Embarkation: we arrived earlier than time advised on ticket and were able to board about 1pm in time for lunch

Room: room itself was nice with in-hull balcony. However it was directly opposite the pantry that was used by the cabin stewards for food and drink service. We were woken every morning before 6am when the stewards would start rattling and banging pots and glasses and running the dishwasher. If you tried to catch up on your sleep with a quick nap in the afternoon, they would start again about 3pm. On the last day they obviously forgot the clocks had gone forward as they started their activities just before 5am. Never get a room near the service rooms- I have come home for a good night's sleep! We also had some issues with vibration on a few occasions. It was particularly bad on the first night and seemed to affect cabins on different locations in different decks rather than one section of the ship.

Food: generally good standard given the mass catering however service in the Britannia restaurant was dreadful. We had a table of 8 on the late sitting - we would all arrive at 8:30 but be lucky to be out for 10:30 in time for the show. Good job we all got on really well and didn't mind chatting while we waited. On more than one occasion tables around us were on their main course before we had starters. They used the excuse that 2 of our table had special diets however as they ordered their choices the night before this didn't add up. Food was sometimes tepid by the time it got to us. We preferred not to eat in Kings Court as it was usually busy and I didn't come on a cruise to queue for ages with a tray and then fight for a table. At breakfast we tried to eat in Britannia if possible but even that had poor service. There was a chronic shortage of tea pots. We waited ages for tea on most days, often getting the food before the tea. We noticed that they were getting teapots off other tables and refilling them before we would have one. Not what we expected on a luxury liner. We had breakfast in the room on one occasion. It was good but there was limited choice so may have got boring everyday. We went to the Al La Carte at the Italian Restaurant in Kings Court for one night and both the food and service were excellent. Read more