Having flown to Singapore feeling very apprehensive after reading so many rather poor reviews about this ship, our first impression was good, the ship looked very clean and smart both inside and out, we were greeted by a very pleasant crew, our cabins were much better than expected, and in the dining room we had asked for a small table and indicated that we would prefer to sit on our own as a group of three rather than share a large table, we were allocated table number 48, this seated four people but we had this table to ourselves for the whole cruise, we had purchased the X1 drinks package and found this to be very good value, we found the dining experience to be very good and the food was better than expected and the waiting staff were really superb... The entertainment on board was our biggest disappointment ... Why on earth does the Entertainment Director have to introduce everything in at least six different languages? this became so very irritating, it seemed as if the only person to enjoy this very repetitious procedure was indeed the MC himself! English was spoken by almost everyone on board, mainly as a second language, so there was no need to bore everyone to tears in this way, apart from this, we also found the general entertainment on offer was perhaps more suitable to a ferry service than a cruise ship... The ports of call made this trip for us, the Costa Allegra was a means of transport to make this happen, and at a fairly modest cost, she did it very well, so much so, that we shall be booking another Costa cruise in this part of the world again in 2011, sadly the Allegra is no longer covering that area and we shall miss her!