A nightmare. The Horizon is old and cabins need refurbishing badly. Our cabin (which they call state room) was very tatty and with a bad smell. Not very welcoming. As one would expect in a 1 Star hotel or less. Mattress was worn out and hollow on the sides, toilet suction inefficient, flooded balcony, rusty table and torn rattan chairs without cushions in balcony. The restaurant was extremely hot. Daily promises that they were going to fix the Air Conditioner did not materialise. The list is endless. Nowhere in their marketing material did they say that this was an inferior quality cruise liner.

To top it all, the ship ran aground on a sandbank when leaving Stavanger. We felt this was ridiculous with all the navigational tools available in this day and age. Information about the incident was minimal and we did not know what was going on except that the ship was tilted on one side. We obtained most of the information from the internet. The ship couldn't leave the port and we missed two ports and the best excursion, which we were really looking forward to. Suitable alternative and reasonable excursions or entertainment were not provided while we were stuck in port. Had to spend a lot of time on the vessel just being idle. Besides, we were all very anxious about the condition of the ship following the incident, hoping that proper repairs were carried out and the ship would be seaworthy to sail the North Sea. The trauma of the incident ruined the rest of the holiday and we were very disappointed with the way we were treated.

The only positive thing was the food. Very good variety and excellent quality. Well done to the chef. But that was mainly it. Read more