We (DW and DH, Cabin E732) were travelling in the company of DH's mother (travelling separately in Mini-Suite D601) for this cruise from Singapore to Sydney. For some time prior to this trip we have considered Royal Caribbean to be a more dynamic and passenger-sensitive cruiseline than Princess, in spite of Royal's limited presence in Australian waters. We have travelled on Royal's Rhapsody, Legend, Radiance and Mariner ships and therefore feel sufficiently-qualified to compare Royal against our Princess experiences (Pacific, Emerald, Dawn, Sun and now Diamond).

We had two nights' accommodation in Singapore at the Roxy Grand Mercure, well-positioned just off the East Coast Parkway. We hired a car in Singapore to do some out-of-town visiting (Kranji War Cemetery and some other locations), as well as making our own way around town. Avis provided our vehicle (a very comfortable Volvo S60) and also had E-Tags available for purchase, which greatly simplified our travel-arrangements on Singapore's toll-roads.

Check-in for the Diamond Cruise had been switched at late notice from the Singapore Cruise Terminal to a building in Republic Road. There was no reason circulated in the advices from Princess, and some CCs mentioned in the pre-cruise Roll Call that this was near the end of the Singapore Marathon Finish Line (being held on the same morning), so already some alarm-bells were starting to ring. We had booked a taxi-transfer from Singapore Limousine Cab for transfer from the Roxy to Republic Road - the transfer was very efficiently carried-out and our driver made his way through every obstruction all the way to Princess's reps standing outside the check-in building. We deposited our luggage and went to the first floor of the check-in building. I should say at this point that DH's mother needed wheelchair assistance which had been booked by our TA. One of the reps quickly fetched a wheelchair and accompanied us to the check-in location upstairs. After check-in, we sat....and sat.....and sat......after about two hours, a lady wearing a Princess Cruises polo-shirt advised that "shortly" we would be boarding buses for transfer to the Diamond. More time passed without advices from anyone. The hall was very, very full by now. Then, an Australian passenger stood in the front of the hall and yelled that everyone should come and board the buses now according to their boarding-pass numbers and that he would personally "headbutt" anyone who tried to jump the queue. So, what happened? Just about everyone charged for the exit-doors of the hall. DH's mother, in the front-row of the hall-seats was swamped by hoards of passengers. DH asked the Singaporean reps who was in charge, nobody knew who was supposed to be supervising this process. DH found a ship's Communications Officer on the premises and this Officer very kindly retrieved DH's mother from the crowd and pushed her to an elevator, then assisted her on to a transfer-coach. The place was completely out of control. The arrangements that Princess used at this location were shameful and amateurish in the extreme. There was no clear supervision or control in place at all. The venue had no public-address facilities whatsoever, and the logic in staging the check-in at the middle of one of Singapore's biggest events of the year was beyond belief. Was there no other suitable venue in Singapore? Why was the Cruise Terminal abandoned? We were never told. We did hear other anecdotal tales of passengers whose taxi-drivers dropped them some distance from Republic Road, not wanting to take-on the Marathon obstructions, therefore apparently leaving those passengers to drag their luggage through the heat and humidity to the check-in location. Read more