went for 3 cruises so far..
13nov, 20nov and 22nov
for weekend cruise there are around 1200-1300 passengers. for sunday departing 3n cruise, there is a noticeable difference of around 500-600 passengers only
covid swabbing was quite smooth pre and post embarkation. palace guests do not need to queue.
you need to book early if you want to dine at umi uma, as it tends to be very popular. however, i find the food there poor, teppanyaki was just gimmicks, and korean bbq was subpar. best restaurants were mark best seafood/steakhouse and silk road chinese restaurant. you can give the hotpot a miss. after awhile, the palace menu at specialty restaurants gets a bit repetitive.. so we dined at the blue lagoon or L17 palace restaurant. service was good at all restaurants.
no alcohol consumption in public places after 10:30 is a downer, you can choose to buy a bottle of alcohol and for smokers can get a cigar at L16 genting club and enjoy at your own balcony. no duty free alcohol on sale btw.
casino on the weekend trips will be crowded, especially right after it opens at 9:30pm. on weekdays, we get the whole baccarat table to ourselves throughout the whole trip. genting club has some promo where you can redeem various gifts (must be done before disembarkation) depending on how much NN chips you roll.
i'm going for 4dec and 6dec departure again, and expect it to be more crowded due to school holidays and all the pent up vacation demand.