We chose this cruise to celebrate our 49th wedding anniversary and to have an opportunity to visit Berlin, Germany (via Hamburg port of call) and St. John, Newfoundland/Labrador, Canada. We had been to Rotterdam/Amsterdam, Bergen and Belfast in our earlier travels. While we were quite disappointed in not visiting St. John again on this voyage (our scheduled itinerary in our earlier cruise with Princess also cancelled Corner Brook, Newfoundland due to bad weather at that time), Captain Draper made the right decision to change the itinerary after Hamburg/Berlin last Sept 13 because of an intense temperate low pressure system forecast in the North Atlantic for the ensuing days endangering the safety of guests and crew with high winds and heavy seas caused by Hurricanes Florence and Helene.
Before this cruise, visiting Santiago De Compostela in Spain was one in our travel bucket list. While in Vigo, Spain, we took the opportunity to take excursion to Santiago De Compostela, the 3rd most visited pilgrimage shrine in the Roman Catholic institutions after Jerusalem and Rome. To be able to visit this place, a popular pilgrimage site since the 15th century was a blessing for my wife and me.
As well, prior to this cruise, we had been endeavouring to take a cruise with Azores Islands as a destination. To have an opportunity to visit the historical and beautiful Ponta Delgada in the island of Sao Miguel, the most visited of the 9 Azores Islands, 900 miles west of Lisbon, was an extra bonus for us. The 9-hour shore excursion we took was wortth the penny we paid for this tour.
When I was making the booking for this cruise, I practically requested for this stateroom location, one deck below Horizon Court, the main buffet restaurant, located in Deck 16, Aft, where we took our breakfast, lunch and dinner (we cancelled our early sitting in Allegro because we decided to have more casual dining option this time). Apart from using the stairs one deck above us to reach Horizon Court, Terrace, Fountain, Pool, etc. on Deck 16, M706 turned out to be also accessibly located to reach Vista Lounge, Wheelhouse Lounge, two entertainment venues on Deck 7 Aft. To reach Atrium (Decks 7, 6, 5 Midship) for live entertainment, we just walked to use the Midship lifts. To reach Princess Theater, we walked to take the Forward lifts down.