We booked our cruise around eight weeks before , and having experienced the P & O style in March, this time we decided to try the NCL Freestyle.

We flew Monarch from Manchester, and let me start by saying that I won't be booking Monarch flights again for a while - it took an hour to get checked in, with a queue longer than the Great Wall of China (or so it seemed- please forgive my poetic licence). The plane journey took just over two hours to get to Venice, and a taxi was waiting in the arrival hall to take us straight to the port.

Once inside the embarcation shed, lo and behold, we were given our numbered ticket and told to await our number being called to go through security. An hour later after experiencing the humidity of an non-air conditioned shed in hot weather, my feelings were starting to turn from positive to negative.How NCL cannot manage this procedure beats me, but maybe it's connected to the strict policy they've adopted of not allowing passengers to take wine or spirits on board without declaring it and paying the tolls involved? Read more