We chose this cruise because it spent so much time in Iceland which was a bucket list destination. We had been booked on the almost maiden voyage of Norwegians Prima but shortly afterwards saw the offer to sail on Ambience so cancelled and lost our deposit but the trip was cheaper and longer so we kept our fingers crossed that we hadn't made a terrible mistake. We were so glad we made the change. A smaller ship on which one could quickly get familiar and with friendly staff and great service what is there to complain about? It is an older ship as evidenced by the warmer-than-usual cabin temps on check in but once we set sail they dropped to more usual levels. Our trip had the bonus of sailing past the coastline we live near on our first night. We really enjoyed working out where we were in relation to home. The sailing took us between the tip of Scotland and the Orkneys (beautiful weather - who'd've expected to sunbathe!) before stopping at Torshaven which was a pleasant port to stop at. We visited the tradtional houses and a small but perfectly put together garden. We walked up through the park, admiring the sculpture along the way then headed back to the ship via the fortifications. Back on board, we enjoyed a buffet lunch (one of the biggest downsides of the ship was the misted windows in Borough Market) We really loved the ship as it was easy to orientate yourself and it was easy to get where you wanted to be.

Iceland was more than I hoped it would be. Every port had things we enjoyed , thoroughly reccomend hot spring bathing at both blue lagoon and myvatin. Wr were lucky that the weather was atmospheric for Blue Lagoon and glorious sunshine for Myvatin which is just the way you would want it. Leaving Iceland we entered the arctic circle and the sun didn't set - oh it was gorgeous! We felt so very blessed to be able to be there with such good weather, we had a lovely table and went to the Observatory after dinner and had a wonderful night of dancing and drinking and just feeling priveliged to witness this. Later we went back to the cabin and at 2am were still enjoying the suns glow. We continued our southward trajectory stopping at Klaasvik ( boy did it rain) and then Lerwick, stunningly changeable - from a squally morning with an interesting visit to Jaarlshof to glorious warm sunshine wandering the streets of Lerwick before getting back on board for afternoon tea. I cannot express how much we enjoyed our cruise. We've sailed P&O & Cunard before. Sure it wasn't 'as" dressy as Cunard but on the gala nights it was properly dressy its just there was only 2 of those on the cruise. The bars we frequented for pre-dinner drinks (loved the set dining times ) were great - live music, friendly and attentive service exactly the ambience you would want on a cruise.

Our cabin was satisfactory, the balcony was very narrow and there was a slow leak under the sink (just enough to mean we stored our wash bag on the other side of the shelf) Beds were comfy, with separate quilts worked better than we expected. Read more