From the long queues at embarkation, despite being given staggered boarding times, this proved to be an old-fashioned, limited cruising experience. By the time we finally boarded lunch was long over, and newly embarked guests were heading for lifeboat drill.

We found our way to a deck 4 cabin, to discover we had 2 berths,a tea and coffee tray, and a smallish rusty window.The saving grace was that the bathroom was of a decent size and came with a tub, plus 2 neat little bags of toiletries. After the drill, we went to find some food- but it consisted of an afternoon tea type spread in the crowded Palms cafe, which we decided to avoid on future occasions.

we had chosen to dine late, and had been allocated a table in the smaller Spey dining room , with its lovely sea views. we had requested a large table, but were not afforded our wish. Dining was very pedestrian, and totally lacked imagination and creativity.The wine list had some unusual wines of a decent quality, and was not overpriced. For our other meals, we lunched in the dining room, as it was so much quieter than facing the overcrowded,badly ladi out self service cafe. though food choices hardly varied and featured salads with tinned vegetables. We prefer room service breakfast when on cruises, but this was limited to cold continental breakfast items. Evening entertainment was offered in the Neptune lounge, but was of a very ordinary standard, and elsewhere a trio played, a keyboard player sang in a lounge, and a pianist played in the attractive Observatory, sea facing lounge. Day time activity was limited to bingo, lecturesand a few deck games.Cabin TV was very poor, with few chanels, and pay-per view films. Read more