I have seen very mixed reviews about Ambiance and so travelled with an open mind. The itinerary was excellent and the reason that I booked on this ship. Everything was well organized including embarkation and disembarkation which were very smooth. Two excellent speakers gave great technical views of both the Northern Lights and also quality of life that made the sea days pass fast. Loads of activities and entertainment to keep people interested during the day and evenings. The staff were utterly dedicated and I can't fault the service at all.

So generally fantastic so far. A couple of things to note though; the ship is old and most staterooms are very dated but functional and definitely bigger that I am used to. I have no complaints but can appreciate that others may see this as a negative but personally I found it added charm and it was nice to be on a smaller less impersonal boat. Some of the infrastructure is a bit hit and miss, specifically the air conditioning wasn't always 100% and the lifts do definitely need some maintenance with many going out of service at various times. It was the ship's first trip into cold waters and the crew were learning in the first couple of days which doors to keep closed etc. Food was generally good (did have a meal or two that wasn't impressive but that's life), the buffet was busy at times but I have seen far worse on other ships. Destination experiences / excursions sold out quickly, I was fine but there were those that did not get the excursions they wanted.

The general clientele is 60+ and a significant proportion of the passengers were professional moans it seamed. The could find fault with everything and anything. I guess they are the ones that have written the very negative reviews here. Also people were often woefully underdressed ashore and complaining it was too cold ...... come on, you are 400 miles inside the arctic circle in March, what were you expecting!!!