After visiting the local travel agent looking for a late deal looking to spend a week to 10 days in Barcelona but were talked into booking a cruise, as it had always appealed (but we planned on booking in a few years). The travel agent promised the Island Escape was a great ship and they'd never had any complaints about it - and I had a negative response when I asked if it was like Butlins on water. Stupidly, we booked before researching on the Internet and did not see the reviews here.

We paid almost £2,000 for an outside cabin on deck nine - with the all-inclusive drinks deal - which, to be fair, was a lot less than we thought a cruise would cost us.

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