We travelled as a family of 4, myself , husband and two teenage sons 13 and 15. We were first time cruisers and loved our experience. Personally I have never relaxed so much on holiday before (possibly because I choose to have minimal phone and internet use for 2 weeks).
Our arrival at Southampton was stress free we were so early we had to wait for car park to be ready. After a short wait we were directed to our parking space, handed cases over and took short walk to terminal. Check-in was quick and efficient and within 10 mins we were being called to board - by 11am I was on a sunlounger enjoying the weather. We had a wander around the upper decks and visited the windjammer for a bit of lunch.
My husband and I mainly ate in the MDR and always enjoyed our meals, we were on my time dining and even though we sat at a few different tables the dining staff were always polite and helpful. We had Alfonso and Walter for the majority of our meals and they were fantastic, knew exactly what we wanted to drink, helped advise on menu and attentive. We also ate a la carte at breakfast most days, preferring the relaxed atmosphere to the WJ which we only visited for breakfast on the first morning.