After reading the reviews, and even though this was cruise #55 for me, I was still a bit nervous as it was my first Asia departure on a non-charter. I was taking a friend for their first cruise, so was hoping for the best. Overall, I was pleased and they loved it.

Let's talk service first: Like many, I had a hard time believing the service could be as bad as some of these reviews were making it sound. Actually I found the service all around the ship to be top notch. I would even go so far as to say better than average Royal Caribbean. All with one exception: The Dining Room. And to be fair, I would call the service there inconsistent. Our regular waiter at our assigned table where we seated two of the three nights (one was open seating in port) was fantastic and I have no complaints. On open seating lunches and breakfasts, the service definitely could have been better. I got the feeling there were many new staff in training. At the first breakfast, I was told I could get my own orange juice from the center of the dining room. As I got up to take glasses to do this, one of the managers jumped in to intercept me, and said the server will bring it to me. I then heard him strongly advising the server to never send a guest after their own. So learning curve. You can't expect them to board a ship fully trained. But other than that, I found service everywhere to be great!

My only true complaint was the food. After 55 cruises at all price points, I have eaten a lot of meals at sea. I'm not particularly fussy, I'm not a foodie, it does not have to be perfect. BUT, it needs taste. I found much of the food to be rather bland and tasteless. We actually enjoyed about a third of our meals on board. The other two thirds were consumed to stay upright and walking forward. Nothing that I could in any way characterize as enjoyed. And given that a nice dinner with excellent service in a fantastic dining room is a big part of the cruise experience, that left me a little disappointed in the cruise overall. I think RCCL needs to focus on food quality for this ship in particular, as it does seem to fall below RCCL standards in my opinion. I will also add, everything you read about the buffet is true. It is undersized for the ship and sheer madness most of the time. However, if you go to breakfast EARLY, it is not so bad. Otherwise there are long lines, no tables, and constant announcements asking guests to vacate if they have finished enjoying their meal to allow others to do the same. Read more