Member Cruise Review




    Hi everyone, I'm back from my first ever cruise and WOW!!! did we like it!  
    This isn't a full review because I'm still not properly unpacked and the laundry pile is a small mountain, so
    its just a brief rundown of the highlights and lowlights of the whole experiance.

    Highlights
    The ship - it was amazing, so big, so clean, so much to do and see on it

    The staff - they were always really friendly and willing to help anyway they could.

    The stateroom - bigger than I imagined, very clean, plenty of space to store the vast amount of luggage
    we took.

    The cocktails (I did try most of them !!) - I can recommend the Rum Runners at the Cosmopolitan Club
    and the Mojitos at Boleros!

    The shows - very entertaining and well worthy seeing, especially 'Once Upon a Time' which was excellent.

    Florence - magnificant city would love to go back there, Italian leather handbags just screamed 'Buy Me
    Now' at me, unlike the credit card bill when it arrives which will probably scream 'You spent HOW
    MUCH???'  Oh and the Italian ice cream, it was wonderful.

    Malaga - This was a surprise, we expected trashy touristy Spain but it was really nice, clean, upmarket
    and very friendly people.

    Villefranche - What a beautiful town, again somewhere else that we'd like to spend more time in.

    Not really a highlight but worth mentioning - we had to turn back in the bay of Biscay as a crew member
    had been taken seriously ill. We had to get close enough into land for a air sea rescue helicopter to
    come and take the man ashore. To see the helicopter hovering over the ship in strong winds while
    winching people down onto the ship and then winching them back as well as the ill crew member was an
    amazing sight. The skill of the pilot and the bravery of the people involved was tremendous. Over the
    next few days the Captain kept us informed of the crew members progress which was looking promising.

    Lowlights

    Moaning people - the ones that constantly harped on about 'P&O does this better', 'Princess does that
    better' etc etc. I'm sorry but if my cruise is 99.9% perfect then I'm really not going to waste the energy
    moaning about the 0.01% that isn't. Unfortunately some other people don't share my philosophy. And if
    they think that other cruise lines do it better, then please feel free to book with them in future! That's it ,
    main rant over!

    The Logo Shop - actually this is more of a moan at my husband. I wanted to buy a fridge magnet on day
    1 but he said there would be plenty of time later on the cruise. However the shop had sold out of
    magnets by the end of the first week so I never got one. My husband says its the shops fault for not
    stocking enough, I say its his for not letting me buy one in the first place!

    Lisbon - Didn't feel very comfortable here, lots of beggars, and my husband got offered a substantial
    amount of cannabis in the street! We were quite glad to get back to the ship that day.

    People jumping into the elevators ahead of people who were already waiting. This was just plain bad
    manners.


    Overall this was a fantastic holiday and we both loved it, now all we have to do is work out how we can
    pay for another one!


    Royal Caribbean International
    Navigator of the Seas
    June 2007
    by Pam

    Western Mediterranean