We booked this cruise over a year ago to celebrate our 30th Wedding anniversary this year - we have both wanted to see the Northern Lights and what a good way to do it.

We arrived in Southampton the night before and stayed at the Jury's Inn as we did't want any stress from the journey to Southampton and this worked perfectly for us.

We arrived at the port a little earlier than our allocated time but there was plenty of room in the terminal, and as it happens, even if we had arrived on time we wouldn't have gone any where as the check-in system was down!. Eventually things were done manually and we ready to embark on our cruise. Once aboard we found our room on deck 8 and to be honest I was very pleased at the presentation. We had chosen a deluxe balcony cabin and it was very spacious and comfortable. Plenty of storage space, large comfy bed, bathroom with shower all very clean. As there had been an issue with check-in the Oriana didn't set sail until late in the evening and by then it was dark so never got to see the English coastline in the daylight , which we would have done had we sailed on time. Read more