My wife is a bit finicky about cruising to a location with high temperatures (e.g., the Mediterranean) in August, and I was not thrilled about going to Alaska. So we "compromised" on this trip around the United Kingdom and Ireland. (Spoiler Alert: It was a great decision.)

We did not book the cruise until late April (less than four months before departure), so we did not have much of a choice on the stateroom. Our room (6148) was lower on the ship than our usual location, but it was kept very clean (our thanks to the cabin staff), quiet, and relatively close to an elevator. Everything in the room worked well, and eventually we learned how to store things to maximize floor space.

The itinerary (starting in Amsterdam, then two ports in Scotland, one in England, one in Northern Ireland, two in Ireland, and one in Belgium, before our return to Amsterdam) was well thought out - with a good mix of sea days and shore days. There was also a very nice mix of big cities (notably Edinburgh and Dublin) with smaller ports (Inverness and Bruges), plus those in between (Liverpool, Belfast, and Cork). Others will comment on the tender situation in Edinburgh (which was terrible), but otherwise we had very smooth transfers in each port. Read more