Let me make it clear - cruising on the Equinox was fabulous... but it had its faults. The ship was beautiful, clean and luxurious. My chosen visits to Pompeii and Ephesus were realised at last. The food was truly magnificent and the service was second to none. Everything deserved 10 out of 10... but just never quite made it.

Normally, our cruises (7 to date) are have their fair share of Americans renowned for - well, being American - 24/7. On this trip the Americans/Canadians were as overwhelmed as the Brits were at the huge numbers, and family groups of Italians and Spanish, and their seemingly unending supply of noisy children. Should the new-born and infants under 8 be allowed on cruises? We had problems of crying, and often screaming tots during theatre entertainment, safety talks, lectures, meals, well into the early hours. On this trip our American cousins we had the pleasure of meeting behaved impeccably, and were tremendous fun to be with, but whether this was due more to a 'blitz mentality', I don't know. We were all overawed by the sheer volume of Latin temperament, language and culture.

Another unfortunate aspect of this type of new cruise ship is that the vessels are designed specifically to pack as many paying guests as possible on board, which unfortunately, results in queues and lack of seating etc. For instance, don't expect access to sunbeds as it is a physical impossibility to provide enough to go round. Probably less than a third of passengers can expect a sunbed, and some of those are not in the sun. Consequently sunbeds are 'reserved' by book and towel very early in the morning. Meal times, other than the evening restaurant, were also a problem as, once again, queues developed, and table space was always at a premium. To be fair, there is little the crew could do to improve the 'overcrowding' situations due to the sheer volume of passengers. Waiting for elevators required patience and stamina many times over on a daily basis. Read more