As described in the title this was the first cruise for my husband and I and our two children aged 10 and 12. We had a brilliant time, returning just this afternoon and felt I had to put pen to paper as it were! From the minute we arrived at port we were treated as VIPs, nothing was too much trouble and to be honest we had no trouble- other than the battery being faulty on our safe box: we reported this and it was fixed within 40 minutes.

Yes the ship is older than some of the others we saw on our travels but the staff service more than make up for it: our housekeeping guy Donny was virtually on call 24 hours a day keeping our cabin, on floor 6 expertly clean and spotless. The service in the bars and restaurant was beyond compare- the staff couldn't do enough for us no matter what time of day or night. The entertainment, whether in the more formal Broadway theatre or in the more relaxed Medusa Lounge, was spot on: Shep was excellent in the Medusa lounge! My daughter enjoyed some sessions in the Kids Club which she thoroughly enjoyed, they partook in a wide range of activities which catered for all ages.

Waking up in a different Mediterranean port each morning was one of the highlights of the holiday, we made use of some of the planned excursions which were all excellent, whilst taking ourselves off to investigate in other destinations. Rome was hectic but it gave our 2 kids a great whistle stop tour of the magnificent city. We also enjoyed the trip to Puccini's house, lake tour and Pisa. My husband's favourite was the excursion to Nice, Monaco and Monte Carlo- where we enjoyed an extravagant ice cream in Cafe de Paris! Read more