Ship presents beautifully - very clean and well decked out. Check in was quite quick even though they weren't ready for us when we arrived (early) took less than an hour from check in to being in our cabin. Our cabin steward Chen was incredible as too was our waitress marina. In fact out of the 9 cruises I have been on marina was the best waitress we have ever had. She insisted we try everything, so each night brought us many extras to eat when we couldn't decide what to choose. Main dining room menu was excellent and food at a high standard even though celebrity and princess do seem to be more upmarket. The entertainment in the main theatre was quite good - all acts were different and quite diverse. We sat at the adult pool every day and enjoyed the quiet. Very few children on board as not school holidays. Windjammer food was a bit repetitive - always a hassle as busy but could always find a table at the end. The ports were excellent albeit some far away from the main areas but shuttles were organised to accommodate this. We were in one of the new cabins in deck 12- highly recommended as great quiet position and seem larger than any balcony room we have had before. Shopping on board was probably the worst I have encountered- always the same things came out to sell - not the usual diversity I have seen on previous cruises. Quite disappointing. The pizza cafe bar was always busy and the food served there was good. Tokyo was a highlight as too was Seoul. Would have liked more time in Korea as was fascinating. Read Less

After having read the reviews I was concerned that this cruise was going to be terrible however we were pleasantly surprised with many things. Embarkation was quite quick - we were there early and they hadnt even opened up yet. However once they saw there were people turning up - they moved quickly. Took 1 hour from checking in to being in our cabin which included the 15 minute bus ride to the ship. Not too bad. This is my 9th cruise (4th on RC). As this cruise went from Tokyo to Japan via Seoul - the ship did seem to cater to the many Asian people on board in several ways - none of which impacted on us too much. The ship has been beautifully refurbished and every area was spotlessly maintained. We were fortunate enough to be in a new balcony cabin on the 12th deck which was the largest cabin I have ever stayed in. Chen our cabin attendant was brilliant. Almost read our minds and we thank him for being so excellent! The main dining room was not so busy - only 2600 passengers were on this cruise ( max is 3300) and many preferred the buffet for dinner - so this was worked in our favour. Marina our waitress was excellent - every night she brought us almost everything on the menu to try as she was happy to see us eat! My sister has some food allergies and the head waiter, chef, Marina etc all couldnt do more to make sure she was happy and safe - incredible service. The ports were excellent - some were a bit further then we realised - shuttles were organised and we enjoyed them all. The shows in the Scala Main theatre were varied and all were pretty entertaining. Shopping on board was hopeless - I usually like buying items on board - nothing changed and the same items appeared night after night. Not sure why this happened as really is a captive market that the ship could have made plenty of money on from shopaholics like me. The coffee shop/pizza place was great - serving good food all day long if a snack needed. The quiet adult pool was lovely - monitored by staff if chairs saved for too long. The usual happy hour for half price drinks 5 - 6 didnt exist. Alcohol was very expensive - heard many passengers complaining about this. Basically we did this cruise for time of the year ( non school holiday period) and the amazing ports. Tokyo and Seoul were highlights. Japan is simply amazing - the people warm and welcoming. A great place to visit. We were only in Seoul for a day - would have like to have seen more. China - pure madness - try crossing the road - green light and pedestrian crossing doesnt mean its safe to walk!!!! Great shopping however - pearl and silk markets were fabulous. One thing cant fault were the staff - everyone bends over backwards to be helpful, make sure you are happy and always say hello and give a warm smile. Read Less

This probably was the most disappointed RCC cruise I have been on. We sailed on May 14-23, 2015 from Yokohama to tianjin. The embarkation was not exactly at the Yokohama terminal. We have to bus across town to board the boat. The entrance has no sign where to drop off our luggage to be transferred to the boat. We ended up dragging all our luggage all the way on board the ship. We were told if we chose the my time dining, we will have to prepaid all the gratuities. But upon checking with the maître once we got on the boat, we were told there is no my time dining on this voyage. But he was able to give 1st seating dining. Upon arrival for our first dinner at room dining, the table is only is only for 4 people, and there are 5 of us. So we ended up squeezed in a small table for the whole cruise. During the first week of the cruise, we were constantly being bother by staff tried to sell us dining package at the chops grille. We already told them we don't want to buy any. But this Chinese guy kept on coming back during our dinner time to try to sell us the package all week. So is the guy from Izumi. It is really annoying. Talking about Japanese food, I couldn't believe I was on a cruise to japan and didn't see one single piece of sushi on the menu at the sapphire dining room or at the windjammer. The only way u can get to eat sushi is at Izumi. A lot of the food is cater to Chinese. And the Chinese food wasn't even good Chinese food, I know because I am a Chinese, but I am from Canada. The cruise might say the ship is chartered by a Chinese group. But there were tons of Japanese too. I didn't see them cook any Japanese food either. And the western food is not up to standard,not at windjammer. All their meat, including the steak, pork chops were all over cooked. The carving table, is supposed to carve fresh for the roast, but all the roast chicken, turkey, roast pork, or beef are all pre sliced and let it laid in the cold. The worst part was, if they want to cater the food to the majority of the Chinese at least do some research. One night, I saw the carving table have roast pork Chinese style with crispy skin. Instead of serving the crispy skin with the pork, I heard the chef told the person at the carving table to throw away all the crispy skin. I was shocked, the skin is the best part of the crispy skin pig. There were more stew food that I have ever seen on a cruise. Stew beef, lamb, chicken. That is not cruise food, those are cafeteria food. And there is no omelette station for breakfast, and I have never seen any uglier bacon and pork sausage in my life. Either they are burnt or they grilled on really aged oil. Because every morning I saw them they were dark brown in color. Bacon supposed to be crispy, but the bacon on this cruise is thick and tough to eat. My son loves bacon, he didn't eat any on this cruise. And the worst part is when I finally decided to give the kitchen a last chance to give me a decent cooked piece of bacon,big mistake! The 2 PC of bacon that I got was raw. I told the waiter, the chef came out blaming the batch of bacon without looking at it, and said it was not their usual bacon that they would normally order. I was kind of furious, because he blamed the source without seeing what is the problem. I told them the bacon was raw, not cooked and what does it has to do with the source of the bacon?? My husband said don't tell us next thing u going to blame the pig too. He finally admitted his mistake. And I think it is unforgivable, giving diner close to raw pork to eat. The executive chef finally apologize and sent us some chocolate dipped strawberries to our state room. Also the night we have prime rib in the dining room, the chef called it rib eye steak on the menu. And the night they have lobster, they called it giant shrimp. I thought this is really bad to try to fool the diner what is going to be served on the menu. At first we thought a prime rib cut mentioned as rib eye steak was an unintentionally mistake. But when lobster was called giant shrimp, I don't think it was an unintentionally mistake! If it is the same chef on the current voyage, I hope someone actually would go up to windjammer and actually look and taste the food. Or send the chef to go take some lesson to serve Asian food. I heard Malaysian people said the Malaysian food doesn't taste like Malaysian food. The Chinese food, is not really Chinese food. And all the pasta at the dining room, not only there was hardly any sauce on it, even they have it , it was tasteless. The soufflé is the ugliest I have seen on a cruise. And my favorite creme brûlée, on this ship they made a banana creme brûlée. It was so sweet, and I only took one bite. We had the best buffet not on the cruise but while we were on the RCC shore excursion in Seoul. It was sarcastic that the only sushi we had on this cruise was in Korea. I have to say the evening show was pretty good, since every night it has something different. Also our stateroom attendant was nice, and so is the server at the dining room. But this route is too cold to swim or do the flow rider. There was only 2 days that was warm enough to do the flow rider. The first day and the last day. And it was so early in the morning. The ice rink opened only 2 days for 1 or 2 hours out of the 9 days. And it was opened at 5pm on excursion day. Who have the energy to ice skate after walking all day at port? And for people who didn't go out to the port they have to wait until the end of the day before they got a chance to skate?? Please don't close the windjammer, at least open one side after dining hours. There is nowhere in the ship that the kids can sit down to play some cards or game as a group of people.The game room is always filled with people, the star lounge's table is too small. And some one told us there is the deck 14th lounge. Our stateroom is on deck 10 aft. If we go up to the deck 13 then we have to walk outside to walk to deck 14. Let me tell u it is really cold to walk out the deck to go up to deck 14 without a jacket. And all the lounge chair around the adult pool is always soaking wet with water. No one bother to wipe it. And the food for the afternoon tea is the same food left over from lunch, even the ice cream machine was locked. We were able to find one ice cream machine tuck in a corner near the adult lounge. Other line have snack bar every where. The only place we find food in this vessel is at deck 5 after dining hours, Where they served the same sandwich, and cookies everyday. The pizza is really weird, I am not sure if the cheese on the pizza r real cheese. I really enjoy the dreamworks parade though. There wasn't much activities during at sea day. .And there was one Chinese lady who is slightly overweight with glasses,who look after the towel and the surrounding at the gym and spa area was really rude. My husband was trying to look what is up the second floor above the gym got yelled at by her. And on a different morning, I saw her yelled at a customer for putting a dirty towel in the wrong basket. The guy walked away already, she kept yelling at him until he came back and put it back in the right bin. I was shocked with that kind of service attitude she was being put to serve at an area to have close contact with cruisers. She should be assigned to clean plate in the kitchen. She is not suitable where she is working. Lastly, we were not advise a temporary visa was required to got off the boat at tianjin and take the shuttle to fly home from beijing. We were told to hand in a copy of our plane ticket, our passport, on 4 different occasions. The agent do not know what they are going to do with the 44 people that do not have a visa to land in tianjin. That was really bad. Even though they were aware of the problem, they did not hold a meeting and tell the staff at the customer service that they have this visa situation. If any cruiser enquire they should b e able to answer. On the day of disembark, it was as chaotic as the day we embarked on the boat. We were called to the conference room, to see the china custom to issue a temp. Visa. 2 of the staff standing on either side of the room gave out different location where we have to meet them to get off the boat./ passing through custom.Because all 44 people with the temp. Visa has to leave custom together. To sum it up, I definitely will not take this boat again, probably not any old RCC boat. The only one I will consider taking Probably the newest one. Read Less

We were so ill informed we almost missed the cruise. When we booked the cruise we were under the understanding that the cruise would start in Yokohama as it is now the main cruise terminal for Tokyo and on the itinery it just said Tokyo Japan as embarkation disembarking in Tokyo Yokahama. so hence the confusion. I rang Royal Australia to clarify and was told that I would be advised if there were any changes and that Yokahama would be embarkation point. we went to yokahama and stayed a couple of nights pre cruise, but were horrified when next day the ship was no where to be seen and port authority officials informed us it was in Tokyo. no information was received by e mail notifying us of the procedure for embarkation or the location. their website offered no information. i had to do several searches to get place the cruise was leaving from but it gave no address details. The hotel we were at contacted Royal C in Tokyo, got instruction for taxi to take us up there. processing was at the Fashion show hall that's where we got processed then taken on a bus to the docks some 35 mins away. On talking to fellow passengers we found we were not alone no one had been informed of where to go for boarding procedures, and that others like us had gone to yokohama then had to taxi it from there to make the cruise on time. Only Japanese cruisers that had booked through tour groups or agencies had been notified. I thought this was disgraceful service from such a big cruise line, one that we had thought professional to behave in such an unprofessional manor. In talking to other passengers it seems that the ones from NZ and Australia where the ones most disgruntled by the same complaint. Aside from this the ship itself was good it did show sighs of wear and ageing balcony rails needed resurfacing, and the mattresses on the beds needed replacing. I found them very hard and no pillow top (a vast difference from the oasis of the seas a couple of years ago, which were really comfy) Our cabin attendant went out of her way to find a foam topper and put on so that my joints and hips did not suffer to much. The fridge was not at all cold we got another but it was the same, once more our attendant provided a medical fridge to keep medicines in for us. I was very disappointed with the lack of gluten free on board. When I had enquired by e mail I was told that all meals could accommodate gluten free adaptations. Little did I know that, what they meant was that every meal would be served with boiled rice, mostly no vegetables and no sauces or gravy...when I questioned why this was I was told that the the mashed potato was bought in and could contain wheat. You are really kidding me surely. Gradually I found that almost everything on the menu got bought in ready made. so we now have a cruise line that now just adds water and stirs. That they could not guarantee that as the food was sourced in that it did not contain wheat. My meals became blander and blander, bordering onto appauling, dry and un-appertising. The gluten free bread they bought was actually a cake sweet and heavy. They purchased that in as well. ( I can buy better in my supermarket.) After 4 days of eating like this I just took my chances and ordered meals that were not gluten free but left the bread alone and was again enjoying food. Luckily I don't have allergic reaction of choking etc when I consume it( my digestion just doesn't like it.) I really thought they would have had a chef capable of making sauces and gravies with cornflour or alternatives and making mashed potato from scratch in an area that was used for this sole safe preparation area. Certainly the lack of effort really was a supprise to me as I did expect more from the cruise line. I was sadly very disappointed !!! The entertainment was a bit lame there were a good duo that sang down by the coffee shop and they were very good but when they sang above deck for some reason only sang reggae music which all the time was a bit boring. The parades where pretty good with good costumes. There were too many venues on the ship all solely for ballroom dancing and we felt the cruise was only suited to the Japanese clients who love to dance. But every place that had something on at night was devoted to just that so we gave up. The pig and Whistle was the only saving grace but the guitarist should be started at 7.30 as there is nothing on until 9 pm and really that's a bit late. We knew the Japan cruise would be modified some but expected a bit more in the was of entertainment which suited all on board. We had 3 visits to Kobe in 8 days just picking up agents and then dropping them back, I feel that the quality of the itinery was not designed for the paying cruisers but more designed for the sole promotion of the cruise line breaking into a market and giving promotional days at sea for agents to sell on the cruise to customers.. Time in the ports on 2 occasions did not allow for anytime to do anything ashore. but passengers had to get off and go through customs at the terminal over and over again, which really was a waste of port time we could have had. Apart from the issues I had with food, the service in the main dinning room was excellent the staff always attentive and efficient...The meals served were mostly western style, we noted a lot of Japanese passengers ate in the Windjammer café at night. On the whole some things on this cruise were certainly not up to scratch, The meals if this is the standard now adopted by R.C on all their ships, need to be looked at as you can tell the food is not freshly made in the kitchens anymore, but brought in ready made. Pretty shameful really. On the plus side our captains club loyalty from Celebrity cruises affords us more perks with R.C. But we ask ourselves will this be enough to make us want to try them again. We have been spoilt by cruising on the Oasis of the Seas and expected this standard to flow through to the other ships, but sadly this is not the case. Read Less