We chose this cruise as some friends were going and invited us along! We usually like a break at this time of year and although we've cruised before we've usually done it in summer. We loved the itinerary and the company so we booked last July and looked forward to our trip! We loved it - everything about it. We weren’t sure about NCL or Freestyle having cruised Princess and Cunard previously. However we enjoyed the flexibility and the informality that this afforded us.
Embarkation & disembarkation in Barcelona was smooth, efficient and speedy. Luggage reclaim was especially impressive as we are used to having to find our bags in amongst hordes of others. The coloured tags and carousels were very good as was the time slots allocated so as we arrived at the carousel our cases were there!
The ship was really very nice- we enjoyed the shows- not all were our cup of tea so opted out but those we saw were of a professional standard. Jill the cruise director was excellent.
We were really very pleased with our cabin- a picture window cabin on deck 5 – 5522. Our previous 2 cabins have been balcony, however as this were an extra holiday and not our ‘main’ we wanted to keep costs down so opted for a window- didn’t fancy an inside and still don’t. Each to their own- our friends love theirs but I like to see out! We had plenty of space, opting for a twin configuration as we wanted space between the beds which we got! There was plenty of hanging space, drawers and shelves and the bathroom was very spacious with a separate shower cubicle with a screen rather than a curtain- and a separate screen for the loo. The addition of some basic toiletries was a nice touch too. I would definitely chose this type of cabin again as we certainly didn’t miss our balcony. We hit some dodgy weather at times and felt it! Maybe I’d go more midship in future – but overall we were really pleased!