We booked two cabins for an an overnight stay on this ship in the port of Tilbury. The experienced was rushed, being allowed on board at 4.30pm, Dinner at 6.30pm & out of cabins by 8.00am the following morning with disembarkation by 9.30am. Insulation between cabins is paper thin and we could hear guests talking in the next cabin…… My wife also found the “air conditioning” both extremely noisy and out of reach when she wanted to turn it down in the middle of the night, and wonders why the control is on the ceiling out of reach unless you are tall or stand on the bed?

The evening itself was very pleasant, we were able to walk around the ship, which we haven’t been on before, although we did not see any ‘show’ cabins open or any directions to them. The Abba show was not as good as the ones on the previous Marco Polo cruises – it all felt a bit lacklustre and tired, they definitely need much slicker choreography and production to maximise their talents and appeared very amateurish at times. There were many large groups of partygoers in the show lounge, who were obviously drunk; they talked and shouted throughout the show without any action from the staff – apart from serving them more drinks. Following the show we went to the main bar where there was a duo singing and playing the piano – they were singing songs we knew but at a completely different tempo, with the result that no one felt like getting up to dance! This did change when one of the entertainment team took over with a real injection of enthusiasm and up-tempo tunes – so well done to him! We also found it rather uncomfortable to see so many ‘bouncers’ patrolling the main bar/disco deck .

Breakfast arrangements on the Sunday were a disaster. The early morning wake up call at 7.00am directed us (and many other guests unfamiliar with the ship) to the Kensington Restaurant for breakfast and to vacate the cabin by 8am. When we got to the Kensington Restaurant at 8.05am we found the restaurant doors closed and about 10 people queuing at the door in front of us which soon meant long queues +50 people behind us. After about 20 minutes waiting, a waiter attempted to tell us to go upstairs for tea and juice, we said we would like a full breakfast not just tea & juice but he didn’t understand us or anyone else who tried to speak to him; his English was very broken and broadly unintelligible - he only told the people close to the front of the queue – not the 30-50 people behind us so the long queue remained. Read more