I've always disagreed when people describe cruising as 'Butlins at Sea'. I still disagree, it was far worse than that. The ship was huge - which of course we already knew, but didn't really appreciate the impact of that. The staff at mealtimes were nowhere near as efficient and polite as they used to be. The meals were no better than we would get in our local pub and no longer had that 'wow' factor. Meagre helpings and hardly a vegetable in sight. The entertainment was the most disappointing. Instead of the West End type shows we have been used to in the past, we had an OK singing group, a few tribute bands and an ageing 'comedian'. That's in inverted commas as he wasn't even funny 40 years ago. Then all the acts were repeated another night. If you didn't enjoy them first time round you didn't want to see them again.

We had planned this trip as a 40th birthday treat for our daughter who had not cruised before. Her comment was 'It's not very glamorous is it?'

Bilbao as a port of call is a waste of time as there's nothing in its favour apart from the Gugenheim and that's quite ugly.