My partner and I (both in our late 60s) flew from Manchester to Barbados with Thomas Cook on 21st November, 2015, to board P&O Britannia for a fortnight cruising around the Caribbean islands.

The flight was delayed by about an hour, but when we got to Barbados we were quickly transferred on to a local bus for the 45-minute journey to the port. The local buses are not up to European standards, and are cramped with no luggage space so we had to sit with our flight bags on our laps, but it was a fairly short journey, so not too much of a problem.

We then queued for a short time in a large hangar-type structure to go through security checks before being allowed on to the ship. It was relatively painless, and once on board we quickly found our cabin (E623) on Deck 10, where the cabin steward Sada introduced himself, and made us feel welcome. Ours was a balcony cabin, and although it was not large, what space there was had been used carefully to provide adequate storage. However, we are both slim, and I do not know how some of the larger passengers we saw would cope with the shower room, which had just enough room between the washbasin and toilet to open the shower door. Unfortunately our luggage did not arrive before we wanted to eat, and we had to go to dinner in the clothes we had travelled in. Read more