As we live in East Tilbury I have often watched the "Marco Polo" Sail up the river thames, and when I saw an advert to sail on the Marco Polo from Tilbury to the Amazon and back,I had to book, plus six weeks away from England in the winter, that sealed it I booked a year in advance.
My wife Carol and I had not been on a cruise before, and during the year before we sailed we kept reading the coments people posted on cruise critic, sometimes with concern. My wife Carol and I were very impressed with the service provided by the staff and found it a very friendly boat. The food and dining was very good, we had our evening meal in the Wardolf silver service restraunt and breakfast and lunch in the self service bistro. We enjoyed the entertainment and there were plenty of activities laid on for the days at sea. The crew were also very organised when it came to getting the passengers off on the tenders, with minimal delays by alocating passengers to a tender service, when we were anchored just outside of a destination.
Purchases on the boat such as water, wine and excersions we thought were a bit pricey, but then you have to bear in mind that the overall cost of the cruise was a lot less than it would have been on one of the larger ships. Another advantage of being on a smaller vessel is that we found it easy to make friends and when ashore we kept bumping into people on our cruise. It was very much like being in a small village which did add to the pleasure of the trip.