Havnt cruised for 10 years and that was in the Red sea on the Thomson Spirit.Almost didn't book this cruise as we were looking to travel to Mexico but that fell through.Not quite sure what to expect on a COLD cruise with city sightseeing trips and not the hot spots we are used to but I have to say we were very happy with our choice of holiday.Embarkation went quite smoothly through check in and security and took about 1 hour.The discovery is a refurbished royal Caribbean ship and the perfect size.About 1800 passengers and around 700 crew.The demograph on board was quite elderly which you might expect but we were happy to see a few couples on board considerably younger than us,{were in our late fifties] and it was nice to see the vast majority of people smartly dressed in the evenings.Being all inclusive its difficult to critisice the drinks but the cocktails always needed a top up with a bit more alchohol.Food for us was a little disappointing,the buffet was always too busy and the food not great and we much preferred the restuarants with waiter service.There were no set eating times or tables and we liked to share tables with other couples to make for a pleasant dining conversation experience.Unfortunatly the food wasn't consistently good.I hope im not being too critical as we certainly didn't starve and we arnt foodies but we had expected slightly better.Staff in the restaurants and bars were excellent but we felt that the restaurant staff were understaffed and overworked to give of their best.Entertainment in the evenings was very good and the broadway shows were excellent and the activities during the day covered most peoples tastes,Only problem with a cold cruise is extra pressure on seating indoors especially on at sea days and the discovery does not have enough capacity.Most of the trips ashore we did ourselves apart from st Petersburg Russia where you travel on a group visa on organised trips.An amazing place to visit.To summarise we wernt expecting to enjoy out holiday as much as we did and have never taken so many pics on holiday.We would absolutely travel on the discovery again