Started off the cruise with a 200 metre long queue in the hot Perth sun, supposedly because of norovirus which turned out to have been two sectors before. Elderly people standing in the heat for hours with their baggage just to drop off the bags and once into the terminal more long delays. No seats or cold drinks offered.
A strange new policy never encountered before was to do the 5 one hour time changes between Australia and New Zealand between 12 midday and 1pm instead of the usual 2am so we lost an hour of our entertainment which would have been okay except that they then changed back to the normal 2am change when we headed back to Australia when we should have gained back the 2 hours during the day... is this more cost cutting by Royal Caribbean?
Also now only shampoo, hand lotion, etc available by request instead of automatically in your stateroom, and the price of all the duty free alcohol was raised by $2 per bottle once the ship arrived in Perth.
Cabin was satisfactory and wardroom assistant was pleasant
Just walked into Bay St which is about 10 minutes walk from the ship
Really nice and inexpensive tour with good commentary
Free train into town for Australian seniors, a nice small city to visit
Piston is a lovely small town that most cruise ships don't visit as it is too close to Wellington, and a nice free one hour of sightseeing on the ship through the Marlborough Sounds to reach the town