We wanted to see northern Europe and we got a great deal on this cruise. We had many perks, too, like the Pinnacle Grill (beyond excellent), classic drink package, a balcony room and lots of onboard credits. The room valets we had in room 7114 (Excellent Balcony Cabin) were very, very good. Ice in the room nightly, cute towel art pieces and friendly smiles everyday. Our dining stewards were a little slow, but the food was just fabulous. Bravo to the chefs. Most of the entertainment was very good, except the piano bar singer, who hurt our ears on a daily basis, since we love to gamble and our desired card table was close to the piano bar. My condolences to the dealers, who had to withstand his bleating more then we did. The ports of call were excellent. There are some complaints: 1) Would never do a HA transfer for this trip. We did our own and it was much more economical and readily available. We saw the military tattoo in Edinburgh, Scotland on our own and saved buckets of money. I was extremely upset that HA knew months before the sailing that they would be docking in Newhaven and not South Queensferry, as they had in their brochure. I checked with HA even 1 days prior to sailing and they again insisted that they were going to South Queensferry. This change that wasn't shared with cruisers caused quite a bit of problems and left a bad taste in my mind for HA honesty. Now on another score, there has never been a more informative (except for the above info), as the captain we had on this cruise and we've done 27 cruises in 2.8 yrs. (that's 2 yrs. 8 months). He was delightful. The ship is going into drydock but only for 2 weeks, which doesn't seem like enough time to really amp her up. the Crows Nest was a GREAT setting, but always so packed and nowhere to sit. Not enough deck chairs along the outside palisades. The tendering in Edinburgh was a disaster. I have never had to tender in on the ships own lifeboats! Usually there is a private company that shuttles cruisers into port. But not here. We did not get off ship till 3pm which left us little to no time to sightsee before the Tattoo, since the place was swarming with people coming to the Fringe (look it up). They finally got wise and did hire another ferry company to help get people back on the ship or we'd been there another day just reloading passengers. Terrible experience there.

Overall, though, we loved the cruise and as most cruises, will need to go back again to many of the places to get a more indepth visit.