We have cruised many times before on various lines but this was the first time we have been away for Christmas, we are a couple in our 40’s and we were traveling with friends. Overall we agreed this was definitely a lovely thing to do at Christmas and there were some lovely touches that really made it feel special, but we would not want to do it every year.

Embarkation was not good for us. We had been given a 3pm boarding time which for us was far too late. We don’t live that far away from Southampton but on the last Saturday before Christmas when there are 2 other ships in we could not risk leaving it too late to get through the traffic and into the city so we headed in around lunchtime. We were made to wait until just before 3pm to get on, we rushed to grab something to eat, rushed to try and unpack before muster but failed, rushed to muster, rushed to finish unpacking before sail away. Usually we would have been on by lunchtime, had a nice lunch, wander the ship and have a leisurely drink in a bar, probably do a spa tour etc etc but obviously this was not to be!! It felt like a stressful start.

Sail away didn’t happen, one of the engines failed so we remained tied up in Southampton until 1:30am, we were then full speed ahead at 23 knots for the first day but still arrived late in Gothenburg. This was a nice enough place, quite a distance on a coach from the port and really only a large shopping centre and not much else. Read more