Selected because of Itinerary from the South Atlantic from CapeTown to Namibia and then the volcanic mid-South Atlantic Islands of St Helena, Ascension Island, Cape Verde and the Canaries. Itinerary up to expectations but almost everything else poor. I will make the exception of the crew which were the best we have come across - it is such a pity they are let down by such a poor ship, which in no way comes up to the level of the previous 'Disciovery' used by this Company.

VofD air transit arrangements pathetic and discriminatory with some passengers being given a comfortable relatively quick 11 hr flight from Heathrow to Cape Town with seat preferences taken into account and the unfortunate remainder having to endure a 17hr round trip to Dubai with a 2hr changeover in the middle of the night and fixed non-movable seating allocation- result of the latter no sleep and arrival 8hrs after the direct flyers. BEWARE for any potential VofD fly-cruise passengers - they may take no account of preferences > on this flight separating family members all over the plane - it is in their terms and conditions. Anyway in our case the first two days in CapeTown were ruined because of this excrutiating journey with, in this case, an appalling Emirates Crew (eg drinks delivered 1hr after the meal they were expected to accompany) and just awful flight timings.

The failings on the cruise are just too numerous to go into detail here but the 'star' summaries give an indication. Read more