We live in Spain and drove to Barcelona to join ship. We parked in Trade Centre parking which is really handy for the cruise terminal. We arrived the night before embarkation and stayed in the Eurostar Grand Marina Hotel which is above the car park. It is a bit expensive but really convenient for cruising.

Emarkation was a bit of a disaster. We had checked in online, photos and everything and had Set Sail Passes. However we had to go through the whole process again in the check-in zone and were issued with a boarding pass. When we boarded the ship, the passes we had been given were not accepted by the computer and so we had the same process to go through again - passports, photos etc. We had been told in the arrivals hall that we could use our passes to buy drinks but as these useless passes were taken from us we were left we nothing to produce to buy anything. We were told we could visit our cabin and pick up our cards although we would not be able to use the cabin until 1 o'clock. This worked fine and in fact we left our hand luggage in the cabin at the same time. Disembarkation worked very smoothly with no hitches at all and no queue for taxis.

We had reserved a boardwalk balcony cabin, similar to ones we had enjoyed on sister ships Oasis and Allure. We had the very end cabin and so we had a good view of the sea, the show and the boardwalk with no obstruction from the new Abyss slide. The sliding doors have a good seal and so once closed there is no noise. The cabin was slighter larger than on Oasis and Allure with a far better layout - more floor space. Cases fitted under the beds and there was plenty of drawer and hanging space. One negative about cabin is thatthere is no lightweight curtain for privacy as on sister ships - something which is really vital on these inward facing cabins. Our cabin steward was wonderful. Read more