In May, 6 of us travelled on the Balmoral to Norway as first time cruisers and we are now really hooked on cruising. The ship was lovely as were most of the staff and we really the enjoyed the entertainment especially the crew's entertainment with the engineers in their bin bags and orange coats! Everyone was in stitches and whoever thought of this has a brilliant imagination! Unfortunately my husband missed this as he was feeling rather seasick - anyone got a cure for this?

We were so lucky with the weather as it only rained in Bergen and this was during the afternoon which was a pity as I would like to have explored this pretty town a bit more. I have to say I didn't like the fact that they were selling whale meat on the market stalls and there was a shop selling pelts, some of which were of wild animals. I don't have a problem with farmed animals, but I don't approve of killing wild animals.

My main gripe is with the allocation of cabins. The six of us all booked at the same time - superior outside cabins - and all paid the same price. It turned out that 2 couples were on Deck 6 and we were on Deck 5. Read more