Worst. Embarkation. Ever. Arriving in Southampton there were people everywhere. Lines were mixed in with various other lines. No one was sure what line they were in. It was as if no one had ever checked passengers onto a cruise ship before. They were confused over passports for non EU citizens and took ours. (They must have figured it out because they were returned to us a couple days later with no explanation.) When we finally got our cruise card and got through security lines, we had to walk outside in the rain around scaffolding to get onto the ship. We were waved past a group trying to figure out how to get a wheelchaired person up the very steep gangplank then waited on yet another line while they took security pictures and scanned folks in. Took over 2 1/2 hours. We have been on many cruises and have never seen anything like this chaos. We were starving but no food was in sight because it was off immediately to the muster drill ten minutes after we got to the cabin.

Fortunately things looked up a bit after that somewhat. The cabin, a minisuite, was nice and the balcony huge compared to the one on the Royal Princess. We both could be out there at the same time! and there was room to stretch out. There was plenty of storage and the bed was comfortable. The room tended to be too warm and we requested a top sheet as the duvet was too hot to sleep under. We had them check the vents in the room but the temperature never changed, even set at the coldest point.

Due to the weather and a tug shortage we were 3 hours late departing. We never made that up and 4 days later arrived 4 hours late into Barcelona, causing us to have an abbreviated tour which basically missed seeing Barcelona. Leaving the ship in Barcelona was as organized as the embarkation disaster. It took 45 minutes to get off further decreasing our abbreviated time in Barcelona. We wondered if this was a brand new crew. Read more