I chose this cruise for the itinerary. Having cruised the eastern and western Mediterranean, the Baltic, and the Norway coast, I wanted to cruise the Atlantic coast of Spain and France. This cruise left from Southampton, and seemed to be mostly Brits though there a good number of other nationalities mixed in. The Brits are pretty formal, and on formal night, most of the men were wearing tuxedos, which is something I hadn't experienced on earlier cruises, when I was often one of very few men wearing a tuxedo. Given my earlier experience, I didn't bring a tuxedo on this cruise so I ended up renting one for the second formal night.
Embarkation was the best ever. I practically walked right onto the ship.
This was the largest cruise ship I have ever been on, though it was more similar in basic design to the medium-sized ships than I expected. I liked the look and feel of the ship, and it was easy to get around. I use the gym a good amount, and it has a beautiful and large gym, with sweeping views out to sea. I was surprised to see a topless deck, though nobody was on it because the weather most of the trip was pretty chilly.
As noted above, I was curious about the virtues of a view of the promenade, with all its activities, versus a view of the ocean, which is beautiful but with nothing really happening. Because of the expected weather, I ruled out a balcony room, since I expected to get little use of the balcony. The room itself was pretty spacious with a sitting area, and the shower was bigger than other cruise showers I have experienced. The cabin was well kept and there were no issues with it. I liked certain aspects of the promenade view, like being able to look down and see the level of activity at any time, but it was necessary to keep the drapes closed most of the time, I intend to go back to oceanview or balcony in the future but I am glad I tried this concept.
I was only in Southampton to get on and off the ship, so I can't really rate it as a port. Only thing to say is that the trip down from London was pretty tough because of the holiday weekend traffic.
At this port, we went out to the town of Atxondo in the Basque country (about 30-40 minutes from Bilbao) and had lunch at Asador Etxebarri. The town was stunningly beautiful and the restaurant was great. It was a great experience and we were glad we went off the beaten path to see these things.