This cruise appealed to us because flights were not involved and the itinerary covered a few Canarian islands we hadn't visited before. Both embarkation and disembarkation went smoothly, all credit to the staff on board the boat and in Southampton port. We've cruised with Celebrity before and found their ships to be more modern and in a better condition but of course, their cruises are also more expensive. On Ventura we were impressed with the many different bars and clubs and the day time entertainment was ok. We saw several excellent acts, Nya King - a Whitney Houston impersonator, Paul Emmanuel, a great vocalist, Mark Walker and Josh Daniels, both great comedians. One of the boat bands was called Serious Sounds they were fab and Matt and Sarah, a married duet, he was a great guitarist.

Our steward, Poly, did an excellent job, in fact we found all of the staff to be very pleasant and hard working. The food in the main restaurants, Saffron and Cinammon, was to a reasonable standard but the buffet food in the Waterside could be disappointing. The afternoon tea was good but they were obsessed with crab salad sandwiches, there were always loads of these left but they couldn't take a hint, they'd be there again the following day but and still no egg mayonnaise, my favourite. There were too many sea days for us. They should think of leaving La Palma off and make Lisbon an overnight stay instead.