As promised, here is my review on the cruise. Whilst most comments are mine I will also include relevant remarks from other people to try and give as comprehensive review as possible.

Having filled in the relevant documents on-line, embarkation at Freemantle went very smoothly and we were in our cabin, 8581, within 45 minutes. As an inside cabin it was tiny but as you only sleep in it I don't think it matters. There was no fridge in our cabin, although I understand some cabins do have them and whilst there is tea making facilities, there is no coffee in the cabin. We found the ship coffee a little strong so bought a small jar of Nescafe coffee at one of our ports of call. Royal Caribbean seem to have also done away with providing toiletries as a cost cutting measure.

One major grumble that you will find if you look at other review sites is that of vibration and I'm afraid that in certain part of the ship this is quite noticeable. It would appear to be worse towards the last quarter of the ship on the starboard (right) side and talking to someone who had been affected by it (his pillows were dancing all over the bed) and was moved, I went and stood outside cabins 8550 - 8570 and could quite clearly feel the vibration. This vibration was also noticeable on Deck 9, probably directly above the aforementioned cabins. Whether it was felt down through the lower decks I don't know as I didn't check. Fortunately we were not affected.

The second grumble you will find on the net is about the quality of the food. It was well presented, for the most part very tasty but we (plus the other 8 on our table) felt that at times it was lacking that 'extra something'. We had originally been booked on the 6 pm sitting but felt that this was too early so as soon as we boarded the ship we went to the maitre d's station and changed it to the 8.30 pm sitting. This is actually a little late for us but we felt it was the better choice. We had breakfast and lunch in the Windjammer most days and found the food here was fine, although there didn't appear to be much variety throughout the cruise. We also had lunch several times in the Solarium, beefburgers and pizza which were fine.

The entertainment on board was very hit and miss - of course this is a very personal choice; what one person loves, someone else will hate. The main headlining act of the cruise was Bjorn Again (ABBA tribute band) who were very good. A lot of people who were 2nd sitting also felt that a lot of the entertainment was geared towards the 1st sitting. We didn't get out of the dining room until 10.15 some nights and disappointingly all entertainment ended at 11.30 pm with the very occasional midnight. It was very frustrating to see an absolutely heaving dancefloor suddenly left high and dry because the 'witching hour' had arrived and everything just stopped. It seemed crazy to us because what then happened was everyone retired to bed and the ship lost a lot of money as no-one was around to buy drinks, etc. I understand that the disco was not well attended, but as the age of the majority of people on this particular cruise was not so young, then this would be understandable.

The price of the shore excursions was another source of grumbles and I do know that a large number of people had arranged to 'do their own thing' at the various ports.

Disembarkation went quite smoothly from our point of view. Scheduled to leave the ship at 8 am we were 15 minutes late but were still at the hotel by 8.45 am, leaving us with a full day and a half in Sydney.

I know that a lot of what I have just said sounds terribly negative, but I thought you would appreciate as honest a review as possible.

Now the positives: The ship herself, although 12 years old, is lovely. There are activities going on most of the day, including the usual Bingo. We enjoyed watching people attempting the Rock Wall. One day in particular stands out as we watched a man in his late 20s have several attempts at the Wall and failing miserably whilst a couple of young girls (about 8 and 9) just about ran up the Wall! The crew were fantastic. We had a super table and really got on well with our travelling companions; this did help us to enjoy the cruise and despite what I have written, we had a great time.

All the ports of call are worth visiting. We particularly liked Christchurch where we went into the Tourist Information Centre and found a self-guided walk which took us round most of the places we wanted to see. I would definitely recommend the Canterbury Museum which adjoins the Botanic Gardens. Burnie in Tasmania was interesting. It's not every day you are greeted by the Mayor of the town as you get off the ship! They are obviously very grateful for our custom. I would recommend a visit to the Footwear & Clothing Supermarket here. Hubby and I bought a number of decent quality tops here and it was well patronised by the rest of the cruise passengers!!! Adelaide and Melbourne were very hot and in some respects we didn't do the places justice (although we have been to Melbourne before) as we just wanted to get somewhere cool. Albany was nice, Bunbury tiny but we did see a dolphin with its baby in one of the inlets. Hobart was a bit of a disappointment from our point of view as we had intended to hire a car for the day and go off to Port Arthur ourselves; however, when we enquired about hire at the Tourist Information Centre they told us there were no cars available. We did do the hop-on;hop-off bus which was interesting. A couple of days later someone mentioned to us that if we had gone a couple of blocks past the centre we would have found a hire firm who would have definitely found us a car at a reasonable price! Crossing the Tasman Sea was an experience I wouldn't particularly like to repeat as it was very rough. Some 2000 pieces of crockery were broken along with nearly 200 glasses and numerous bottles of wine. However, apparently we were very lucky sailing the Great Bight between Adelaide and Melbourne as it was as smooth as a millpond which is very unusual.

Dunedin was okay; it didn't help that it was bitterly cold with a little sleet! Here we did a city tour (booked ourselves) and that was interesting. Wellington was wet when we arrived but had cleared up by lunchtime. We went to the Te Papa Museum - fantastic - but you really need at least a whole day there to do it justice. We also rode the cablecar up to the Botanic Gardens.

As for sailing into Sydney; no words can describe how fantastic a sight it was. We climbed the Pylon Tower of the Bridge as neither of us fancied the BridgeClimb itself, and this was the next best thing - giving us fantastic views of the city.

Whatever I have said, to sum it up we had a great time. Royal Caribbean do need to have a think about certain aspects of their service, but on the whole I would recommend it to anyone who wants a 'taster' of Australia and New Zealand.

I hope this helps you and if you want further information let me know and I'll try to answer your questions.

Rosalyn