As usual we set off the day before as we come from Yorkshire so it's a long drive. We stayed at the De Vere New Place, which is a lovely hotel. However, it was difficult to find and was further out from Southampton than we would have liked. It would have been a lovely base for a holiday in the area.

Parking - turned out to be a shuttle (I only properly read the documents on our way from the hotel!). It added about half an hour on to the journey to and from the ship but was well-organised and we would be Ok with using this service again.

The cruise - I had mixed feelings about this cruise, so am splitting the review into positives and negatives: this is based mostly on our own personal likes/dislikes so other people will have differing views. So, I will get the negatives out of the way first. Read more