As always we had a wonderful time on our cruise and met some very lively and interesting people who we met at the cruise critic meet & greet. There were some minor issues which did not spoil the cruise but were nonetheless quite irritating.

CABIN: We were in a mini-suite near the middle of the ship (not club class which isn’t worth the extra). While the cabin steward did his job well, he didn’t seem to understand that if the ‘privacy please’ sign is in the door, you do not knock on the door and just barge in. He also did not make up the room when the ‘make up room’ sign was in the door. He seemed to keep his own schedule no matter what. I put it all down to poor training or not absorbing the training.

BAR STAFF: We had the all inclusive drinks package and the bar staff were generally very friendly and competent. Not sure if the all inclusive package is worth it anymore since they put the price up. The individual cost of the drinks does not appear to have changed since our cruise on Ruby Princess earlier this year so they are clearly trying to make more profit off the package. We had a small glitch when we discovered the first drink we had after lunch (an hour after we purchased the all inclusive drinks package) had been charged to our account. A quick trip to guest services had it corrected. The staff at the Crooner’s bar appeared to close the bar as soon as the pianist had finished. On the Ruby Princess earlier in the year, the Crooner’s was open much later. While the Casino bar is always open, some late birds don’t want to sit in a smoky Casino. Update: yet another drink that was wrongly charged. Becoming a regular customer at the passenger services counter! Read more