Let's start with the port of Hull. The Port of Hull is a cargo port located at the confluence of the River Hull and the Humber Estuary in the city of "Kingston upon Hull" in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The only way we could get there by plane was taking a flight to Amsterdam and from there to Humberside Airport. (There are no flights from London to Humberside). Humberside is about 2 hours from Hull. Obviously Cruise and Maritime Voyages caters to working class British who are afraid of flying thus their motto: "Cruise without flying."

Well... we were specially instructed by Cruise and Maritime Voyages not to used the ferry terminal in Hull. So the van driver that picked us up at Humberside Airport could not believe that we were not to wait at the ferry terminal for embarkation. When we arrived to a wood hut belonging to the Associated British Ports in Alexandra Dock, Hull, North Humberside HU9, we understood why the driver was so puzzled. The only thing we found there were bare wood walls, a couple of run down tables and plastic chairs and some employees of the port that at least showed us where the kitchen was so we can make our own tea. Everything was quite dirty. The only heater was in a corner of the room, but people kept leaving the door open when coming and going from the room so it was quite cold. We arrived around 9 AM and we had to wait until 2:00 PM to be transported to the ferry terminal where we waited for a bus to take us to the ship. Did I mentioned that it was not even a vending machine in this wood hut?

As soon as we arrived to the ship we left our carry on on the cabin and went to the buffet at the Lido. Our first impression of the buffet was not good at all and it continued for the remaining of the trip. Tea, more tea, and coffee were free but any drink was at least twice as much as in any other cruise. It was quite difficult to find some decent wine. Read more