This cruise fitted our available time-window and our budget. We live on the south coast and Southampton is our natural embarkation point, but there was no real difficulty travelling to Tilbury. Unlike Dover (from whence we departed last year on a Fred Olsen cruise), where the long-term car-parking is on the quayside right by the ships, at Tilbury the parking is a little way out requiring a shuttle-bus transfer. Check-in at Tilbury is OK, but don't expect the level of facilities to be found at Southampton's Ocean Terminal. We were surprised to be waived-through with our hand-baggage without the need for screening.

The ship itself is - to our minds - entirely adequate and doubtless those who write rather less than glowing reports are paying top-dollar. We pay bottom-dollar, but enjoy all that the ship has to offer in the same way as everyone else. To put this in perspective, we paid just £519 each for a superior inside cabin (very good, with perhaps the most comfortable beds we have to date experienced on a cruse) and were even able to benefit form a partial wine-package (courtesy of the booking agents) consisting of six perfectly good bottles of wine at no additional cost. This meant that our on-board bill was our lowest ever and only reflected a few selected cocktails and photographs, since we avod the somewhat over-priced shore excursions. These can normally be obtained at the ports of call at much lower cost.

As we had been to most of the ports of call before, we simply 'did our own thing' nearby, with the exception of Eidfjord - where we had not previously called - and took a locally arranged trip to the Voringfossen Waterfall (spectacular - even in the rather 'damp' conditions that we experienced!) at a cost of £55 for us both (£53 each on board ship). Read more