We chose this cruise for a couple of reasons - firstly because it was sailing out of Singapore and we hadn't done that before, and secondly because one of the ports was Komodo Island which we were looking forward to very much.

Embarkation day was a complete mess. The port authority process was ok but then we went to the check in counter for Carnival where we were given receipts for our passports but not asked to hand them over, which we thought strange. We then proceeded to the ship only to be held up an the gangway as we had come to the end of a line of fellow passengers waiting to have their passports taken. This line, as we found out later, wound its way from the gangway through the atrium and then into and around the Black Pearl restaurant before ending at a couple of tables where staff were busily taking our passports. From the time we entered the line to when our passports were finally taken was about an hour and only then because someone had rounded up six more crew members to assist with the process which sped it up a little.

From there we went to the Guest Services desk to book our shore excursion because, even though we were encouraged to check out the possible excursions online before boarding, we couldn't actually book them until we got on board. We had chosen the Pink Sands Komodo experience which was advertised at around $180 per person, which we thought expensive but was something we wanted to do. The other option was simply the Komodo experience which didn't include the trip to the Pink Sands for around $130. Read more