The booking in was by letters and in spite of trepidation it only took about half an hour . We found our cabin C635 on C deck it was comfortable with a deep balcony well cleaned by ANA our room maid. We soon settled in with the customary lifeboat drill out of the way we watched as we left port. We had sailed with Azura before and were used to the layout.

After two days at sea we arrived in Lisbon, Portugal for our first port day. Here they charged for the shuttle bus at three pounds a trip I thought was excessive, if we'd selected our own cabin it would have been free. We continued the cruise visiting Lanzarotte, Gran Canaria, Palma, Madeira and Ferrol in Spain. We did no excursions but enjoyed the local towns. In Ferrol the town takes cruise ships seriously and the tourist were out in force with maps and advice they also laid on free shuttle buses into the centre which was well worth a look round. As we sailed out of the harbour an English re-inactment team laid on a display on an old fort.

Most of the 'Hotel' crew were Indian and we found them not as friendly or efficient as the previous cruises with a mixture of Philippine's and east Europeans. The entertainment was O.K. with excellent comedians Piper and Rudi and the dance troupe in the playhouse theatre were good. There was only one Family game (mister and missus) and that was late at night and only a few quizzes. They showed films on the lido deck and also in the Manhattan Bar this was ridiculously small and it should have be shown inthe theater. The food in the buffet was poor with a predominance of 'Indian' food even on speciality nights. When we first arrived on board there were no cruet sets on the tables and it was a case of picking up small sachets at the servery. Another gripe was the cups, a good few times they ran out of clean mugs and had to use large cups - similar used by Costa Coffee shops - and on the day of disembarkation it was paper cups and pots of milk. The weather with the exception of one day was very good with lots of sun another plus point was the sea was smooth all the way.