This was sold to us as an introduction to cruising and it was just that.Booked to celebrate my 60th Birthday i had been planning for years. I cannot fault the Ship or its crew and because of them i am hoping to go on similar holidays again. I have learnt a lot.

We started of with everything going smoothly to plan We sailed from Cardiff on the day of a big football match but our coach got us there with ease. First day and the Scilly Isles started off a bit wet with a little delay on our visit to Tresco, This meant abandoning our planned visit to St Mary's as it would have been a rush. Onwards to France with a lovely cruise down the Seine in brilliant sunshine and into Rouen - a shame everything was closed as it was a public holiday! (Not like England) Still we had a pleasant evening stroll.The following day a trip to Giverny and Monet's garden was all that it promised to be, we left just as the heavens opened. That is where the holiday ended. That evening due to a forecast storm our trip to Antwerp was cancelled. I understand the safety implications but this was very disappointing especially as our substitute was Dover! I will not list all the bad points other than to say i am still upset about it. It was also the only port where we had to pay for the shuttle into the town - good old England! We nearly left the ship here to go home at this point, but as we were looking forward to the day at sea on our way back to Hull we cotinued and we did enjoy some pampering!

To sum up my first cruise barely left England, I came back with all my Euros that i planned to buy gifts with in Antwerp - the pound shop in Dover couldn't quite do it! Would i do it again - strangely yes but with no expectations! As some has already suggested in another review a longer stay in France or somewhere,anywhere but not Dover would have been better!