Let me begin with the positives. The ship is beautiful with oriental decor throughout. There is a high level of cleanliness in all the public areas and our cabin was cleaned each day by a wonderful cabin steward called Roger. The islands we visited on the cruise were very pretty and the ports were within easy walking distance for shops. Unfortunately, this is where the positives end!

Embarkation was a very long drawn out process and our passports were taken away from us the minute we boarded the ship. These were not returned to us until we disembarked. We were told that this was standard procedure but then we found that only non US citizens had to give in their passports but US citizens were allowed to keep theirs! The reason for this was never established but I was very uneasy with this policy.

Our cabin was right at the end of the corridor on deck 11 and next to it was where the ping pong tables were situated. We could hear every ping and ping as each ball was hit and as the players leapt around to hit the ball, the floor in our cabin vibrated. Sometimes, the ping pong matches went on until the early hours of the morning and so we were kept awake. Just when we thought the noise had stopped, the sound of a pressure washer was heard as the crew hosed down the deck and the walls outside the cabin. Then, just as that had finished and we snuggled down to get a few hours sleep, loud bangs could be heard above us as the crew proceeded to move the deck furniture around and clean the deck above. This went on for the duration of the cruise and left us feeling tired during the day. We asked for a change of cabin but due to the ship sailing at full capacity, this was not possible. Read more