My 2nd cruise on the Dawn , the first was with my daughter and son-in-law and their 2 children plus a friend. I got very sick and was confined to the cabin in case I infected other passengers, which was fine. I pitied the poor cabin steward who had to attend to the mess in the bathroom. I moaned and groaned my apologies but he remained smiling and polite (and also concerned as it was clear I wasn't suffering from a surfeit of cocktails). A few days later the loo flooded the bathroom but it was was fixed within half an hour.

The children just loved the Kids Club and could barely eat a meal before rushing back there. It was school holidays so lots of other children to meet and mix with. There was even a concert put on by the children from the Kids Club which I went along to out of a sense of grandmotherly duty. I loved every minute of it and stayed and watched all of it. We laughed and laughed (not unkindly) at the antics of the young ones, half of whom had no idea what they were supposed to be doing but did it all anyway.

The Lifou Tour was disappointing as the only English speaker was the Guide who was dressed like a Vietcong soldier. I tried asking questions of our driver and his companion whilst we were driving around, about the various places we passed, and got off the tour bus none the wiser. Vanuatu was totally different; the Tour guide did a marvellous job. Even taught us a local version of 'Waltzing Matilda' , in which the locals waited for tour ships to come in and then popped the Captain and crew into the cooking pot. Hilarious. Read more