Read Less

Over the years we have had many cruises on a variety of ships, this cruise from Hong Kong to Brisbane is by far the worst we have experienced. Boarding was a big plus in Hong Kong but on boarding there was no assistance to find our cabin, no little ship map, nobody to point us in the direction we needed. 1st evening drinks in the schooner bar were a disaster as the noise was horrendous with someone on a mike trying to talk down the crowd, we moved to the Centrum only to be blasted by a 6 piece band playing at 150 decibels in a small area. So much for a quiet drink, & this kept up for the entire journey, there just wasn't anywhere to get away from the constant noise of people screaming into microphones in the lounges or on deck. The only quiet spot was the Viking Crown lounge but you were barred after 4.30pm. Main dining had to be the most poorly organized, an evening meal could take over 2 hours, lunch was the same with only soup & main being served in that time. We never got deserts as after 2 hours we gave up & left The Windjammer bistro was permenantly overcrowded, breakfast omlete could take 1/2 hour in line to be served, only 1 server/cook for 2000 people, toast was served by 1 opereator with 1 toaster with long lines for service. We won't mention the quality of the food on offer but needless to say it was cold, tastless, poorly presented, meats were generally rehashed from previous offerings & hot didn't occur. After 2 days at sea the bars ran out of Australian & S/E asia beers on a ship full of Australians. Drink vending & ice cream machines constantly had signs "out of order" on them or were not refilled. 60 % of passengers contracted a chest/throat infection due {I think} to the poorly maintained air filters etc. The ship had a terrible musty smell about it, It took us 5 hours to get off the ship in Bali by tender & then 3 hours to get back on If you didn't buy a ship's tour {seriously overpriced} you were relegated to getting off after all tours had departed. Wait staff were constantly saying sorry for the poor food quality being served up & our waiter would bring back-up main courses for that which was rejected Have just been to the GP because of the virus contracted on the ship, am advised it is a serious bout of broncitus bordering on pnumonia & could take a month to recover using antibiotics We will not be back on a Royal Carabean ship again & many passengers I spoke with said the same, NEVER AGAIN Read Less

This was a 18-night repositioning from Hong Kong to Brisbane visiting port of Manila, Puerto Princesa, Kota Kinabalu, Bali, Darwin, Cairns and Airlie Beach. The ship & the crew were good in general. The food was not bad in quality. However as Royal Caribbean is an America company, all the supply was by containers from America. As such the variety in food was a bit limited and became a bit boring at the later stage of the 18 nights trip. In the buffet restaurant, the water & ice dispensers always ran slow, empty or out of order. The most disappointed part is the land excursion arrangement. The excursion staff did not have much knowledge about the destinations. The Excursion Manger admitted that she had not personally visited the locations before. Choices of excursion tour were a bit limited. The price of tour was very expensive to double the average local price. The time at port was rather short and not good as well. At Darwin, Cairns & Airlie Beach, the ship arrived at late morning. Other than joining the excursion tour, independent travellers would find no sufficient time for them to explore on land. The tender arrangement at Bali and Airlie Beach was a disaster. At Bali, we were fortunate in taking the first tender out but on return spending more than 2 hours in waiting & tendering back to the ship on the last tender. A lady informed that she got the tender ticket at 9am and arrived on land at about mid day. At Airlie Beach, we did spend more than 2.5 hours waiting for the tender to go on land. Also the ship arrived in the late morning at many ports, such that it was not possible for independent travellers joining the local tours. However for Manila, we found an excellent local travel agent "Baron Travel (sales@barontravel.com.ph)" on the internet. We booked a half day city tour with them and fully paid - much cheaper than the cruise excursion tour. Our arrival time delayed 2 hours due to the change of route to avoid the typhoon. We could not contact the agent on ship but they had amended our tour accordingly and the tour bus picked us up & dropped us back inside the cruise terminal. I highly recommend Baron Travel for any local tour in the Philippines. There was room for improvement with entertainment as well. Some popular art & craft sessions were held around the piano in the Schooner Bar such that only about 10 seats available. A bigger venue should be provided. Bingo ticket was very expensive at about US$30 for a set of 5 games with 2 tickets for each game. The morning seminar of 8 sessions on Chinese art was boring. The topic is a very interesting one but the lady did not provide interesting or detailed information. She only talked about her own work in the second half of each session. In summary, this 18-night cruise schedule was good that it visited some very interesting destinations. Royal Caribbean could make the trip much more enjoyable by providing sufficient excursion time in port - better arrive early in the morning and leave late in the afternoon to provide passengers with a whole day to explore the destination. There are much improvement work can be done in shore excursion arrangement especially in tender arrangement. Read Less

We chose this cruise because of its itinerary and becasue, as a repositoning cruise, it offered good value. There were many positives about this cruise - 1. Our junior suite was very roomy, well set out, with lots of storage space. The balcony was also a good size, ideal for drying laundry. The bathroom included a bath, and had good lighting - a rarity in so many hotel bathrooms these days. 2. The food and service in the dining room were both excellent. 3. There was plenty of entertainment, although much of its was pretty standard pub entertainment. 4. A choice of bars and lounges gave options for socialising. 5. Our waiters and stateroom attendant were all brilliant. They work so hard! 6. Speciality restaurants such as the Chops Grille offer very good quality meals at a reasonable price. However, there were many negatives, and some of these were significant. 1. We only booked one shore excursion, mainly because the prices were so high. The Manilla city historic tour was very interesting, but terribly rushed! They tried to pack far too much in, and our guide,poor woman, was determined to squeeze all the sites in, even though bad traffic meant we were running late. We had about 25minutes in the National Museum, and I was so frustrated. There were many interesting exhibits, but she kept herding us through like cattle. The size of the group (40) meant that only the few standing right near her could hear the commentary - that is such bad organisation. What about a microphone? 2. A major problem lay in the huge delays and inefficiency when it came to transporting people off the ship on tenders. The groups who had booked cruise excursions always had first preference - that's fine, but what about all those who want to free range? At Bali we waited nearly 3 hours for our numbered ticket to be called. Given the traffic problems in Bali, that meant we could not possibly get to Ubud, the main cultural site. It was a totally wasted day. At Airllie Beach, similar chaos prevailed. The ship management really needs to get this right. 3. The prices at the beauty spa were exorbitant, especially given that 18 % gratuity on top of everything. 4. Oh those dreadful art auctions! Who dreams up this kind of thing? The standard of art made Ikea productions look like Renaissance art. It just seemed that at every possible opportunity, the management was trying to squeeze money out of passengers. 5. DRinks are exorbitant, but I suppose that is to be expected. 6. The Windjammer Cafe offered 3 meals a day, but it was appalling quality. Think school cafeteria. 7. Any complaints were politely received by staff at the guest services desk, but then nothing happened. We saw staff listen to the complaints, and then....they did not even record the issue of concern on their computer. They just turned to the next person,smiling benignly. 8. The pool at the aft deck had dangerously slippery tiles all around the area. Despite being very careful, one of our group slipped and injured her knee. Surely people slip there all the time! But, the management just puts up signs saying - caution - slippery floors!! Well,fix the floors!! Put down outdoor carpet or rubber matting. Is that so hard? Read Less

The legend of the seas from Hong Kong to Brisbane.What a disaster.Nothing to like about this cruise.Food dry and tasteless,same unappetizing food in both the dining room and the Windjammer buffet.Cakes could be used as frisbies so dry and rubbery .We had to climb into bed from the end as the was no side access.Toilet blocked up twice.Staff although friendly and did their job it was very hard to communicate as their English was very poor.As for the coffee, you needed to pay extra for a double shot so you could taste the coffee.Took my complaints to the Guest services manager who promised to get the food and beverage manager to contact me ,I'm still waiting.Also a 20 minute tender trip took 50 minutes as we waited with no airconditioning while 2 other tenders unloaded supplies.To top it off they left envelopes in the room for tips after we had already paid gratuities. Definitely would not cruise with Royal Caribbean again.Feel ripped off. Read Less

We travel to Australia on a regular basis every year and wanted another way to get there. Some friends were booked on this cruise so we agreed to meet in Hong Kong and sail back to Australia together. The rest needs no further explanation than the letter I sent to their customer services, to which they replied Sorry, sorry, sorry sorry. Hot Food, improved menu experience,More relaxation space, better selection of cabins for guest ( excess noise 24h/7),More selective marketing,( Hong Kong to Singapore was horrendous for western individuals),Continuous queues from guest services to the bars via elevator lobby loops.The Windjammer was a cafeteria not a buffet, spent too much time with breakfast searching for seating to enable two people to sit together. Particularly when when returning to the table after the search and finding with breakfast in hand, that the table was occupied again, ( Chinese travellers) and our articles removed from that table. "Fine Dining" what fine dining the menu was totally not as described just a few examples "Prawn Linguini" was just two prawns on the top of poor pasta and a sauce, Spanish Tapas, with much experience of this dish in Spanish variations this was enough to cause the 3rd world war with Spain, the chefs interpretation of dishes was obtuse to say the least .The only meal that was as described was the grilled steak served with a "portion " of mashed potatoes which we had to request at least twice to satisfy our palate this was still Luke warm.The delivery of food from the lower floor by elevator on un-heated trolleys with the ensuing delays before arriving at the table is quite unacceptable, many clients in our group used the Windjammer "Cafeteria" for evening meals. These menu issues were not as much of a problem for the last two days and nights to "sweeten" the departures so why for the other 21days? The waiting staff were excellent and worked well under the circumstances, staffing was stretched. After hours of queuing, two and a half hours on 2 occasions on the 2nd and third day of the cruise for example to get customer service is ludicrous! three and a half hours to alight the vessel for and 8 hour visit to Vietnam, or the Sanya Island China not including the transfer by tender was an insult as we had paid 69$ per person for an excursion which resulted in a flying visit after a further 2 hour +coach journey to our destination which resulted in the fact that only photographs were allowed as the coach slowed, at major places of interest, which were meant to have been visited. Allowed 90 minutes for our shopping plus lunch break was reduced to 30 mins to eat lunch at 3.45pm. The visit to Ho Chi Min spice market resulted in a jog from drop off to coach alighting over roads and street obstacles which at 72 years old was not just an extreme effort but was somewhat dangerous to our health.Let alone paying for the experience. This was on both trips to Vietnam. 218$.00 US each person. The organisation of departure from the vessel to tenders was chaotic, the checking of registration of sea pass should have been within the vessel after alighting from the tender and not a long queue yet again on the catamarans earring 3 to 4 hundred passengers, allowing vessels return faster for more clients and reducing stress on the clients standing on vessels in rough sea conditions. The deck 5 walkway was almost impossible at times to pass, and the venues were too small it was impossible to get to the bars for drinks because of numbers or too join in any of social events on this deck.The entertainment in Scala Theatre and the Ice rink was high in content and comfortable to watch. although with the latter ,saving of seats by clients was out of control, Reservation for friends without vouchers was rife and voucher holders were left to stand in the Isles. The 14th floor being reserved for diamond dining until 10pm every night was not helping with overcrowding in other areas around deck 5 which bordered on dangerous in the event of a catastrophe. The Sidebar Events water colour painting, and seminars were over subscribed for the space allowed in the conference centre, and were recommended and informing. Finally, our first 3 days & nights were a disaster due to inability to sleep through excess noise in the cabin (2604) Sleeping during ship downtime during visit to Sanya, and after that time and patiently queuing as described and with assistance from Mr Sacha and Mr Li of customer services we were moved to the 6th floor which was tranquil for a further 4 days when we were to be returned to deck2 again,Only finding out by accident before the event, and not told after being promised that our first move was for the duration of the cruise, which apparently was in Singapore not Sydney Australia, this was unacceptable in our view, and only on threat of removing ourselves from the ship in Singapore, were we moved to another 6th floor accommodation. berth 6570, being told that this was the only alternative we suffered the stench of sewerage every day despite the fact of reporting the same on several occasions to staff.What is the point of repeated cleaning of hands and sanitising to live with this dangerous bacterial Odour, when it was clearly a serious problem which the "plumbers" were unable to solve being seen several times trying to fix. The Ship had a great ambience but was far too crowded for good cruise experience not having enough "FREE" space, other that the sundeck area and for sure some of the unused area on deck 12 could be covered to provide some. Not knowing the food budget we cannot criticise the chef directly? but the menu was not delivered with a level of expectation afforded by your brochures or in a manner to provide FINE Dining,only at limited times reaching a mediocre level. Overall, we feel that the experience was not a good one and on present levels we would not travel with Royal Caribbean again and are certainly looking for recompense for the excursions as booked and not delivered and furthermore a substantial discount on the amount paid for this debacle and overpriced offering not withstanding the charges for the liquor bar prices for inferior wines and feel that this view should be advised to Trip Advisor Social media. Read Less

Cruising with friends. Ports of call very good however, would skip Sanya, not much to see/do and locals anti some visitors. Our cruise was marred by the huge queues from beginning to end I.e embarkation 3 hours, trips ashore long queues too. 6 hour round trips to 50% of our site seeing tours I.e Tunnels. Double check you itinary for ship tours. We ended up in a zoo (not good experience for animal lovers) obligatory marketing visits to jewellery or printing factory inc!. Our shopping trip section of the shore trip was cancelled due to departure time of ship and the long journey back to the ship. Tours expensive. Pre booking from home locally led tours Ie Happy Tours requires your credit card details up front! So ship has captive audience? Ship v/good. Food excellent but very slow service. Definitely need to book your table for evening dining. Shows for visiting on/off entertainers hit and miss. Animation team very good. Cabin staff wonderful Read Less

* We began our cruise in wonderful City of Hong Kong where we spent 4 wonderful days before our cruise. There was plenty to see and do with my family of three and 4 other couple making up a party of eleven. We undertook the get on get off bus tours around the city which took us to most parts of Hong Kong and out to the small and quaint village of Russell. Disneyland, the Peak, shopping, riding the Tram to the Peak and sites and atmosphere of the ladies and temple street markets will stay in our memories for a lifetime. *We looked forward to day 4 when we were to Board Voyager of the Seas for Two cruises which were from Hong Kong to Singapore and Singapore to Sydney. *Check in- It took us nearly an hour and a half to get from the motel to the check in at the Ship - we could see the ship across the harbour from our motel (Which was less than 500 meters away) so we assumed that it would take us no time at all to get to our ship. How wrong were we. Although we were close we did not expect the long wait in traffic to get into the terminal. It was so bad and it cost us around $90 for the taxi fare from our Motel to the terminal. If we had a row boat or a raft to put our luggage on we could have swam to the ship in a quarter of the time it took us to get through all the traffic delays to the terminal. The area around the terminal is so congested with roadwork's and traffic all going to one area. Didn't help having two large ships being at the one terminal. (Mariner of the seas was also at the terminal) so you had over 7000 people trying to get to one area to board two ships, Our taxi driver kept apologising for the length of time but it was not his fault as everyone was in the same predicament trying to get to the terminal. * Check-in at the terminal was ridiculous, the line up was so long and it took ages to get to the check-in counter. Once we got there we were told that we needed a photocopy of our passports so RCI took our passports to make photocopies and then we got back in line. This same episode was happening to most people who were boarding the ship, not just us. Maybe RCI should advise travel agents of this requirement so passengers take copies of their passports as they are required at check in. * Once we proceeded to board our passports were taken from us at the entry onto the ship. We thought this strange as this has never before happened to any of our group nor a lot of other people we spoke that your passports are taken from you. They were not returned till we got Singapore. Our Passports were again taken from us when we continued on our second cruise from Singapore to Sydney. We got them back the day before we arrived in Darwin as Australian immigration were on board the ship and processed our arrival into Australia. * We had dinner the first night in the Sapphire Dining Room (my time dining). There wasn't enough staff in the dining room so they brought staff up from the Windjammer restaurant who were not trained properly to serve guests. The table service was really bad and meals were being mixed up. As we were a large party of 11 people they provided our group with one table which was good but the waiters did not know how to take orders for drinks and meals properly. We had arranged to eat every night at 6.30 pm so we were concerned if we had done the right thing. We were swapping meals with our friends and having to eat meals we had not ordered so everyone could eat together. We ordered drinks and if they didn't have what you ordered, they just replaced them with something totally different, without asking us first. So we ended up with all these opened drinks on the table that no-one had ordered. We were not charged for them but you don't assume someone will drink something completely different to what you ordered. After that night (after complaining) they replaced the wait staff that looked after us and the new waiters who had been on the ship for a long time were extremely professional with the service of both food and alcohol. We also went to Italian Restaurant one night for our wedding anniversary, Food was nice but nothing special. We had a great laugh listen to a group of oldies who travel quite frequently about their travels and experiences over many years. We also ate at Johnny rockets one lunch time and food was also Ok and plenty of it. We walked away a full as boots eating Greasy Hotdogs, burgers and Fries but the atmosphere was good and we had a number of laughs and sing along with the staff. * Guest Services - The guest services line up and wait time was ridiculous and there staff were very unhelpful. - If you were making enquiries or seeking information you had to stand in queue at times for up to 2 hours with many other passengers to try and source information. Many of the guest standing in line were missing out seeing some of the night activities and shows. I learnt to get up early and go down to guest services at 6.00am in the morning so that he could avoid the queues which formed everyday after about 8.00 am and would be there all day till approximately 11.00 pm. After a few days they had someone walking up and down the line trying to triage some of the questions that needed to be asked at guest services. Quite often though they could not answer a question and write down your question and advise you they would call you back and let you know the answer. This never happened and was quite disappointing after spending so long in the lines not to get a response. Shore excursions was also poor hence why we did not take a lot of tours. We asked about a tour in Singapore and placed on wait list. We were asked to come back several times and no one was able to advise us if we weer on the tour or not. Finally at 6.00 am on the morning of the tour we were told they did not believe there were any spots so we organised our own tour into the city to find out later there were spots available. I questioned the original staff member two days later when we had left Singapore as to why he had not got back to us and he simply said he forgot and was to bust which I don't believe shows good customer service. We were annoyed as we wasted all this time and Singapore was great place and we would have loved to seen more of it. * The shower recess in our room flooded for the first couple of days.. We did report it we assume that it was fixed as it stopped but we were not notified. Again I had to stand in line for quite some time to report this. Some of the things were trivial which could have been sorted out without very easily. Like a lot of people just needed a hole pinched in there Sea Pass card so they could attach it to a Lanyard. Why not supply a hole in the card to start with or provide a hole punch at the counter for people to use. I watched one day as a guy in front of me who stood with me for 1.5 hours to get his sea Pass card . He finally got near the front of the line and someone from RCI asked if any one else was in line to get there sea card punched where approximately 20 other people had the same issue all standing in the queue which reduced the line p by about 20 people for such a little thing. * The first port of call was Sanya - what an absolute nightmare. We had to pay $25 for the Visa (each) - this was automatically deducted from your account unless you specifically went to guest services and told them that you were not going into port. I tried to fine out about this before I left and RCI told my travel agent that it was required before boarded. As we travelling with a number of other people who used another travel agent they were told a different story that we could get them on the ship. I spoke to other passengers on the ship and they were given the same advise as my family and got there visa which they paid hundreds of dollars for to find out they could have purchased them on the ship for $25. No information was provided on the process for getting off the boat. When information was delivered it was different, depending on which member of staff you spoke to. Everyone ended up going to the La Scalia Theatre and were simply told to take a seat - no further information was provided at that stage. We sat in the theatre for about an hour and one of the other guests told us that we needed to line up and get a ticket to get off the Ship, which we did and this took about a hour. We had our tickets to get off the ship but we then had to take a seat and wait again until our number was called and we could then disembark. We then walked down a number of gangways in one continuous line which took approximately 30 minutes. It felt as though we were cattle be herded. Chinese Military stood around and it felt quite uncomfortable getting off the ship. So once we all lined up and got off the ship we were transported to immigration on a shuttle bus where we were processed. We the had to get back on another bus to get transported into Sanya. We sat on this bus in the heat in the car park for around 3/4 hour waiting, not being told anything at all. Then four of our friends including my son decided enough was enough and got off the bus because they were sick of waiting around and could not see any point going into Sanya as most of the day had gone, and returned to the Voyager. The rest of us waiting another 20 mins and we finally left the car park and were driven to an area of Sanya near the beach. We got to the beach expecting to be able to swim at the beach only to find that we were not allowed to swim as the beach was dangerous due to the undertow. We were also told that the bus would come back every hour on the hour and take passengers back to the ship, however at the last minute when we were dropped off the bus driver said he was instructed not to leave the area until 7.45 pm. So we were stuck there, nothing to do, nothing to see - we sat on some steps in front of a motel with some other passengers discussing the debacle of Sanya and basically just had to wait there until the bus driver was ready to go. In the end were able find a ready teller to get some money out and catch taxi's back to the Ship. But the taxi could only take us to the end of the shipping terminal where we then had to pay to catch a shuttle back to the Ship. By this time is was around 7.00 pm. There was not one person that we spoke to who was happy with the experience they had in Sanya. Some Guest/passengers that had paid for shore excursions missed them due to the time it took to get off the boat and get processed through Chinese immigration. They were afforded a refund but were extremely upset at the whole process as they booked the shore excursions in good faith to get priority to disembark.. *The next port of call was Nha Trang Vietnam - again we had the excessive time to wait to get off the ship by tender boats. You were told to get tender tickets when you were ready to leave. We had breakfast at 8.30 and went and got tickets around 9.15 am to get off, It took till around 11.00 am to get off the ship due to the turnaround times of the tenders. If you had a shore excursion booked through RCI you got priority than someone wanting to explore the City on there own. Once we got into Port We Hired mini van and driver for our group of 11 to drive around and have a look at some of the sites. This was reasonably in expensive and we paid only $18 US dollars per person to see most of the sites that other passengers that booked through RCI paid a lot more to see the same sites. When we came back we were lucky that the line up to get back on the Ship was only short, We had about a 100 people in front of us in the line but as we got to the front of the line more people came back and the Queue ended being around 500 m long with Passengers standing in the hot sun for up two hours with no shade. People were getting sick because of the extreme heat with no shade to stand under and several children and elderly people got heat stroke standing in the boiling heat with some children vomiting due to excessive heat. * Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam - Two days stopover- the time to get off the Ship wasn't as bad this time as we could just walk off the boat when we were ready to leave, however, you had to catch a shuttle bus from the ship to the end of the pier and then walked 200 m up to the highway where there were taxis and some tour operators waiting on the highway to transport you into the City. Once we were there we hired a minivan with a driver who was going to take us in to Ho Chi Minh but we weren't aware that it would take us around 2 hours to get to Ho Chi Minh City from the boat till the guide explained this to us. This was not relayed to us on the ship also. This meant that we lost nearly 4 hours of sight seeing the first day travelling to and from Ho Chi Minh City and the ship. We saw some wonderful sites with the War museum, shopping, the Lacquer works and numerous temples the highlights. The second day we were in Ho Chi Minh we stayed on the ship as we didn't think it was worth the 4 hour round trip to go back in again. Passengers should be made aware of the amount of time it takes to get into the City - and how far away the ships docks. The Visa for Vietnam was only $6 not $50 as quoted by Royal Caribbean before we left for the cruise. it was a shame as the group really wanted to do a river cruise down the Saigon river on the second day and possibly visit the tunnels but as the boat was going to leave approximately 5.00 pm we did not have the time to undertake these trips. *Singapore - what a great City - At this Port our Group separated and the 4 Couple who joined us on the first cruise from Hong Kong to Singapore left the Ship to spend 3 days visiting Singapore before flying back to Australia. As the rest of the group took off to check in to there motel my wife and son and I took a hop on hop off bus tour and looked at many of the landmarks around the City of Singapore. As we had limited time and had to be back on board by 4.00 pm we did not to explore much of the City but will return one day to spend more time in the City. Highlights was the Large Ferris wheel that looked over much of the city, the botanical gardens, the large shopping centres. * Darwin - Good to be back in Australia - We were able to catch up on News and chat with some family as we had mobile service. We took a shore excursion in Darwin and went and seen the Jumping crocodiles. We were extremely lucky as we a number of crocodiles on our tours that swam out to the boat to be fed and got some very good shots of some large male crocodiles. The tour guide and bus driver were great and very informative. Again more time would have been great to look around Darwin itself as the Adelaide River where the Crocodiles are is approximately 80 km away and by the time you travel out and back did not allow time to explore the rest of the city before the ship departed. * Port Douglas - We have been here before and decided to do our own thing. We were annoyed though it took us till nearly 1.00 pm before we could get on shore waiting for tender boats. By the time we had some lunch and walked around a few of the shops we then had to get on board to the tender again to get back out to the ship. A lot of people we complaining about the length of time it took to get off. With many of the guest from overseas it was shame they could not see a lot of Port Douglas and it did not present a good picture for Australian Tourism even though the Ship is American owned with people waiting hours to get on and off the ship. * Cairns - Again we tendered out at Yorkey Knob. We did a shore excursion as it was cheaper to do this then to simply get the tender boat in and the shuttle to Cairns which you had to pay for. We at least got a trip up to Karunda Markets and then to the botanical gardens and into Cairns where we had a nice lunch near the promenade are in Cairns, As we have been to Cairns before and seen most of the sites there was not much more that we wanted o look at. *Airley Beach - We visited here 2 years ago for 10 days so we knew all about Airley Beach. We contemplated whether to stay on board or go in given the poor tendering procedures that we had experienced. We opted to go in around lunch time and have a seafood lunch which was exceptional in a restaurant near the street markets. It turned out to be great day and we caught up on some supplies at the Woollies' supermarket whilst we were in town. *Brisbane - We caught a with some friends who had recently moved to Brisbane. They picked my family and I up from the boat and dropped us back just before departure. I think we were one of the last to get back on the ship. We had a great time catching up and exploring parts of the City with them and are planning a trip back to Brisbane next year for a bit longer Stay. Our Son also picked up some supplies for Halloween night which was being featured on the boat that night. * There were minimal amount activities and shows on during the first part of the cruise (compared to the Singapore to Sydney cruise). After talking to some of the Cruise Director's staff we were told that they had only a third of their staff on board for this cruise so they were not able to do as much as they would normally do. More crew came on board in Singapore which allowed the activities staff to have a rest and be able to spread themselves across the ship more evenly to undertake more activities. Some of the shows were quite good and others were appalling. The Activities staff were great with our son becoming great mates with Grace and Linda and the sports activities guys like Ippy (who was on the Rhapsody of the Seas when we cruised three years earlier). * We were also told that the first cruise was a transitional cruise and there were a large number of new staff on board and apparently the first time that this cruise had been organised. We were not advised of this and may have not undertaken this leg if we had known this. * When we got into Singapore we got a new Captain and he was amazing - so friendly and outgoing. He made an effort to come on deck nearly every day and introduce himself to passengers. Couldn't even tell you what the Captain looked like on the first cruise as we never seen him. * The standard of food in Main Dining room was not up to scratch compared to the previous cruise we had been on before some three years ago on Rhapsody of the seas. It seem to be repeated, was quite often cold, unappealing and not the variety. The Windjammer had plenty choose from but it was quite often hard to fond a table at breakfast and Lunchtime. A lot of the food was bland but as there was a lot to choose from you could quite often find something that was ok. We even ate here at night time on some occasions as we found the Main dining room was not that appealing and having to get dressed up to go there become a chore some nights when you just wanted to relax and unwind. * We had mix ups with our account numerous times - being overcharged or incorrect amounts being put on our account, being charged for things we didn't purchase so it meant standing in lines at Guest services to sought out. * Smoking was allowed in the Casino which was in the middle of the ship on the first leg of the tour from Hong Kong to Singapore and the smoke filtered into the bars and promenade area. Although I don't have a issue with people smoking I do have a issue when it filters into areas where other people are trying to get away from it. Once we got to Singapore smoking was not allowed in the Casino which made the trip more pleasant and most people agreed that the areas around the Casino were more pleasant to sit in and enjoy.. * Generally staff were not very experienced and unsure about what they had to do - this was probably because they were new to the Ship and didn't have enough trained staff to assist. Not saying all staff were but when you want information you expect people to know or least find out and get back to you with a response. Activities people were great and always tried to get people involved in activities. * We asked to have a fold out bed (like a fold out lounge) in room but we got a Pullman bed which comes down from the ceiling - which our son who is 15 and 6 foot 2 didn't fit in and found it hard to sleep at night. Because of this we all took turns at having a uncomfortable night sleep clambering up onto the bunk style bed above the main bed with a rickety old ladder. We looked at the brochures it showed pull out type beds and when we asked for this this is what we expected as we had this on the previous cruise and instructed not to have the bed that came down from the ceiling. I had a recent knee replacement so it was pretty hard for me to get into the bunk beds some nights. * I tried many times to find out about getting an upgrade to another room but no one ever got back to me about it. When he complained about the bed he was told that this was all there was yet in illustrations we have seen in brochures it shows that the you can get a sofa type bed for extra guest sleeping in the same room. * This also happened with a shore excursion we tried to get onto in Singapore, we were put on a wait list and told that they would notify us by 8.00 pm the night before we got into Singapore. We didn't hear back from them so we went to guest services at 11.00 pm to ask and no one could help us, told us to come back at 5.30 the next morning to see if we were on the excursion. When Scott went back down early the next morning, they told us that we weren't booked in so we had to try and organise to get into Singapore on our own. We were on the waitlist for 2 days. We did speak to the shore excursions staff member the next day and asked him what happened, he said he got busy and forgot to contact us. * We seem spend most of our time in queues or trying to source information about different things - inexperienced staff and lack of knowledge about the Ship processes were a big part of the problem. We felt that we let our friends down because of the bad experience they had with Royal Caribbean - we were the ones who said how good Royal Caribbean was from previous cruise experience we had with them. So our friends won't be travelling on another Royal Caribbean Cruise any time in the future, they much preferred P&O. Positives Hong Kong, Singapore, Darwin and the other Australian ports were all great - except for the tendering process. We would love to go back to some of these places again one day especially Singapore which we only saw briefly. Some of the activities people on both cruises were really good, but there was so much more to do on the second cruise. Overall on both cruises the other passengers were great and were met some very interesting and great people.. The amount of money we spent on the trip, we felt the first part of the cruise was a let down and we were just really disappointed in the whole cruise due to the early problems and we will need to look more closely next time we travel which hope will be next year. The cabin states person that we had was excellent as was some of the bar staff as well that we become friendly with. Outdoor activities great, rock wall, flow rider, ice skating show, mini golf course, table tennis were great. Some great bars with Schooner Bar and Tavern our favourites and trivia was great with seats taken up eagerly everyday by passengers wanting to play. Our son had a good time as he mixed with many of the staff and some of the other passengers his own age group especially on the second cruise. Summary Royal Caribbean really need to pick their game up if they are to continue to get return customers back on their Ships. Many passengers that we spoke to who made written and verbal complaints on board were offered compensation for the poor delivery of service that they received during the course of the cruise. Many people said that they would never again travel with Royal Caribbean, even some passengers who were Crown and Anchor members said that it was the worse cruise they had ever been on. We are also Crown and anchor members and felt that this overall cruise experience was not up to the expectation that we received on our previous cruise we had some three years ago with Rhapsody of the seas. We thought that it would be beneficial to provide you with some feedback about our experiences - particularly on the first cruise. We enjoy cruising but we will be looking more closely at other providers to see what they have to offer before going directly with Royal Caribbean, as we know the rest of the other people that came with us will not go with Royal Caribbean again due to the service and the product that they received. Read Less

We had heard how wonderful Cunard were and how much better than all their rivals. We should have seen a red light when our first two encounters were being told to board a few hours later than planned due to novovirus being rampant on the boat and that the boat was no longer calling at Sharm el Sheik (on our itinerary). This was our 16th cruise in 5 years and we were both so looking forward to the experience. However in every department in which we had been led to believe that Cunard excelled, they failed. Now being able to make the choice, give me the honesty of Thomson's any day. There was a deeply unpleasant smell of sewers and drains on the Lido deck, with lots of flies outside the lavatories by the burger kitchen. Why it was necessary to be painting parts of the Lido deck during the Suez transit was beyond me, also cleaning the windows of the Brittania restaurant during dinner service, and why close the pool all day when the boat was in port at the extremely hot Cochin, also shutting off one set of stairs between 9th and 10th decks for painting for the best part of three days. The food was seriously not good, with most things very salty and the meats being bad cuts and tough. The excursions were a complete rip-off. I booked three for about £450....the first being in Vietnam....after three hours we were still waiting, whilst being told by Cunard staff to keep 'cool and BUY bottles of water @ $1 each. We gave up on this outing. The second one was Muscat, where and when we were dropped at three different locations from a coach to be on our own for about 45 minutes at each (£120 give or take)....and finally Wadi Rum, which was a bit of burnt chicken in a tourist trap, again over priced, and where the guide on the coach refused to drop us in Aqaba (where the boat had shuttle buses taking passengers to) and a Cunard employee on the coach refused to help or call the boat to seek permission. In Dubai, a woman in a position of authority with the boat entertainment was handing out transit cards, and we asked her details of the shuttle bus return times...and she told us she had no idea...'ask the driver'. She was also soon to do a 'live commentary' during the transit of the Dardanelles, none of which could be deciphered due to her mike. The entertainment...not good! The choice of films was odd...the best and most recent were shown on port days when no-one would attend. The screening of 'Suffragette' broke down three times, and one film never even began, but it took a member of the audience to find out that the film would not be shown. For the entire cruise, the left hand side of the screen was completely covered by a yellow and green blur. The captain of the boat kept telling us how honored we should feel to be on a boat bearing its name in the year of the Queen's 90th birthday. No mention of us having had to pay Cunard for 'the privilege'.....oh, well. I wish I felt differently because the awful thing is that I had already booked another Cunard cruise for later this year. Read Less

We chose this cruise called Sultans to Safaris because of the diversity of the ports and the length of the cruise. It really did sail from Borneo's home of the Sultan of Brunei to the opportunity for safaris in Africa. The cruise was a portion of a world 6 month cruise on the beautiful Insignia. We came onboard in Hong Kong after a long flight and a short shore excursion to see a few sights of this gorgeous city. The embarkation was unusual because the ship was actually docked at a shopping center! Imagine our surprise when our guide drove us up to a shipping bay at a shopping center to unload us and our luggage. It was easy, breezy from there to sign in and go onboard. Then we actually went back out into the shopping to find a wine store to bring a few bottles onboard for later consumption. The first few ports were full of mosques, palaces, temples, etc. Lots to see in Manila, Malaysia, Brunei, Sri Lanka. We had arranged for private guides in most ports but sometimes just went with taxi drivers. Lots to see and do. Starting westward we also stopped in the gorgeous Seychelles with its granite strewn beaches, and then onward to the African continent. Highlight of the cruise were the day safaris in Kenya and South Africa. We had booked these in advance, and each one was a marvel. Loved all the animals. So, the cruise was fantastic. I have to add that the food on the ship was absolutely fantastic, no matter which restaurant we chose. Insignia is one of the smaller ships (fewer than 700 passengers), so it has only 2 specialty restaurants - Italian and steakhouse at the time of our cruise. We enjoyed each of these several times, but the main dining room and buffet are fabulous, too. Room service was a bit slow but food generally very good, too. The entertainment was only nominal, but the cruise director and the social director were top notch - best we have encountered during our 39 cruises, so far. After the cruise we stayed for a 3 day Oceania stay in Cape Town, So. Africa. Enjoyed a shore excursion each day, including one to a private game preserve, and we fell in love with the city. The transfer from ship to hotel included a nice preview of the city and the beaches surrounding it. Kudos to Oceania for a fabulous cruise! Read Less