Flew to Barbados with Virgin Atlantic (Tinker Belle) from Gatwick in premium economy I really feel this upgrade is worth the extra if you have the funds but the economy cabin on Virgin Atlantic is pretty good anyway.

We stayed for 3 days at a hotel (Almond Casuarina Beach) then joined the ship for a 7 day cruise. The cruise actually starts in San Juan, Puerto Rico but mostly English holiday makers join/leave the cruise in Barbados. The formalities are handled very well by the crew members and you are given your room key/sail and sign card quickly you are then told how long you will need to wait for your stateroom (7340 balcony, amidships deck 7) in our case it was around an hour and a half. We arrived at our room and had to wait a further hour for the luggage to show up. The room was of a good size with plenty of wardrobe space, room under the bed for empty cases and a nice size balcony with a lounger a chair and small table. The room didn't have a mini bar or fridge but there was cans of soft drinks/water and an ice bucket which the steward filled daily.

Technical details of the ship can be found elsewhere but it may not tell you about the gaudy fixtures and fittings. They are trying to create Neptune's Kingdom they fail dramatically. Statues of mermaids and seahorses are placed all over the ship including what seemed like hundreds in the Pacific and Atlantic dining rooms. Breakfast and lunch are served in the dining rooms with open seating while dinner is served over two sittings you can also use the Lido deck buffet style option for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is where the problems begin.....! While the service and food in the dining rooms are of a pretty good standard the same cannot be said for the Lido deck facilities. There are hundreds of guests mostly Puerto Ricans and Bajans who are offered the cruise at a knock down rate, as far as I could tell about 10% of the rate available to British holiday makers. These holiday makers are only allowed to use the Lido deck dining facilities this makes for very long and very noisy queues which you will have to suffer all day long if you want a buffet style meal or use the facilities anywhere on deck 9 the Lido deck. The atmosphere on the lido deck which is also the location of the main pools and sun lounger areas is similar to a sports pub on match night while the decor and service is akin to a cafe that you see in some of the bigger supermarkets, a very different scene from the loving couple sipping a glass of wine at an on deck dining table which you see in most of the publicity photographs. This situation is not the fault of the Puerto Rican/Bejan guests they are just enjoying themselves like the rest of us.... The problem is Carnival put together two sets of holiday makers one spending thousands of pounds/dollars and the other spending hundreds of dollars for the same holiday experience however the two sets of holiday makers have very different ideas of what that experience is. Read more