We chose a short 5 night cruise out of SOU to give our friends a taste of cruise life - he has mobility issues and has not travelled for some time - we thought a cruise would be ideal. The whole embarkation process was fantastic and the staff very helpful. That's a positive!

On the negative the ship now has the feel of a rather tired but yet still grand Old Lady. Some areas are in need of a refit (eg some of the carpets) and refresh. Let's deal with the negatives first - on board charges for drinks and extras (eg spa) are EXTORTIONATE - we tried to purchase a drinks package but this was $69 per day per person (so you can't even share with your spouse) and was for drinks up to the value of $11, however a double G&T is well over $13, so are the majority of glasses of wines so you would still end up paying extra. For a 5 day cruise this would have amounted to £690 and you would still have to watch how you chose your drinks!!

Food - Kings Court buffet looks great until you realise that almost everything is repeated 3 times in various area so the overall choice is a little limited. The food in the Britannia Restaurant is average with hardly any vegetables served. It was only on the 3rd night that we discovered the "always available" menu which included steak,chicken and fish dishes - these were much better than the menu although our waiter was obviously not happy that we had discovered this! Read more