Impressive Royal Caribbean Cruise From Australia

by CHARLES HOOK
(MELBOURNE AU)

My wife and I recently completed our fourth cruise from Australia on Royal Caribbean. (We have cruised with other companies.) This time it was on the Legend of the Seas from Brisbane for 9 nights, cruising to some west Pacific Islands, which departed on 11 April 2016.

My wife is Filipino and convinced 9 of her friends and relatives to join us on this cruise. Apart from us and one other, it was their first cruise for the remainder.

As usual it was seamless. Everything appeared to work perfectly, albeit I do have a few minor observations that follow.


The embarkation and disembarkation and island stop processes fell into this former category.

We were all very impressed with our dinner waiters - ‘Felippe and Roiston' on table 67 in the Romeo and Julliette dining room. About day 2 there was some discussion about Filipino food, which was overheard by the waiter. He, with the help of the excellent chef/s, prepared four or five dishes over subsequent nights - the ladies were very impressed with the authenticity of this food and very happy.

Overall we all enjoyed this cruse and will most likely select Royal Caribbean again.

Many Australians are not used to the American gratuity arrangements that are applied on this Company’s ships. Early on we were advised that all you have to do is advise Guest Relations that you do not want this added to your bill and that you will look after it personally. We have always done this.

Finally, as an ex-Veteran I was pleased to see an arrangement for vets to meet together. May I suggest to the Company that under such a gathering, which is most likely always to be fairly small in numbers that the first drink is "on the ship."