An excellent choice even if you don't speak German

The fact that it was a German-speaking cruise and we have very little German did not matter since all crew speak English. Safety announcements are also in English. This was our first-ever cruise and we were truly amazed at the quality of everything.

Staff: The crew are well selected, well trained, friendly, and clearly happy in their jobs.

Food: The main Atlantik restaurant is first class. Excellent quality food amazingly well prepared. The buffet is very good indeed too. The 24-hour burger bar was disappointing. We also tried the "fine dining" restaurant, Richards, and found it pretentious – a mismatched array of fruits, flowers and herbs prettying every dish – and over-priced. We ate far better in the Atlantik.

Bars: Excellent choice of ambiance and a very full range of drinks, alcoholic and not. Service sometimes slow to get going in the evening. The X-Lounge (suite passengers only) was superb, but shut at 7pm – a real negative.

Entertainment: Not all of the musicians seemed sufficiently experienced and/or talented. The shows in the theatre seemed of a very high standard but of course the comedy was lost on us.

Accommodation: We had a junior suite, a very comfortable room of good size, with all facilities, cleaned twice per day. Cabin temperature fully adjustable. The furnished, spacious and secluded balcony was superb.

Negatives: The wifi kept locking us out. This was quickly sorted by the staff each time but was a recurring nuisance. We were entitled to priority check-in and needed it (reduced mobility), but had to breach a barrier to get it. It wasn't available at all during the cruise at visited ports. We felt a little misled about this.

Ideas for TUI:

- Sell a day pass to the X-Lounge and keep it open longer. It's an under-used facility. Quiet is good but we were often on our own with the staff.

- Make deck plans clearer. We kept finding our way was blocked (by the theatre etc.)

- Designate at least one non-smoking outside area.

We both developed coughs and the ship's doctor advised keeping the balcony door open as much as possible as the A/C is deliberately kept very dry to reduce virus infection etc. That sea air worked a treat. Some areas of the ship were stiflingly hot.