We wanted an interesting cruise on a small ship over Christmas and New Year and the " Mysteries of the Maya" cruise, visiting Central/South America and the Caribbean, sounded ideal. It was our fourth cruise, having been once on Azamara Quest and twice on SAGA's Quest For Adventure. We read Cruise Critic before we went and felt that and the Swan brochure gave us an ideal alternative to our previous cruises. Sadly it was not to be.
Firstly the plus points. The places we visited and the accompanying lectures were great and much enjoyed. The cabin and bar crew as on other boats were friendly and efficient as on our previous cruises.
If you read some of the negative of other reviews you will start to realise the Minerva is a bit of an old tub. We were amazed to read that there had been a £10million refit as there was constant vibrations in anywhere aft of midships due to the fact they had extended the rear of the ship but not the propellers. Any aft cabins should be avoided. We also experienced roughs seas and did not feel the stabilizers were as good as the previous two ships