What a wonderful experience. We boarded the ship very easily and went straight to the Oceanview Cafe where we were handed a complimentary drink and had lunch. The cafe has a huge choice and I'm sure there is something for everyone.Our cabin was ready very soon after lunch. We were amazed by the size of the cabin, the bathroom was lovely and there was tonnes of storage space.
We had one of the 1A balcony cabins on the hump of the ship on level 8. The balcony was double the depth of usual balconies so you really had a lot of room to move about. Our cabin stewards looked after us beautifully providing ice twice a day, make up and turn down service every day and made us some lovely animal towel figures.
We had select dining in the main dining room so we turned up to dinner whenever we wanted and never had to wait. The meals were 99% delicious with only one meal being a little disappointing. There is a standard menu which stays the same every night - main courses of steak, chicken and salmon, which were all good and then there is a menu which changes every night. Some really nice choices on there as well. We ate breakfast and lunch in the Oceanview cafe and always had plenty of choices. The cafe serves afternoon tea too if you can fit it in! If we'd had a later breakfast we'd skip lunch and have afternoon tea instead, mini rolls with rare roast beef, chicken etc , slices, scones with jam and cream were all delicious.
8228 Great cabin, huge balcony, near the lifts but you can't hear them. The only drawback was being near the crew cupboard which can be a little noisy in the mornings.