We chose this cruise mainly because of price and the itinerary. Our boarding was earlier than expected and as we entered the ship we were welcomed and advised that our cabin was ready. Our balcony cabin was spotless and our steward Stenley was wonderful. The refit she in 2014 certainly made her look brand new. We chose Freedom Dining, so we ate mainly in the Medina or the upstairs Horizon Buffet. Since the ship introduced the Beach House for an evening option for an extra 5 Pound, only half of the hot servery was open to the Horizon diners. This caused queue's up to 40 feet long. This looked like just another way of raising another 5 quid out of people. Having said that , the food in the Beach House was magnificent.
We did think the Horizon was very "canteen-ish" with not a huge variety from day to day. We had breakfast in the Medina at times, but were surprised they only offered our favourite "eggs benedict" on Mondays. Couldn't work that one out. We went to few shows in the Curzon and they were usually good. We joined in the "battle of the sexes " trivia on sea-days, which was good fun.The service was very good ,although some of the Medina waiters looked dis-interested. We must mention an episode that was really frustrating. Unless you asked for 'slow service', which we didn't realise you could, often we would still be eating our entree when others at the table were being served main course.
We had heard that Captain Patrick Maguire was only filling in until Hong Kong at which time Captain Philpott would take over. When we couldn't enter the port of Shanghai because they had closed the port because of weather, we ,along with dozens of other vessels were forced to wait. I believe we were given times to pick up the pilot and enter only to have that withdrawn at the last minute. We therefore lost valuable time and were forced to cancel our Taiwan visit so we could be in Hong Kong on time.We completely understood the decision Captain Maguire had made and we realise reaching a port is never guaranteed. There were however passengers who believed we could have entered the port had he acted more proffesionally. We felt this was terribly unfair to him.
The cabin layout was excellent. the king size bed was wonderful. The airconditioning worked perfectly. The water temperature took some fiddling but ended up OK.Our cabin steward was very obliging and fiited in with us at all times.
Been there before, and were glad we ended up at Portside
Loved Darwin. We hired a taxi for an hour and saw quite a bit of the place. Couldn't live there with their climate.
They booked too many for the old tram ,and some people stood for the whole trip. We did enjoy the New Territories Tour
This was our third try and we loved it.
Took the shuttle bus which took us to a supermarket and caught the next bus back.
We dis-embarked here and spent 3 wonderful days. Love the place.