We sailed from Hong Kong and walked to the terminal. On arrival there was no signs or staff. As it was raining we headed into the first door we saw. We walked through the terminal looking at maps to work out where we needed to go. Finally we found what looked like the right place to be told no you need to go downstairs. We finally found the port staff and checked in. As we approached the ship our passports where taken from us. We was not told before hand this would happen. I went to take my landing card out but was told to leave it in. Once onboard we where very happy and the ship looked good. We got a drink and walked around the ship. We had early dining so we got ready and headed to the long queue to go for our evening meal. As we where getting to the front of the queue the line started to slow down. By now it was 6.15pm and dinning was 5.45pm. Another 5 minutes passed and we where still in the queue. 3 dining room staff where stood around the door. I finally asked what is happening and they said the dining room was full. I had to ask, no one was coming to inform us what was happening. We expressed that we had early dining to be told there is no assigned dining on this ship. We explained we was asked to choose and was told no it's an Asian cruise so no dining options, you just bascially turn up and hope there is a table. Obviously not impressed as we choice this time to dine and expected to, just like on other cruises we have been on. After 5 minutes of talking we asked if we would be assured of a table at 8pm and was told we would. Just come to the front of the queue and stand by this wall and you will be seated straight away. They also said this has never happened before but for other staff members to say it always like that so where not impressed. So on return it's another free for all with the guests and the dining staff didn't really know why we stood there. Communication was horrendous but we did finally get to sit down. All in all no assigned dining and we didn't sit on the same table each night with the same guests to share our adventures of that day which we where looking forward too.

Before we left home we did alot of research on the ports and where to go and what to see. We obviously know due to weather conditions this can change but once we arrived in Okinawa we had to go through immigration. We where not informed of this when we booked our cruise or any day before we sailed. This took one and a half hours so the plans we had made we where not able to go ahead with due to losing so much time. It was very disappointing as we could have been informed of this before hand and not got our hopes up of visiting the places we wanted too. We also planned to get day travel cards in Japan but this was not possible as our passports where taken off us. They would only except the original passport and not the photocopy we had so this cost us more money to travel around.

ALWAYS WATCH THE BAR STAFF MAKING YOUR DRINKS! We do not blame the bar staff as this happened several times at several different bars with several different bar staff so they are clearly told to them to do this. But they would use house spirits instead of branded spirits. We often had to stop them or ask them if it was our drink they where making. One bar server was like ermm no no that's not yours when we pointed out he was using the wrong spirits. They would happily replace it and make a fresh but this shouldn't happen in the first place and it is illegal. Read more