We decided to go on a Christmas/New Year cruise thinking it would be something really special. This was our third cruise on the Solstice paying for Aqua Class but never again. This was our 15th cruise.

Christmas day was a joke. The main restaurant was the only restaurant open unless you paid extra for the specialty restaurants. There was no traditional Christmas lunch, they didn't expect the number of people to turn up, the food was cold, service was bad and there was no traditional Christmas pudding.

Christmas night we paid to go to Murano the specialty restaurant, the food was certainly good but I don't think it was worth the extra money we paid. Then my husband came down with the most terrible flu, we were both very healthy when we boarded. He was so sick, virtually borderline pneumonia, then I came down with the same virus, but I was hospitalised on my return home 9 days later. We virtually hardly left our cabin. Read more