I chose this cruise because I wanted to see Venice, and visit Greece. There were company reps all guiding us to the pick up coaches, which would take us to the ship. My package was supposed to be an all inclusive deal, but as soon as you get on board you have to leave a two hundred and fifty euro deposit, with your credit card. There seemed to be a language barrier as well. I was shown to my cabin on the top deck, there were bottles of water in my small cabin which stung me for three euro's a bottle. My first nights sleep was disturbed by vibrations from some nearby machinery, and the thin walls where you could hear others down the corridor. There was only one American news channel to watch, and in the morning, I noticed my English clock radio was showing the wrong time, I kept having to reset it due to the voltage difference. There are no deck plans of the ship anywhere apart from by the lifts which just show what's on each deck. It took me about half an hour to find my way back to the reception desk, where I had to wait in a long queue to be seen. I asked the lady for another cabin and explained why, I was told that the ship was full in a very cold and blunt way, two days later more people came on board, where they were informed that they must attend the fire safety drill.

My first restaurant meal came with a service charge, and if I hadn't paid for a wine and water package in advance, then a bottle of wine would have cost me be about twenty euro's. We sat at the same table each evening, so you could chat to others. I was stuck in my noisy cabin for three nights, there was a standard letter posted under my door thanking me for raising these issues which were being investigated. I was dozing on my bed trying to work out what the correct time was by switching the tv on, when the bedside telephone rang, with someone from reception, inviting me along to see my new cabin. My second cabin on the eight deck, was an outside cabin with a little balcony, and it came with an arm chair and table and sliding patio doors, it was ten times better and much quieter than the other one, plus there was no water slopping around the shower room floor. Every day there was an information sheet posted under the door with the expected arrival time at the next port of call.

I had paid for two excursions one was to visit Athens and the other to visit Corfu. There was nothing much to do on board, apart from fry in the Sun, use the gym, or spend lots of money on cold drinks. The ship was so full of people and there was noise everywhere, even in the lounge areas where they had giant port hole windows where you could watch the scenery, they still had music pumped through the speakers. I did make one visit to the casino to watch friends play a slot machine, and this seemed to be the smokers area, my clothes stank for a couple of days. Read more