I never write reviews but felt compelled to this time. I read the reviews on Star Cruises before we sailed with them. Having cruised before in different parts of the world, I thought it would be nice to travel with an Asian cruise line through Asian countries, even though I had read some bad reviews. What a big mistake that was. We knew it would be challenging, but had no idea just how hard it would be. There were only 4 English western passengers on board and hardly any of the other 2500 passengers could speak English. We absolutely know that was our fault for booking an Asian cruiser and don't blame the cruise line for that. It was our bad luck.

I just want to advise non Asian passengers to definitely don't go with this cruise line. As I said it was our fault about the language but so frustrating with the announcements and entertainment - but getting on and off for excursions etc. was complete bedlam. You just had to join in and be pushed about as seems to be the custom. All the excursions are in Mandarin but we were made aware of this before we booked, but they didn't understand any English and I just pointed to my watch to find out what time we were due back on the bus at every stop. Lol.

The food was average for the buffet, with little variety. To eat in any of the 3 free restaurants, you had to line up like at a Medicare office and wait until your number came up on the screen, this sometimes took 45 minutes of waiting. There were other restaurant on board (like you get on other cruise lines where you have two sittings in the dining room and the food is top quality) but it costs a minimum of $A30 per head. Read more