We were at sea for four days( could have called in Lisbon on way down to break the journey) before we docked at Maderia and found it beautiful but after that the next three ports were black lava rock fronted and very little to do and only allowed ashore for half days. On one of the locations we arrived on a Sunday where everything was closed! What a waste of time!! We paid a LOT of money to go on a cruise to make it a holiday of a lifetime and was not impressed by the itinerary at all. On way back to uk we docked in Lisbon, which was gorgeous but once again only there for half day. Too many days at sea and not enough quality places to see.

On board the entertainment was good and staff brilliant but which restaurants were available to your particular ticket is not made clear to you and we spent most of cruise eating in a cafeteria instead of the restaurants we were entitled to go to. Tea and coffee were provided but bottled water you had to pay for and that was also cost too much! There were MANY things that were expensive but as you have a amount of free money by the travel agents given to you to use on your cruise you were expected to donate nearly half to the crew fund ( if they paid the hard working staff a decent wage we wouldn't have need to) but can refuse if you want to. I assume that with all the days at sea passengers would spend more money on board, so that when you reach Southampton any overspend has to be settled and with us turned out to be very expensive. Very disappointed and has made us not want to cruise again.