This was our first cruise and I will never take another. I hated it; I'm not in their target demographic. And to think that I was worried that it may be too posh (I imagined men in cravats saying "Don't you know?" at the end of every sentence and women saying "Simply darling...") - I needn't have worried - it's quite the opposite. I didn't believe the stats that 25% of the population was obese until I went on this cruise. They are all permanently to be seen carrying a pint of lager in a brave attempt to drink the ten pints they need a day in order to make their booze passport pay off. Tattoos and big bellies everywhere - the men and the women.

This is a large ship but the size is all about lots of cabins. There isn't enough communal area and so it felt very much like that famous photo of thousands on a beach - no room to move. On a nice day many people would like to sit on the top deck in the sun - but the ship doesn't have anywhere near enough loungers and chairs and so there are many people wandering around trying to find a space or sitting on the floor or just giving up. Similarly the dining area - you can walk around for 10 minutes trying to find a table. Generally I found our fellow passengers rather lacking in courtesy and they push through without any consideration for others - and there are children running about whilst people are carrying hot food - very dangerous. I took extreme care and gave way to everyone but even then my hot soup was spilled all over me once as someone rather drunk pushed from behind. We tried to vary our arrival times to avoid the crowds but the ship then just closes off half the restaurant so you cannot avoid it.

And then there is sleeping. There was just one night where we slept all the way through without being disturbed in the early hours by drunk people returning: talking; arguing; shouting; banging doors and kids running up and down the corridors. Three times we were awoken by people knocking on our door in the middle of the night because they had the wrong cabin. Read more