First time cruisers so this was all brand new for us. The first thing to say that despite all the following positive notes, our first impression of RCI wasn't without criticism. I found that their website was inadequate in many ways, one of which resulted in us having to finish the booking over the phone. There was also so much contrasting information on different pages e.g. one page said that we had to still pay 15% gratuity on all fountain soda transactions even after purchasing the soda package; another page said we didn't. The latter turned out to be true.

Anyway, come to the day, flight was on time and we were met in the arrivals hall by plenty of RCI staff who directed us to our carousel. Unfortunately the bags took forever to appear but when they did, we dropped them straight with the RCI porters and, almost immediately, we were led to the coach. An hour later we were in the port terminal and boarding was incredibly speedy and we were on board in no time. More contrasting info; website said room would be ready by 1300, literature said 1400; another piece said baggage delivered by 2000, another piece said 2100. As it turns out, it was there by 1500.

The room was far bigger than we expected with probably as much storage space as we've had in most hotels. Everything worked perfectly and on the one day there was a problem, the stateroom attendant had it repaired within the hour. A word about the stateroom staff; they were incredibly friendly and efficient; nothing was ever too much trouble and I was more than happy to leave more than the recommended gratuity at the end of the week. As for the ship itself, it had apparently just come out of refit and it was immaculate. Being our first time we had no idea what to expect so maybe I'm over-egging things but we were genuinely impressed with everything. All areas of the ship were spotless with massive emphasis on hygiene. Read more