Arrived in Singapore 2 days before the cruise with my wife and 3 year old daughter, Stayed at the Hotel Jen Orchardgateway, great location. We stayed in a Club Room for A$300 per night which gave us access to the Club lounge each day. I think this is also one of the only club lounges that allows children in after 6pm. Singapore was very hot, hotter than I expected even after growing up in Darwin, in fact the whole holiday was very hot and we have decided not to travel to Asia at this time of the year again.

Arrived at Ship at 11:30am and bordered about 1:30pm, everyone seemed confused but eventually we got onboard. Our room was a balcony suite 10116 on deck 10. We met up with our friends at the pool bar for some drinks before heading down to their Grand Loft Suite for a sail away party with Champagne and canapés, courtesy of Royal Caribbean. I pre booked every restaurant, show and activity weeks before the cruise so didnt have to worry about booking anything on board. Having our friends in the Grand Loft Suite had its advantages. We were sort of attached to they're booking which allowed us to eat in the Coastal Kitchen with them (Restaurant for Suite Guests). We were first for Disembarkation at each port including Tianjin which took 20mins from Lounge to our private mini van. You could feel the knives in your back as you pushed passed passengers who had been lined up for hours to leave the ship at the various ports of call particularly South Korea, where some people say it took 4 hours to get off and some giving up and staying on board. We also managed to get reserved seating at all the shows so arrived at theatre 2 mins before shows started. A big thank you to our friends butler Genie who looked after us and made our cruise so enjoyable. She got a nice tip & gift at the end of the cruise.

We pre booked internet for two devices so we could stay in touch using Facebook messenger for calls. I did pay for the onboard app to stay in contact and make calls but it failed after the first day and we were refunded the cost so stuck with Facebook which worked just as well, made it very easy to keep track of each other on such a large ship. We also had 2 x Premium drink packages which was great. I guess the beauty of pre booking and pre paying for everything up front there wouldn't be a large surprise bill at the end. You could check your online account anytime on your television. The free app was good for keeping track of your bookings for each day so you knew where you were eating and at what time, this also included any onboard activities. Read more