My wife and I cruised with my niece and her friend, so essentially I spent the cruise in the company of three lovely women, which kept many of the other passengers guessing and boosted my ego quite a bit.

Our cruise was the second of the IotS, from Southampton calling at Madeira, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Lisbon, Vigo and back to Southampton (not Western Mediterranean as I selected from the CC drop down list, but there is no selection offered for this itinerary).

On a very warm and sunny day in Southampton, embarkation was fast and slick and by sailaway on deck 11 we were very much in the holiday spirit; the ship's band, 'Rock the Boat' caught our attention immediately with their superb playing, but I will come back to that. Read more