We have previously cruised quite widely on ships of a similar size to this from a number of cruise lines (mostly Fred Olsen, Voyages of Discovery, Swan Hellenic and less recently, P&O). We always choose a cruise because of the itinerary, choosing unusual destinations and smaller, less visited ports. Hence, I am writing this from a different angle than most other reviews of Cuba Cruise and will focus on the differences and similarities we saw with the ship and this specific cruise. We went on this cruise as part of a month in Cuba, with ten nights in a Havana Hotel, (one of which we spent in a casa in Vinales) and 11 nights in Varadero. It was our second visit to Cuba.

We arrived at Havana port about 3pm and there were very few other people around, which allowed us to pass through the embarkation procedure speedily. There was no one on board to direct us to our cabin as we are used to, but we knew where our cabin was located so had no problems finding it. Other queries/requests had to wait until that evening when cabin staff appeared. We just managed to get a quick lunch, which was served until 3.30pm in the buffet. We then registered our credit card easily as there was no one else at reception and our bags had arrived in the cabin by the time we returned.

Our cabin benefited from one of the new balconies and we found the cabin in good condition overall. The wardrobe space was sadly lacking from our point of view, as there was very little hanging space and most of the fixed position hangers were in a section of the wardrobe where the hanging rail was only about a foot above the top of the fridge so that wardrobe and those hangers were not useable. We were able to manage by utilising our cases for extra storage and we had brought some spare hangers with us. For someone who was only away for one week the space would have been OK, (though not what we are used to finding on similar ships). Our cabin stewards Zulema and Quarry were good. Read more