Where to begin…

First, thing to know is that even though you may have paid for excursions in advance. Excursions are not confirmed by the ship until the night before the excursion port at 8pm. Which means you may have your plans cancelled at the last minute and have very few options to rebook as the good tours are already full. This was very frustrating as we had 2 tours cancelled the night before because there were insufficient English speaking people to hit the minimum for an English tour.

There were several issues during this cruise consistent with the above that really put the consideration for the passenger last. Perhaps the biggest mess was on Embarkation day. The ship was supposed to be in Tarragona at 1pm and we were scheduled to board at 4pm. Due to high winds and rough seas the ship made several failed attempts to dock. While i completely support the decision to put safely first, my complaint was around the complete lack of communication. There were approximately 350 passengers waiting to board in Tarragona. We were told to “come back in another hour” several times. We were eventually bused to Barcelona after midnight and only embarked onto the ship at 3am. Yes 14 hours after the original dock time with NO communication. After asking on many occasions about the incident, we were rudely told that they would be doing nothing. The ship finally issued a communication 8 DAYS after the incident giving us a credit of 100 euros per cabin and 15 euros per person to reimburse for on shore meals. Just a fiasco for those poor passengers waiting to get off the ship and those of us waiting to get on. No prioritization in boarding for the many passengers with small children or the elderly. So much frustration could have been avoided with communication. Access to the officers was impossible as they essentially hid from passengers for several days. Even the captain cancelled his welcome. aboard cocktail party - Coward. Read more