I comment on this cruise knowing that my thoughts are comparable with many other travellers on this trip.

We booked this through cruise1st which also included a pre cruise land tour of Xian and China. The tour proved to be extremely tiring as it was non stop for five days so a poor embarkation was the last thing we wanted. The process was anything but enjoyable due to the massive queues and poor organisation. We produced all the required documents at the counter only to be told we needed 2 A4 copies of our passports. My fault as I had only one and they would not accept an A5 copy that I had. I didn’t understand either why we needed this as they already had been sent passport copies. This problem must have been foreseen as there were 2 copiers provided for the purpose of printing copies. So along with countless others who had no copies I joined the extremely long queue to collect another copy. This frustrating task was made even worst with people jumping the line, especially one very very rude German lady who refused to go to the back of the queue. I had quite a serious argument with her and imagine my horror when we were seated with her on our first nights dining and another subsequent 4 nights. The problem with the extra copies could have been easily avoided by having a simple printer at the check in desks. I know it could be avoided also if people read their documents carefully.

Once onboard our cabin was ready had to wait for our luggage but no problem in that. We met our cabin attendant "Rolly" who was very pleasant and polite and kept our cabin in good order throughout the cruise. Our balcony cabin was up to RCs usual high standards very clean and tidy and plenty of storage space. I was pleased with options for plugs and the 2 USB charging points. All the service staff we came into contact with were extremely friendly and polite. Read more