South Pacific Cruise Reviews

We've taken 8 cruises on RCCL over the last 16 years and have watched the quality steadily decline. We have also cruised with Celebrity ,  NCL, Princess and Carnival, so we do have a basis for comparison.

The service has declined, probably due to noticeable reduction of staff, to just average. Many of the staff appear unhappy or overworked. Food  is just average; no entree that we had in the main dining room was exceptional.  The Voyager is  in need of some repairs as well; nothing major that we noticed, but little things.

Three of  the four  ports of call were nothing special. I guess an island is an island whether it is  in the South Pacific or the Caribbean.  The island of Mare had  a lovely beach with a coral reef about 100 yards out where the waves broke; beautiful. 

We arrived in Sydney 5 days ahead  of cruise and it was a wonderful place to explore on our own. It was the highlight of our trip.

The entertainment staff (especially Becca and Kevin), cabin steward (Yani) and Main Dining Room waiters (Ernesto and Vedasto) were good.

Although the itinerary was altered the ports visited were good.

Unfortunately there were too many other things that were not.

The ship needs some TLC, Some of the crew need to pay attention to their job more and not have to be asked to fill up their station when it is empty.

The head chef needs to pay attention to the make up of the passengers - when there are less than 10% of the passengers of Asian origin  why is there 50% of the food in the Windjammer Asian ? And don't say that's what the passengers want (as I was told) because we weren't given a choice from the start !!!!!

Finally the person who is in charge of the ship's TV programmes should be SACKED yes SACKED because he has insulted the intelligence of the passengers by broadcasting the same OLD (some black & white) programmes OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER again. Apart from the fact that sometimes the satellite programmes were lost so three or four channels were showing the same programme and the reception wasn't good either.

We were on the previous cruise as well and I have submitted a similar review for that cruise 31st Oct - 16th Nov 2016 Sydney to Perth but for some reason my review did not get published on cruiseline.com so if it doesn't get published this time I will have to put it on all the other internet media sites as it will then be obvious that the reviews are being selective !

I have been on 15 plus cruises and had heard Royal Caribbean was a good cruise line.  Maybe others ships in the fleet but not this one.  Out of 17 days I had maybe 6 meals that were good.  I at pizza from room service after trying to eat meals that were for the most part below meadacoker.  We couldn't go to the South Island of New Zeeland due to the weather which I understand but the alternative ports were awful.  I should have gotten off the ship and flown to Sydney.  I wouldn't recommend this ship nor will I sail with Royal Caribbean again

The excursions to other islands was well worth the money.  The Chops Grill was worth the money.  Please remember to get a visa before entering the country.

We especially liked the entertainment and shore excursions.  Of course the food was very good, also.  We met lots of interesting people at mealtime.  We liked the piano player and his sing along.  We joined him almost every night after the main show.

This cruise was great and relaxing. It was our first time cruising and we really liked the convenience of getting to different islands/ports without having to pack/travel/unpack. In the future I'd book a cruise with more port stops as we got a little bored on the sea days. The food was pretty good, lots of sodium, but that's really the best you can hope for with buffets.

It was an good cruise.  Food was good.  Entertainment was very good. Ship was well maintained, but it was ten years old and showed age.  Lido staff was very friendly and food in lido was good.  Room steward was very good and friendly

The itinerary, entertainment staff and entertainment and service was good but-

The ship needs some TLC (bare metal in the hot tubs and frayed carpets), the menu and quality of food was not the best (50% of food in The Windjammer was of Asian origin but less than 10% of passengers were Asian and the menu in the main dining room was not the best) and the TV was TERRIBLE (programmes were old some in black and white and same few programmes were repeated over and over and over and ship kept losing satellite signal which reduced programmes even further).

Not the best cruise we have been on and of the 5 different cruise lines we have cruised with RCI has gone straight to the bottom of the list.

Food too salty. Parts of the ship showed rust.Repetitive evening entertainment and artistes were less than talented. Lack of tourist attractions in NZ ports visited.NZ port / immigration authorities were less than welcoming and seemed to impose unnecessary restrictions on tourists.

Sydney is a great place to embark onto a cruise ship,no problems.The best sail away .We have been on a lot of cruise ships, since 1972, this was for me disappointing. Radiance is past it's sell by date,food not fantastic,not the usual Royal Carribean. All staff work very hard with what they have.

Ports of call very well handled.

A pleasant cruise . Food and dining good . excursions not memorable. Recommendation that people check other websites before booking excursions . Ask HAL.to have a representative check excursions before listing as booking options 

favorite part was cruising on the crown princess. it was a beautiful experience.

Tahiti was exceptional beauty.

lots of positives, some negatives

definitely go again

We enjoyed the sea days on this cruise more than anything. it had been 25 years since visiting Hawaii and all I can say is it has really become crowded. The Samoan and French Polynesian islands are remote and have little to occupy your time unless you enjoy water activities. The Crown princess is showing her age, but more disconcerting to us was the lack of amenities we had on board the Royal princess. The Mini Suite has no divider between the two rooms so it might as well have been one large room. The tvs carried the same endless loops of the food channel and  HGTV, We did get a couple live news channels, but no sports in the rooms. No on line account review or On Demand Service in the rooms either. Since it was a longer cruise the ave age was low to mid 80's which was OK just not a lot of late night activity. Casino usually closed all tables before mid night. Food was what I call institutional. the specialty restaurants were good and the Chef's table was elegant. In all I would say it was not worth what we paid.

was very good i will do it again and diffidently tell family and friend about it , we always love to travel with princess its my favorite cruise  line !1

The Holland American cruise to the Mexican Riviera was wonderful, from the genuinely helpful crew to the delicious food and wonderful ambiance.  The addition of the B.B.King Jazz group always gave us great entertainment in the evenings.  The other entertainment was spotty.  Took 4 excursions.  The two from the cruise line were excellent.  The two from Jet Blue Cruises were bad, one being extremely stressful.  The Exclusive Puerto Vallarta City Tour, in itself was good.  However the tour director got us back to the ship 15 minutes before it set sail.  This was after numerous requests by the passengers to get us back sooner.  From the beginning, I asked him if we could cover all the events and get back to the ship by 4:30.  He said no problem, it was only a 4 hour trip.  Two other times during the excursion, I asked him about timing and he said we could make it.  I was extremely stressed by the time we reached port.  I know these tours are guaranteed, but the next port was 3 days away and it was the port where we disembarked.  All of our clothes, credit cards, passports were all in our cabins.  In addition, I was having trouble using my i-phone in Mexico, a problem I have never encountered in any other country.  By the time we reached the ship, one of the boarding ramps had already been removed and by 4:45, the ship was already untied from the dock.  There were plenty of ways, the tour could have been shortened by 30 minutes, but the tour director refused to do them, stressing out the Holland America passengers.  The Mazatian City Tour introduced me some of the most aggressive vendors, I have ever met in my travels.  In one of the markets the guide took us (6 long lanes of merchandise and food), 4 to 5 women, walked down the aisle and confronted me.  After I said "no thanks", 2 continued to follow me for at least 6-8 feet as I walked down the aisle.  At the site of the cliff divers, we were bombarded with vendors wanting to sell various goods. It was frustrating and tiring saying "no thanks" and then having to do it all over again with the next vendor.  I would book a cruise again through Jet Blue Cruises, but never an excursion.

Getting on the ship in Singapore was a huge mess.  Hours and hours of waiting and the ship ended up leaving about 3 hours late. 

All ports that required us to tender were a mess also.   The cruise director was actually Boo'ed off the stage one night as guests were so upset.   In short, it appeared they had not actually run tenders before. 

The food in the dining room was on par with what I have had in my 10 + other cruises.     Food options and quality outside of the dining room were a huge let down.   The windjammer food was horrible.   It was a rare occurrence when you actually found food that was hot, compared to luke warm or cold.

The ONLY other non paid food options outside of the windjammer was a small sandwich shop on the 5th floor that handed out small sandwiches horrible pizza slices that reminded me what we got in school lunches 35 years ago. 

Enjoyed the smoke free casino!  Dining staff very accomadating to my gluten free diet.  Entertainment was excellent.  We would definitely cruise with Celebrity again.

The cable car and train in Cairns were truly magnificent.   The cable car not only takes you up the mountain but over miles of virgin forest on the mountainous terrain.  Pay a little extra for Gold Class on the train; the snacks and drinks are quite good.

The Australia Zoo is very attractive and has all the indigenous local animals.  The crocodile show is a little hokey but fun to watch.

It was an interesting itinerary, but 3 tender ports, which especially @ Bali, took forever.  Therefore very ltd time in Bali which was disappointing.  The two stops for the Great Barrier Reef were enjoyed by my husband snorkeling. Embarkation and disembarkation were smooth.  The cabin steward was good, the ship was in pretty good shape considering it went into drydock when we arrived in Singapore.  

The Main Dining Room suffers from either bland food or disjointed service, or on some nights, both.  The specialty restaurants were great, esp Murano.  Hefty upcharge, but on a long cruise it felt necessary.  The shows were blah, the cruise director seemed a bit odd and some of his jokes seemed tasteless.  

Had a wonderful massage therapist (Nun) who was fabulous.  Usually the Canyon Ranch Spa is very good and it was really great on this cruise.

This is 5th Celebrity cruise in 18 months, and the cutting corners seems apparent, especially in the MDR.  It was a nice cruise, but would have been much better if the tender ports were longer time to be off-ship and if the dining room would bring up the food and service qualities.

If you did not arrive at least 45 minutes BEFORE a performance, it was impossible to find a seat.  The same was true on the Lido deck....The ship needs more chairs. Even a lunch counter style would be a big help.