Astoria Review

3.0 / 5.0
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Very enjoyable journey to the Scottish Isles and Faroes

Review for the British Isles & Western Europe Cruise on Astoria
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Eurovisionfan
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Apr 2018

I'm not sure what drew us to the cruise the most, the ship or the itinerary. Both were really interesting and so different to anything we’d done before. A ship of just 550 passengers ensured that queues were just about non-existent and the people we met were some of the friendliest we’d ever encountered on any cruise. Most were very well travelled and very few had a “whine list”, understanding that a small ship sailing to the Faroes in April might well be rather less stable than an August Mediterranean cruise. Sea sickness did take its toll, however, on many passengers.

Due to an adverse weather forecast, we decided to have a couple of days in a hotel beforehand and found the Stifford Hall Hotel very pleasant and reasonable. Had we known, we may well have parked our car here rather than at Tilbury, they do special rates (either stay and park or a fiver a day) and a taxi is around £15 each way.

Our scheduled departure was 2pm, however, this was delayed by a bout of norovirus, so we sat chatting to other passengers in the terminal (being offered tea, coffee and fizz!) until the ship had been deep cleaned. We were kept well informed - our scheduled boarding was 11.20am, but we boarded at about 1pm and were delighted to find that the main restaurant was open for lunch – something lacking from other cruise lines.

Cabin Review

Cabin Inside

Unfortunately, there was an intermittent banging noise in the cabin and after a few days when they couldn't pinpoint what was happening, we were moved to cabin 252 which had its own noise issues, however, they were easily sorted with ear plugs.

Both cabins had a bath and bidet, something we've not seen on other ships. Electricity sockets are in short supply (there's only 1 spare!), so do make sure you pack an extension lead and a European adapter.

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