I hope in this review to give an idea to families with younger children what the experience of cruising with RC is like - this was our 1st time with them. By comparison we have cruised 3 times previously with Celebrity (all fantastic), once with P and O (disappointing) and once with Princess (similar disappointment to P and O.

We did a lot of research prior to the cruise and had high expectations especially since RC is a sister brand to our favourite Celebrity. We particularly wanted a high quality cruise line with plenty on offer for families with young kids and reasonable covid measures for the kids.

RC at time of our cruise required a supervised LFT within 24 hours prior to boarding. This requirement did alter without notification after booking and did require clarification with the line about what exactly they accept. Once contacted RC did respond promptly and updated their website subsequently. Surprisingly similar info didn't appear on their app until about 2 weeks before sailing. I'd suggest anyone booked for as I did and keeps an eye on the website. Video supervised (zoom) LFTs via Prenetics were £30 each and despite the stress of worrying about results was impressively straightforward. Results printed and shown to boarding reactivity our other info (and yes the kids need their own passports on any RC sailing even if all in UK) resulted in the best boarding experience we have ever had. From parking the car (AB Port Parking) to sitting in the buffet having lunch was 20mins. We arrived dead on time for our 12.30 boarding and didn't observe any long lines, staff all incredibly friendly and helpful. By comparison our 2021 cruise with Princess resulted in US queuing in our car for over 2 hours with no facilities to be swabbed prior to boarding. Read more