Having had a land trip around S America cancelled, together with friends, we decided to push the boat out, excuse the pun, and treat ourselves to an ultra luxury cruise for once. We have cruised with the more mainstream lines, P&O, Cunard, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity on numerous occasions. We booked at a great price in August 21 for a deluxe veranda suite in no small part due to the vision we had been given of the ship from the U.K. TV documentary series on Channel 5.

We weren’t too bothered by the itinerary having been to the Caribbean on 3 previous occasions.

Suffice to say, and with only 490 passengers on board out of a capacity of 750, the experience met, and in many ways, exceeded our expectations such that the ship was the star of the trip. Nothing fell below expectations, the food was outstanding (our weighing scales must surely be lying since our return - we didn’t really put that much weight on did we?) and the service excellent in every aspect. Read more