Excellent itinerary/great cruise

Our first cruise with Royal Caribbean, and also our first cruise in the Southern Hemisphere.

We arrived at the port in Auckland around 1145 am embarkation was from 1130am. We had no problems and were boarded within 15mins. Cabins were available at 1pm, excellent start to our cruise

We had booked a balcony cabin on Deck 9 and on arrival our cases were waiting for us. The cabin was a good size, plenty of wardrobe/storage space. Bathroom was the usual size, the cabin was all in good order. Our cabin steward came along to introduce himself, Iwayan Eka Wirawan (Cabin 9516 13-23/02/2019).

We had plenty of time to explore the ship prior to sailing and we were very impressed with all we saw.

We ate in Windjammer, Park Cafe and Cascades . We found the food variety good in Windjammer although sometimes could have been hotter. The odd time we had lunch at Park Cafe it was good.

Dinner at Cascades was very good we were on My Time Dining and was generally allocated our table by Jasper who was always very pleasant and helpful in seating us in the same area, generally table 499. The staff in this area, Velancio and Hanuraz looked after us very well. After our first visit they remembered what wine we had and my husband has a stomach problem and they made sure he got the food he required making any necessary changes he required.

Overall the staff in the bars, restaurants and casino were very friendly and efficient. We thought the atmosphere on board the ship was very positive. The Captain, Cruise Director and crew were also very friendly and approachable.

Our overall opinion of the ship and the cruise was excellent.the