New ship and very very big. Great ship...Ports of call were interesting, should have been longer at Singapore and Vietnam, so much to see and do. Food menu was very disappointing in the Lido bar. Very repetitive and boring. Disappointed with photo deals....no package offered...only digital copies promoted....not good! Ping pong tables were unsuitably positioned, in the wind rain and heat....should have been indoors. Gym was good, did not feel uncomfortable. Overall entertainment in Princess Theatre was good but not great, could have been better. Enjoyed the music and entertainment by the band Opus. Line dancing Flash mob Choir and yukelele was great. Balloon drop and staff entertainment was enjoyable. Loved The Majestic Princess overall. Looking forward to next cruise with Princess, already paid future cruise deposit in anticipation of a great holiday in 2020/2021. Hope my review will contribute to better changes in the future for all passengers concerned. Read Less

As first time Viking Ocean cruisers we enjoyed the ship very much. We have sailed Oceania multiple times. Viking ships like Oceania are not overwhelming in size with great service. Food was good although we thought Oceania was somewhat better especially the specialty restaurants. There was good variety at all meals. The grill outdoors was a good option for a quick lunch. Crew was superb with good service throughout the ship. We were underwhelmed by shore excursions and in future will arrange independent excursions. The ship is well appointed with many areas for exploring and hiding out. Entertainment like Oceania was okay. The availability to access enrichment talks was appreciated and internet was very good throughout the ship. We arrived in Sydney the day before departure so explored the city independently. We stayed in Bali for 3 days after disembarkation which I would highly recommend. We could have skipped Lombok Read Less

We had always wanted to see Australia and New Zealand. Originally we thought we'd do this as a mostly land tour with another company, but my wife floated the option of doing this, plus Sydney to Auckland (which we will do the end of this year). Viking could not have done a better job! This was a relatively new itinerary for the ship and crew, so this was especially impressive because they were still ironing out details with excursions. Some of our fellow guests did have some complaints such as not getting the ones they wanted, or did not like the free included excursions. Most of the free ones were okay, although 1 or 2 did not have great tour guides, but if people chose their paid excursions when Viking first made them available (before trip), there should not have been a problem. The crew on the ship were wonderful, from the captain who gave us daily updates (even on a storm that was chasing us) to the cabin stewards to the dining staff. They all would go out of their way to accommodate any request. I also greatly enjoyed the musical performances in the atrium as well as the shows and the planetarium. My wife (and obviously many others onboard) really appreciated the free laundry room. The itinerary and the excursions made this one the best trips I ever had. Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef was just spectacular. My wife tells everyone this was her dream trip (and we've done quite a few!) because she loves animals. Holding a koala at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo near Brisbane, feeding wallabies, even feeding crocodiles at Crocodylus Park were experiences she'll treasure forever. There were certainly many opportunities to see wildlife we don't see here in the states, but there are also many options for other things to see and do, like the views at Castle Hill in Townsville. When we got to see the Komodo dragons, that was quite spectacular, but an added plus there was the nature walk around the island (of course with the guides to keep an eye on us!) I understand that due to poaching Indonesia may restrict this particular island, but hopefully there are other islands Viking can use for this excursion. The temples on Lombok and Bali were unbelievably beautiful and unique. As difficult as it was to believe, some on the tour criticized seeing them, but I think these were probably the same people who complain about the beautiful cathedrals in Europe. The Laguna Luxury Resort and Spa in Nusa Dua is a spectacular complex with unbelievable views from our rooms, 7 swimming pools, restaurants, nature walks, a beautiful beach, spa treatments in thatch-covered beach-front rooms and many other amenities, with many types of colorful birds. Although we gravitated towards zoos and nature parks, Viking has other tours that should appeal to almost anyone. Although some excursions may seem a bit expensive, when you take into account the extremely affordable cruise rates (compared with land and air travel by other companies) it's a great deal. Read Less

We chose the Viking Ocean cruise because we had done two Viking river cruises which were exceptional. So we were expecting the same on an ocean cruise. Not to be, alas! The ship itself, Orion, about 8 months old , is very well decorated and spacious. Our room , a penthouse suite with veranda, suited us perfectly: spacious and lots of drawers. The bed was not comfortable: hard as rock. But when I told our cabin steward about this, he offered a topper...which made it a bit softer. Another drawback was a head shower that kept on swirling around every way but the right way! Like taking a shower with an attacking cobra!!! My husband took care of the problem by putting a bandaid on the collar of the shower head and forcing it to stay in the right position. Food was average. Sometimes awful: we asked for a hamburger well done. Came back almost raw. Included excursions were very disappointing. We were expecting guided tours but the guide was the bus driver. So he would stop and let us out on our own to explore. He would stay with the bus. Entertainment was very good. The personnel is absolutely marvellous, solicitous and caring. They treat you like royalty! But they have trouble speaking and understanding english. I would do another Viking river cruise but never another Viking ocean cruise. Read Less

Would not recommend the Sun Princess!, would not travel on this ship again!, it’s a floating rust bucket!. The ship is way too old to be in service, it may have been refurbished but there is rust everywhere and it is not a modern ship, it’s very dated. The crew even were hammering loudly the rust off the ship during the midday pool deck movie until passengers complained to get the crew to stop. I have never been on a ship where the crew did so much constant maintenance on a ship during the cruise. The toilets didn’t work and the ship smelt like the toilets had overflowed all the time!. It’s not a family friendly ship, if your are after water slides, there isn’t any. The ship needs to be scraped. The rooms are small, not enough laundries on board (for the number of passengers on board) and not enough washing machines or dryers for the numbers of passengers on board. Try to wash during port days (when most passengers are onshore on tours). The food was very poor. There was no variety in the food from the Horizen Court Buffett. Unless you like eating meat and three veg for lunch and dinner (it was like a cheap RSL meal), after 18 days of meat and three veg (I don’t want to see another plate of lumpy mash potato for at least the next 12 months!). Always the same dishes served, day after day after day!. The grill over the pool deck was hit and miss but this really only served pies, chips and burgers. The crew never cooked the vegetables enough, they were always hard. The buffet had a lot of creamy, sugary cakes. They had good cookies. $18 for a cocktail was a rip off!, get mocktails as part of the Soda package, if you want to save money. If you want a “behind the scenes” tour of the ship, that will cost you $175, free on other ships. The main restaurant was ok, but the portions are very small, if you are a big eater, a visit to the buffet after dinner in the Regency restaurant will be required unless you want to go to bed still hungry. Left the main restaurant after dinner hungry a number of times as the meal portions in the Regency restaurant are small. Not all the meals were that great at the restaurant (the pavlova was hard). Played bingo onboard but to buy the cards, it cost a lot of money, $30 for a card with 5 games and you paid extra to get the pet to cross out the numbers. The staff were friendly but their service was not impressive. There aren’t even any towel animals left on your bed each night. None of the staff onboard went the extra mile to make your time on the Sun Princess feel special. If your request was not within their narrow job description, they just directed you to someone else to possibly see if your request is even possible. If you have a specific request or enquiry, try to find someone who deals with your type of request if you want an answer (good luck with that!). The food and beverage staff service were very slow, with the exception of bar tenders on the pool deck. The only other impressive staff were in the Steakhouse restaurant, who fussed over you to make your experience in the Steakhouse restaurant special. The shows were ordinary. After 18 days the Princess dancers only did two really good shows (each show went for 30 minutes) but the princess theatre is small and the 7.30 pm show is the most popular (get the show at least 30 minutes before the show starts if you want a seat). There were a couple of other good performers but most shows were really bad and boring!. If your after the types of shows you’ll get on US cruise ships, you will be very disappointed, Australian cruise ships are the poor cousin to US ships when it comes to the shows. A lot of the performances had singers who constantly sang the same songs from the 50’s and 60’s (three seperate performances from 3 different singers all singing the same Beatles, Roy Orbison and elves songs was too much!) Princess really is a “nickel and dime” ship. They make you pay for everything. The Sanctuary is at the back of the ship, you pay $20 for 4 hours and there is no shade from the sun (it was really hot, I stayed for less than an hour) we were lucky there was hardly any kids onboard because unless you pay you have to rest in your cabin to get away from the crowds on sea days. If you wanted a lounge chair on the pool deck you had to reserve one super early otherwise you have to lay down in the sun. The ports were good and tours and transfers to and from the ship were ok. I recommend you give the Sun Princess a miss, it needs vast improvement in ship, food, service, amenities before you should consider this ship for a holiday! Read Less

Have cruised with other lines, perhaps that’s why I was so disappointed? The food was pathetic, no variety or flavour. Cost of drinks exorbitant, 16.00 for a glass of wine! Smokers smoke can be inhaled all over the top deck. The staff who were supposed to be policing the hand washing safety process on entrance to the buffet were mainly talking to their friends or other passengers therefore passengers who want to rush to the empty window tables at the beginning of the restaurant fail to wash their hands, circumventing the safety procedure. Newbies treated like second class citizens. Entertainment, what entertainment?.. Husband contracted influenza B, was confined to cabin for two days but previous days spent in cabin as not well, as we had purchased bev package requested credit, customer service person said he would check with medical centre, called me back to say medical centre had verified confinement so they would issue one days credit, but not for me as I was not officially confined to the cabin. Tender system disgusting, waited over three hours to be tendered off longer on the second tender process. Worst of all cabin! Steward did not remove used glasses, toilets continually blocking was told it’s our fault as only one piece of paper should be used at a time. If anyone gets allocated cabin A506 please change, the room is right next door to swimming pool equipment room, the noise in the cabin is very annoying, husband wears hearing aids so did not trouble him, but one piece of machinery (strongly suspect filter) continually droning, switched off at night at 11.30 but promptly on again at 5.30 I did complain and was offered ear plugs..... I did ask to be moved, request denied....dreaded being in cabin but when husband confined no alternative.... Won’t be choosing Princess line ever again.... Read Less

7 Family members joined us on this cruise to help celebrate our 30th Wedding Anniversary. Some family were first time cruisers and others have cruised with us before. The Sun Princess did not disappoint with staff that always exceeds our expectations, all of the staff just work so hard to make sure we all have a fabulous cruising experience and this cruise was no exception. Weather was great nice calm seas all the way to Hong Kong. We dined in the Share Restaurant which once again was Amazing!! Totally recommend this dining experience as food and service is A+ The only negative is that the smoking area is very prominent and very smelly on Sun Princess as you walk out on to open deck everyone sitting right there, I have been on other Princess Ships where the smoking area is much smaller and you never even see it but hopefully one day all Princess ships will finally become Non Smoking vessels which would be great. Lots of room around the pool and getting a lounger was never a problem. We all really enjoyed our cruise and looking forward to planning the next :-) Read Less

Overall this was a very good cruise, smooth sailing, good weather & well organised tours with great cruise staff. A few disappointing aspects. -Happy hour has gone. This was a great opportunity to meet people & socialise. -The coffee card has gone. Your coffee purchases are now credited to your ship card. If you don't use all your credits on the cruise they are gone. The unexpired portion of the old style coffee card could be used on future cruises. -Disembarkation at Hong Kong can be disastrous if you are waiting for a taxi. It took 4 hours to get one. Princess should have warned passengers about this. A prearranged transfer is highly recommended -A better system of arranging seating for the Princess Theatre sorely needs improvement. We did not get to one performance because it was packed out up to an hour before the show. Overall a clean ship with good hygiene standards. Very few sick people noticed on board. Read Less

We chose this cruise firstly because it left Sydney harbour, secondly because it arrived in Hong Kong harbour and then for what was in between. We visited Brisbane and did a tour of town, lunch some shopping etc. Our next stop was Darwin where we went to Crocasaurus cove and did the cage of death with a croc, awesome. We visited Lombok where we snorkelled with Gemma from Mimpi Manis Snorkel Trips for the day, then to Ho Chi Minh City where we did a day tour with the ship, it was awesome. We visited Nha Trang also with the ship, we just could not have fitted it all in without these tours, we saw heaps. But the highlight for us was Hong Kong. 2 nights with the ship which was a very good idea, then we were on our own. We loved all the sea days at the beginning of the cruise and totally got into trivia, read a couple of books, great weather for swimming every day, the only thing I would say is there is just not enough shade around the pools, especially the back round one, (Sun Princess) but even around the other 2 the ones under the upper level get snapped up so fast. A pet peeve is seeing people in the pool or spa that are drinking and they dont move for sometimes over an hour, you know who you are and dont think that no one notices. This was for our 30th wedding anniversary and we booked at Share by Curtis Stone for our special dinner. The food was very nice but I came away feeling cheated, I really dont feel like we vot our moneys worth. Also I swear, unless my math is wrong, you actually pay $2.00 more for the fixed menu then buying a la carte...as I said maybe I'm wrong. I do think there is still work to be done on getting people off the ship in a timely manner at ports, Nha Trang was a disaster getting off, and there were a few hot heads letting steam off at staff that are just giving numbers out etc that have nothing to with how long it takes go get you off the ship. We had such a good time, the food was good, far too good for my waistline, the staff were friendly, my room was always clean and tidy, good coffee at the International cafe, no where else though, but bring ba k happy hour, what is the deal with that....its a great way to meet people. Now, I wonder what my next cruise will be......Princess of course!! Read Less

The main purpose of the trip was to visit Hong Kong as my wife had connections there when she was a child. We did not get off at any of the ports en route as we had visited all of them previously and we enjoy the ship on the quiet port days. The following are my opinion of good and bad aspects. GOODx—- Sydney embarcation was fast and faultless The ship was in good order with paint being refreshed continually The cabin was clean and well kept by the steward, Joseph The evening entertainment was generally good. The cruise director and staff were also good. Best production show “Bravo” The waiters and bar staff were all fantastic being the best part of the voyage. The Filipino, Balinese and other Asian staff make the cruise with their friendliness and all round abilities. AVERAGEx—x The food in the MDR and Horizons was generally uninteresting, sometimes poorly cooked with root vegetables generally undercooked. BAD——x Our interior cabin was so narrow it was difficult to get in and out of bed. We had our double configuration altered to singles. About the first time in married lives we have done this. Princess cabins are the smallest we have ever been in but this was the narrowest! The officers are rarely seen. The new red loungers on deck 12 look nice. Toget two together, go to deck 12 early, spread out towels and leave a book or an old hat. Then go to breakfast for an hour or two. They are then “booked” for the day. Drinks are generally expensive and bar staff advise happy hour just a memory. The passengers were the oldest demographic ever encountered and general conversation was how many cruises done, to where and how good a price they had got. It would have been nice to have met young or even middle-aged people. The highest class is ELITE (synonym for snobbish) but the benefits are poor compared to Royal Caribbean. The disembarkation in Hong Kong was the worst ever encountered, even beating Honolulu. Off the ship was easy but the Terminal processing was awful with long queues. The final line to get a taxi took at least 90 minutes and the whole process 2and 1/4 hours. AVOID any cruise terminating in HK. Tender processes looked long and tedious. Read Less

The navigator Sydney to Hong Kong 24 days. Expensive fr mediocrity...here’s what happened. Rusty pipes pumping orange water. Washing machines leave a rusty film on clothes. My wife got contact dermatitis.. the suite is small. The shower smalles I have ever seen. The casino is small and temp 86.4 F because the outdated slots pump heat better than a fireplace. I The issue is that the corporate office does not let ship staff make any decisions, they simply tell us what we want. Should listen to customers. Food was ok, and the staff was extremely cordial. So this old Russian icebreaker is a small ship. We had 380 passengers. After dinner, nothing to do until one show at 9:30. Did not have America’s best selling single Amalthea, Glen Livet..pitiful. Lectures were not looking cation specific, mostly about Roman times etc. I strongly recommend you not get fleeced with high cost, we pai about 60K including air. I would never step on this ship. It is a true bait and switch.. Pass on this loser masquerading as a luxury 6 star. What a joke. Get this, they block early morning walkers and people are walking in circles around the pool until the sun comes up. Corporate thinks it is dangerous. BTW, fitness joint opens doors at 7:30.,pretty good, when open. Read Less

Overall, we had a fabulous time aboard the Carnival Spirit. We enjoyed the wide variety of eateries that were included in the cruise and had no complaints. Facilities were wonderful and the staff even more so. The ship's resident entertainment group was wonderful but found some of the guest entertainment average but not everyone has the same taste. We loved all the ports and tender service was very good, much more organized than some of the previous cruises we have experienced. Only complaints were the prices of alcohol and the fact there were no packages other than bottles of wine. Even a coffee shop package would be great for all those who like to indulge. We often like to just relax in our cabin and watch a movie but found this very poor unless you wanted to pay. Shore tours were overpriced. Saying so, we would not hesitate to go Carnival again as overall it was better than we expected. Read Less

I choose this cruise because I love The Carnival Spirit and I loved the ports and duration of the cruise. 19 Nights From the moment we boarded it felt like coming home. We had cabin 5197 which I must say I'd never choose again unless I wanted an adjoining cabin.The cabin itself and balcony were fantastic, but I did find extra noise (mainly blaring TV or constant blowing of noses from adjoining room) and light from the adjoining cabin was a nuisance. Aside from that the position was the best. so close to the elevators. a quick jump down to atrium bar for a drink or upto lido for a snack. central to everything onboard. Deck 5 is also great for accessing the O2 15 to 17 yo club as it's on the same level at the front of the ship. We did both Chefs Table and Nouveau under the stars. I've done Chefs table in the past and although visiting the galley is great it was loudish and made it hard to hear Chef Vincent talk about each dish. I was underwhelmed by Nouveau under the stars. our waitress didn't seem to understand us very well. and when paying extra for the experience you expect a little more for the experience. We were told no we couldn't have more than 1 vegetable side and you pay extra to have wine with dinner but didn't serve anything I liked. which was very sad. Ports..... Airlie Beach we just did some shopping as we've been here before. Darwin we did the Hop on and Off Bus and looked around the main centre. I wish we had of known we could of had longer in port than after we had returned to the ship as we left over 3 hours later than expected. And also known about the free bus to Casuarina as this wasn't very well advertised and there isn't many shops in downtown Darwin. Bali we arrived at the Port of Benoa and after helping a friend who's husband was medically evacuated off the ship here we caught a Taxi into Kuta for the day. After a bit of bartering a stop off into Kuta McDonald's where my son got a behind the scene tour and we walk along the beach road we stopped off for a beverage at a local pub a foot massage hair braiding and a bit more bartering it was time to head back to port for our return tender. Ho Chi Minh. Phu My port. we opted for a 2 day tour here with Stephen from MY WAY TRAVEL. having already organized transfers and accommodation we met out tour guide at our hotel in Ho Chi Minh. Our transfer driver didnt speak any English into Ho Chi Minh but was a safe and reliable driver. We were dropped off at Prague Hotel. Here we met our guide for the next 2 days. Our guide spoke very good English and was extremely knowledgeable. We did a 2 day tour visiting the Vinh Trang My Tho Temple and buddhas The Mekong Delta river and estuary via boat and Hand rowed Sampan. We visited an island where they made coconut lollies and went on a horse and carriage ride through the village. We had lunch at the Nhà Hàng Mekong rest stop in Tiên Giang. Lunch was a traditional Vietnamese lunch. on day 2 we met our tour guide at our hotel at 8am from here we visited the War Remnants Museum the Reunification Palace, The French inspired Architectural post office, Cathedral and a final stop off at the Ben Tranh Markets. Prague hotel is in a great spot very central to everything in District 1. tables and chairs lined the street with eateries and drinks available everywhere. At night it all really comes to life with plenty of places within 50 meters of the hotel to visit. Well worth a visit but next time will stay longer. Koh Samui. We pre organized a tour with Stephen from My way Travels again. The tour guide wasn't easy to spot and I ended up sending everyone to the end of the pier to wait while I tracked him down. I must say we wasted a good hour and a half just at the port. We visited temples elephants monkeys and the grandfather and Grandmother Rocks before lunch. We unfortunately missed the end of our tour which was the shopping and looking around in Nathon. This was disappointing for me. Singapore. OMG how clean green and beautiful is this city. We stayed at Destination Singapore Hotel Beach Road. The pool on the top of the hotel is amazing. and too much time was wasted here on day one. We walked to Suntec City and Marina Square and visited little india for dinner arriving by Taxi and having a walk around. The Moustafa Centre is a sight to be seen. Although I'd never visit again it was worth seeing once. They have everything here one big multi level building. Day 2 saw us head to Sentosa via MRT and the Monorail to Universal studios. After a jammed packed day here we left and went to Gardens by the bay to watch the light show. It is amazing and a must not miss show when in Singapore. Then it was of too Bugis Street in a Taxi. We walked around the markets caught up with some friends from the ship and had a bite to eat. Day 3 and our last day in Singapore. We got up early and took the Hop on and Off bus from Suntec around Singapore (Blue line) then went back to the hotel to check out (late check out 2pm) jumping back on the hop on and off bus (red line) upto bugis street and revisiting the Markets and a last look around before heading back to the hotel for our luggage and heading to the airport. After it is all said and done I love Carnival I love Carnival Spirit and the team onboard and cant wait till I'm able to board again one day. I'm hoping carnival do more long cruises in the future as it was 19 nights of bliss. Read Less

We wanted to try a cruise with more days at sea, this trip also ended in Singapore which I had not visited for a while. Embarkation was so easy. We had selected 12-12.30 and arrived early at 10.45 to drop off our bags. The ship had agreed that general boarding could commence. We joined the queue, which was quite long but which moved through all the sections quickly. This was well organised and we were on board by 11.30. Pro's -The ship is excellent, new, clean and the crew were friendly. With so many people on board we did not experience many issues with queues. Only slightly delayed some nights for the restaurants, but no worse than other cruises on smaller ships- 5 mins at most. They ware serious about keeping your hands clean which is fine. We did My Time dining which worked well, either mixing with others or sitting on our own. Food was good quality with a great selection. Our cabin was clean, new and the bed was comfortable. Air con was efficient and TV programs fine for me as there was a selection of news channels to keep up to date with the real world. Entertainment, there is always something happening if you want to get involved. Trivia was our addiction and there were events all day, great fun. evening shows were varied, tribute bands/shows, singing/dancing, pianist, comedians, hypnotist and large production called Pixels.Shore excursions were well organised, it did not take long to get off the ship. The bus services were reasonably priced. Cons- Shore excursions centre was not open very long during the day. Not enough information about what is going on other than the activities sheet delivered to your cabin. We passed some great sights which should have been announced. The photographers kept blocking walkways for staging photos. Read Less

All cruises are good. However, some are better and a select few are best. This was a ‘best’ cruise except for disembarkation which I will address separately at the end of this review. This cruise had just the right combination of entertainment program, food quality, staff attitude, and ship condition to make it one of the best cruises we have ever done. This was a transit cruise from Sydney to Tokyo. Embarkation was a breeze. We were on the ship within 20 minutes of our arrival. We are seasoned Princess cruises, but this was our first time on the Diamond. We found it in very good condition. It does not have an international café or vines bar, but all the other features you would expect on Princess are there. There were issues with the TV system for the first few days of the voyage, but these were sorted out quickly and we all got a cruise credit for the inconvenience. The entertainment crew led by Entertainment Director ‘Frenchie’, and Cruise Director Lynn were excellent. Frenchie made herself available at 9:00am each morning if anyone had issues or comments to make. A few people ask her about putting the AFL on TV and she organised it for us. Lynn was like a Duracell bunny, always enthusiastic and upbeat. Assistant Cruise Director Andrew is also worth a special mention for his sense of humour, organisation of progressive trivia and euchre events, great sense of humour. The entertainment calendar was always full and varied throughout the cruise. The production shows were of a very high standard with a very competent dance troop and some very good vocalist. We have seen many of the production shows on previous cruises. However, we had not seen them for some time and it is obvious that as well as introducing new shows, Princess has significantly improved the production values of some of their older shows. Most importantly, the newest production show ‘Bravo’ was outstanding. It was Broadway quality and earned a standing ovation from the audience. I could watch it again and again. The enrichment lecturers by Dr Christian Heim and his wife Caroline were excellent and the best we have seen on all the cruises we have been on. It is hard to describe the theme of Dr Christian’s presentations as they were so varied. For example, one lecture combined classical music with Shakespearian play extracts while another addressed an understanding of Generation Y and a third addressed men’s mental health. Christian and Caroline have excellent presentation skills and there subject matter was always very interesting. Food service was excellent our assistant Matre’de Robert and waiter Peter were very attentive. We were in Club Class. We had previously experienced club class on the Golden and we not very impressed. However, on the Diamond club class dining is in a more intimate setting and you are made to feel just that little bit more special. Robert helped us out with a few special requests on the cruise. Nothing was too much trouble for him and he always had a smile. He is a great ambassador for Princess. The quality of food on the cruise was excellent. It became a little repetitive, but you would expect that on a 22 day cruise. Our cabin steward Rolando provided excellent service. We had one or two minor issues with our cabin, which he sorted out in no time. He was a happy chap and always happy to have a quick chat. My only complaint was the disembarkation process. I will not go into detail as I am still trying to sort the matter out with Princess. However, be aware that direct to airport transfers from the ship are organised by the Purser’s department whereas airport transfers which include a tour are organised by the shore tours department. This means that if you have issues regarding communications on airport transfer options you have to deal with two departments who do not talk to each other and there appears to be no one on the ship authorised to deal with inter departmental issues. In summary, except for the disembarkation process, this is one of the best cruises we have had on Princess. Read Less

I chose this cruise due to the travel dates and itinerary. Although the demographic trend is toward an older population, my family and families I travelled with enjoyed the cruise very much. Kids club activities and staff were amazing. Pools and spas were never overly crowded and neither were the bars. Again probably due to the demographic trend. The entertainment that I saw was very good. Princess theatre shows fill to capacity quickly so only saw one where we got seats. Other deck parties etc looked fab but as we had tired kids we generally couldn't stay up late to enjoy them as they started at 10 or 9:30pm. Too late for our young children. Am sure it has something to do with only starting parties after the second seating in the dining room has finished but a bit too long to wait for those who finished dinner in the first seating by 7pm. Staff amazing everywhere, always so kind and helpful. Overall very good cruise and would highly recommend! Read Less

Embarkation and disembarkation was a dream. Very organized, quick and easy. We had a cabin with a balcony which had a couple of chairs and a table. Spent many shore days enjoying the view. During the sea days, we had to take time out from the list of activities to take a quiet rest. You can only do so much. We learned how to sketch, and even produced acceptable portraits of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. The food in the main dining rooms was to dream about. Where else can you get lobster tails for a couple of meals. Desserts were fantastic. We even had a cake and Happy Anniversary song for our wedding anniversary. All the crew were very friendly and professional. During a short concert in the Atrium, the captain was passing and asked whether we wanted a picture with him in it. We were very impressed with the multitude of skills that the entertainment crew had, from singing, dancing, teaching all types of different activities. We tried line dancing and could participate in all other types of dancing from Ball room, to Zumba and even hula hoops if we wanted to. Crossing the equator was a hoot and I had to participate as it was my first voyage crossing the Equator. A memorable experience. The shore excursions were well organised and very enjoyable. We enjoyed English speaking guides who were very knowledgeable and help us with many happy memories. We took advantage of the pre-booking system as we intend to travel on the Princess line more often. Read Less

We chose this cruise as was on bucket list to cruise Cunard thinking it would be the best of the best. Embarkation painless, quick and very efficient. Cabin was clean but little shower pressure with antiquated shower curtain. Smallest bathroom we have had, no ventilation and no shaving mirror. The excursions left much to be desired, booked a lunch on a Mississippi steam ship to find when we arrived qm2 customers had been allocated lunch on an old steel tub next door. Grey power rose and demanded to be taken back to the ship as the tub was not what we had booked. We were told we would receive a full refund. Back at the ship a line at the excursion bookings where staff turned up 45 mins late to the advertised opening time. The staff were rude and unhelpful telling us our refund would be credited to our ship account. We had all paid prior to sailing and wanted refund back into our original accounts. When refund was credited it was only 50%. Next a message from our invisible captain on loudspeaker to announce we would not be able to call in at Darwin because of the cyclone. We accepted this as it was a force mature spending a few more days at sea and everyone looking forward to docking at Bali. Once again an announcement from the captain saying we would not be docking in Bali as it was a public holiday and Cunard staff had been unable to get to Darwin to start the visa process. Totally unacceptable as Cunard cruise organisers should have known it was a public holiday in Bali. After 9 days at sea we docked at Singapore where ot took two hours to disembark from the ship and get visas stamped. Queue after queue with many more frail passengers having to also stand in line, myself included. Passengers were extremely disillusioned with Cunard by now. It also took another hour of queuing to get back on board. Compensation for 9 days at sea was a bottle of wine. Most of the activities on the ship incurred a fee ave $35. We had also been looking forward to a stop at Brunei which were notified of cancellation a very while to departure date. Other passengers did not receive any notification and only found out when they tried to book an excursion at the office. The shops were pathetic and overpriced, we purchased very nice jewellery on a holland America cruise with far better pricing. Wine was extortionate in cost as was the wi fi which regularly dropped out and usage monitoring was not accurate. The food in the buffet was regularly dried up and unappetising. It was like a cattle market at lunchtimes and frequently there was not enough seating.The service in the Britannia restaurant was good, but the menu not enough choice. All the passengers that we spoke to, which were many and varied said that they would not travel on the QM2 again and had had much better cruises on other lines, some of these passengers had taken 30 plus cruises. Even passengers that had travelled before on the QM2 said that they would not travel again on her. Our cabin steward did a good job of keeping our cabin tidy, we found the staff in the Britannia restaurant were friendly, however the rest of the staff we did not find to be particularly friendly as on other cruise lines. The entertainment was good the first time but not so good on repeat. The movie cinema only showed a couple of recent movies. The tv channels were appalling frequently dropping out with outdated movies. We were very disappointed with this cruise and we had been really looking forward to it. Read Less

I chose the QM2 for a taste of old world, traditional cruising British style (a 14-day cruise Sydney-Singapore) with four expected shore stops, only two of which took place. A cyclone prevented one shore visit (entirely understandable) and a right royal mess up (for which Cunard would accept no responsibility) prevented the other. For this, we were compensated with a bottle of red wine and a reduction of US$175-00 on our next Cunard cruise. The vessel is beautifully decorated and the public areas were certainly handsomely refurbished in the 2016 refit to reflect its past glory. However, noise containment between staterooms was not satisfactory (I had to move staterooms twice before I could get a relatively quiet room). The main dining room food was not really up to the standard of a luxury line (the Princess Line serves food just as good). The Indian special restaurant was fine but in the Verandah Restaurant (named after the legendary Verandah on the Queen Mary) -- for which hefty cover charges were levied at lunch and dinner -- the food quality and service fluctuated considerably. Compared with its equivalent on the "Celebrity Solstice", where I had the best meal I have ever had on a cruise ship in 2015, the Verandah was a big let down. I did complain and efforts were made to mollify me. However, I found this a dispiriting experience -- as did other passengers. Nevertheless, there were positives: friendly and efficient stewards and waiters, great musicians, the opportunity to participate in a choir and, of course, the usual range of shipboard activities. However, I have to say that, because of the noise problems experienced, the Verandah issues and the shambolic shore stop situation, I would never travel Cunard again. Read Less

We choose this cruise because of its destinations and we have cruised with Norwegian previously and had a very good experience on the spirit. Hence we thought we would experience the same level of service on the jewel however we were thoroughly disappointed this time around. The excursions were disappointing and on one we had no opportunity of purchasing food / drink after spending 5 hrs in a coach in 82 degrees heat. We were given a 300ml bottle of warm water to drink the whole day from 1pm until arriving back on ship at 7.45 this is in humane and unacceptable . When making our complaint to Marcus the tour manager on board he was very dismissive and rude never in our lives have we been spoken to in this manner truly shocking way to treat your customers. The tendering was a major issue and we wasted many hours at each port of call queuing and tendering to/from ship in hot stuffy conditions. Two day advertised stops became one in reality we missed out on evening trip ashore for dinner in Bali as we didn't get back on board ship from our day excursion until 7.45 . This was our pearl anniversary cruise and we wanted it to be memorable and special however I'm sad to say it was disappointing and memorable for the wrong reasons. We will never cruise with Norwegian again. Read Less

The cruise was a great experience with some superb destinations. The ship is in pretty decent condition but is probably ready for the re-fit due later this year. Food in the restaurants was average at best, its the same menu in Tsars and Azura and was often bland and not hot enough. We finished the cruise using the buffet (Garden Cafe) as there was lots of choice and we could generally find something we liked. We paid for the upgrade restaurants on four occasions and found them to be excellent, well worth the premium paid. The shows in the Stardust theatre were generally good but were excellent when the ships own dance troop and singers performed. I can't speak highly enough of their shows - Broadway standards!! The drinks package is awesome, lots of choice of beers, cocktails and premium spirits. A couple of bad things:- On sea days, we were unable to secure a sun lounger as they had all been reserved by guests who got up early and saved them them with their towels. It was extremely annoying to see the same selfish people in the prime spots every sea day. (even though NCL had signs up saying sun loungers should not be reserved, this was not enforced) We had a number of destinations that could only be reached by Tender, the Tendering process was abysmal, they didn't seem to have enough Tender boats, the tender allocation process was shambolic and all this resulted in it taking up to 2.5 hours to reach shore after we arrived at the destination. I like a punt in the Casino but didn't bother as the minimum wager was too high ($10) and most of the tables were empty for most of the time. It was our first NCL cruise and we would cruise NCL again but they have some glaring issues they could easily resolve. Read Less

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This cruise was a lot of B2B trips. I did the 29 days from Sydney to Hong Kong. I was a single traveler, so got inside cabin on 10th deck. Menguel was my expert Steward. A lot of the ports were tendering ports. That means a lot of me-me, pushing & shoving. Ships staff can’t comment or interfere with this type of behavior. They just smile & say, they’re sorry & doing best they can. Just plan ahead & get out early. Don’t ruin your fabulous vacation by getting upset over things you have no control over. It’ll work out fine. Ports were AMAZING. I guess new cruises will have overnight in Hong Kong as well. I did 4 days early in Sydney & 4 days post in Hong Kong. I was the most surprised in Vietnam ports. Loved Singapore. I had excellent guides. They really went into details for us. We used shoreexcursionsasia.com. Best tours, best prices. No need to convert currency in all countries. Only Australia, Singapore, & Hong Kong. All others wanted US dollars. Don’t need to overpack. Ship offered $19.99 bag laundry service. Duct tape your bag for strength & cram it full. You’ll cross the equator, so get ready for a fabulous Toga party. Food was what you’d expect on a cruise. This ships passengers average age was 63. Only 17 kids. Very laid back. Loved it. Take underwater camera. The beaches are amazing. I snorkeled GBR 2Xs, & snorkeled the beautiful pink beach on Komodo, Indonesia. AMAZING!!! Take poncho & sun screen. Definitely a hat. I love my new backbush Australian hat. Shows were so so. I’m not into the loud type of shows. So, only went to ones that interested me. Shore excursions main man, Marcus, was a delight. He tried to get people to understand the tendering rules, but they didn’t listen. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Read Less

we booked this cruise because it was a great price and an itinerary we had done before and really enjoyed pros We have done many cruises but never NCL, I have to say we were pleasantly surprised embarkation was quick and efficient in Sydney, the ship was lovely and easy to get around I didn't really notice too many signs of wear and tear.The inside cabin was very small the smallest we have experienced but it was adequate there was plenty of storage the bed was comfy and the bathroom large with a proper shower screen. Food generally was very good with plenty of choice we did not use the specialty restaurants Entertainment was good Burn the Floor were amazing with standing ovations at all the shows the best show I have seen on a cruise ship, the singer 24 Karat was also excellent we found the service to be good and apart from 2 exceptions the staff were very friendly and helpful, sometimes a little slow to get served at busy times particularly on sea days we did our own thing in the ports so I cant comment on ships excursions cons food in the buffet not very hot at times getting a sun bed on sea days was a nightmare there were people on sunbeds at 6.30am we called it sunbed wars! tendering was very slow in some ports but I dont know what the answer is when getting over 2,000 people off a ship, we had to get up very early to get tender tickets Overall we had a fantastic time I would cruise with NCL again Read Less

We chose this cruise because of the itinerary and all the new ports of call. We booked the 40 day from Sydney Australia to Tokyo Japan. We were in a suite 10500 which was at the front of the ship and we loved the position and balcony. Our butler and cabin steward were friendly and helpful. Thank goodness we had the suite I am not sure I could have survived 40 days in any other type of cabin. We spent a lot of time in the suite. For many of the ports the ship anchored a long way off shore, resulting in long tenders, or it stopped in industrial ports that required expensive taxis into the closest town or paying the cruise line for a shuttle bus into town. The day after we left Sydney, bars were running out of certain types of wines and beers!! Really one day into a 40 day cruise. We were told that the ship was expecting to be restocked in Sydney but the container had not arrived. The one thing that really was annoying was that you could only get certain things at certain restaurants. For example something as simple as good mint tea was only available at Moderno and none of the other specialty restaurants, no attempt was made to get something for even, one night I couldn't even get a baked potato in the specialty french restaurant because "it is only served in the main dining room" I remember the days servers would have gone to the main dining room to get it. Although sometimes the server would get something for me they were few and far between. Menus were the same every day for 40 days in the specialty restaurants and at the Suites breakfast and lunch venue in the Moderno. Certain wines were available only in a few of the bars, even though they were listed on all bar menus. There was no attempt to get the one you wanted. Servers were bringing other drinks because they had ran out, they would not come back and ask what else you wanted just bring whatever and leave. I can not tell you how many drinks I sent back because they had ran out of what I ordered and brought me whatever they could lay hands on. I went back to the bar tender one time and asked him what he had given me, he said he didn't know! Food in the two main dining rooms was ok and to be honest did not see much difference between specialty dining food, the only difference was the smaller dining venues, although in Cagneys there were so many people crammed in there it was difficult to have a conversation. Gone are the nice quiet romantic dinner venues. Most of the shows were pretty bad particularly the comedians, the Cirque was fantastic as was a Japanese juggler/magician and the ballroom style dance group apart from that nothing we saw was outstanding and like many others we walked out of several shows. I have taken 15 cruises with NCL before the last one a 30 day two years ago and I can not believe how many things have changed, trimmed down to the bone with unhappy and overworked staff. Sad to say my last cruise on NCL Read Less