It was my son who decided where we would go on holiday. In 2013 we had gone to Tenerife, he was bored, it was too hot and there was nothing to do. As he will be 18 next year I asked him where he would like to go and in a flash he came back with Spitsbergen. I started researching and it came down to a choice between Thomson and Fred Olsen. In the end I selected Thomson Spirit’s Arctic Affair cruise as Thomson’s were family friendly (kids club essential for my nine year old) and I preferred the itinerary.

One downside of Thomson was the ship leaving from Newcastle, I don’t have any problems per se with the north-east (my Dad was born in Durham) but when you live in the South-West it is a very long journey. We left on the 11th and after a 10 hour horrendous journey finally arrived at the Washington Travelodge for an overnight stop. My family moaned continuously about the fact we hadn’t flown but as I pointed out we’d have had luggage restrictions and be tied to flight times (they didn’t accept these as valid objections!)

The next day we negotiated the Tyne Tunnel and got to the port only to join a massive queue to drop off the bags. It was hot and sticky and seemed to take ages. Eventually all booked in and finally got on board. Our cabin (4-berth) was on deck 3 (516) – we were impressed, much larger than the cabins we had before on the Island Escape and Ocean Village and it had a kettle. Bags arrived (well apart from one where the label fell off and I had to collect from reception), unpacked and we started exploring. First stop the Lido for some food – we like the informality of buffet eating and the food was varied, hot and you could take as much (or little) as you like. Set sail just after 4pm and was an enjoyable sailaway down the Tyne and out to see – finally around thirty hours from leaving home we were off! Read more