The cruise was great from start to finish.
The embarking and disembarking was very well organised and smooth.
We had a balcony cabin, on the port side, wonderful views every morning and evening.
The cabin steward and staff were friendly and helpful. They went over and above when I lost an earring.
The daily newspaper was helpful, though I would have preferred to had it all at the beginning, as new to cruising it would have helped us plan our week.
The buffet was well supplied with fresh food, staff helpful and friendly.
The restaurants we tried were lovely, a good range of options, again friendly and knowledgeable staff, the virtual queues worked well and actually moved much faster than expected.
The spa was five star, we had several treatments. Tumi was amazing.
The thermal suite was excellent only fault was we felt there were too many people in at one time. And it was the classic put your towel down that’s my bed. So I had to ask a group in the pool if I could go on the warm beds whilst they were in the pool.
We are regular gym goers and took our gym gear, however we never used the facilities as the walking around the ship and two physical excursions, we felt we had enough exercise. The gym was big and stocked well with a good range of equipment.
Entertainment, I don’t feel we made the most of it, however what we did see was excellent.
The infinity pools and whirlpools were great, though would be better on a child free cruise.
The excursions we did were excellent. We booked them both through P&O, so paid a little more but peace of mind of good and clear organisation. We did the Glacier at Olden, a little tip, you can have tea and cake when you arrive and before you leave. A must do trip. And the locals give you a fabulous send off.
We went on e-bikes in Helleyest, Carmen and Clare were excellent instructors, very knowledgable, however only us and another couple, out of a group thirteen, were appropriately dressed, I had been checking the weather for a month. So we were unable to do the full 40km as the weather turned and most of the group were cold and wet. Which was a shame, however we still enjoyed the amazing scenery and facts from Carmen and Clare. They take a steady pace and it’s a small port so straight on to the quiet roads and scenic views.
We didn’t do the e-bike tour in Haugesund, which was a shame, however this is a city so there would have been at least a couple of km’s to get out into the quieter and scenic roads.
I must say I was amazed how clean the ship was, there handwash facilities at the buffet and hand gel stations everywhere.
The tables at the buffet were cleaned as soon as you finished. The toilets were also cleaned regularly.
We didn’t do the black tie events, though we still dressed up. Just a word of warning, they close a lot of the ship off for this event, so navigating from one end to the other was interesting, walking along corridors of cabins, however there was staff to help direct thankfully as this was the first evening on board. And interestingly once the black tie event finish they join in with the rest of the passengers so it’s only a three hour window.
Overall we had an amazing time and would do the same cruise again as there was so much we didn’t see.
