We've sailed on the Nieuw Amsterdam before, so pretty much knew what to expect and although there seem to have been one or two cutbacks (particularly, I believe, in staffing levels), little has changed since our last sailing a year ago.

Since then, we sailed on the Zuiderdam earlier this year and weren't particularly happy with some aspects of that, so were hoping that this cruise would restore our faith in HAL. It did.

Embarkation: We arrived quite early from our Barcelona hotel (Fira Palace: see my review on Tripadvisor) and the embarkation process was entirely painless and was, in fact, quite pleasurable. There's a decent coffee shop/patisserie in the passenger lounge with indoor and outdoor roof terrace seating and also some quite useful shops at the other end of the check-in area. Read more