This would be our first cruise with Ambassador although back in 2018 we’d spent a night sailing aboard the now-defunct Astoria with the now-also-defunct Cruise & Maritime Voyages, which can be considered a precursor cruise line to Ambassador or the ashes from which the Ambassador phoenix arose. Only less purple.

Cruising with a line for the first time brings with it some risk. Every line does things differently and targets different sorts of cruisers so it’s vitally important to do some research first to make sure it’s a good fit for your age, temperament, and expectations. Additionally, cruise durations have a big impact on what sort of cruising experience you’re going to get aboard. Short cruises attract a younger, more of a party crowd, and the vibe on the ship might be very different to something longer. If the cruise line doesn’t quite suit you then too long a cruise will feel like torture. If I was the sort of person who handed out advice to people looking for cruise answers, then I’d say that a week to ten days is a solid length of time you should aim for if this is your first time with a line, or with cruising at all.

We’re quite contrary people and we’re also pretty experienced now so for our very first cruise with Ambassador we decided to book a seventeen-day cruise above the Arctic Circle (our first proper time cruising that far north although technically we’d been on a ship that just straddled the line of latitude a few years earlier) in search of the Northern Lights at the top of Norway. We like Norway so this would be a chance to see more of the country and tick off some new ports. We like seeing the aurora (we’ve been lucky enough to see it a few times now). We’d dug into Ambassador enough to know that there was a very good chance we’d like cruising with them. It wasn’t that big a risk, and, thanks to Ambassador running a promotion at the time, the price per person per night worked out good enough to opt for a balcony cabin on the ship too. And we like balconies when we can justify the additional cost.

Among the many new things that this cruise would bring would be a new cruise port to depart from and arrive at. Tilbury lies on the north side of the Thames, just to the east of London. It’s certainly a place we could have driven to on the day of the cruise but for a more stress-free holiday we decided to travel up after work the evening before, staying at a hotel near Waltham Abbey. It was cheap, easy to find, cut a lot of the cruise day travelling out of the equation, and there were a couple of pubs close by so it worked well for us. We’d almost certainly do the same on a subsequent cruise from Tilbury, and at the time of writing this we do actually have plans for that very thing in late 2028.

Whether you’re heading to Tilbury for an Ambassador Cruise from the clockwise or anti-clockwise direction around the M25 you’re going to need to get off at the A13 and head east. As we’d stayed at Waltham Abbey we were coming from a clockwise direction so it was a longer drive than it needed to be, but it did mean we could avoid the Dartford Tunnel. I’m sure the tunnel is fine most of the time but we’ve been caught in it once before and our lives are better without that worry.

The signs to the docks were easy to follow and we were soon pulling into the car park where we were directed to a place to drop our cases off, then to the parking bays. From this point to stepping on board Ambience was about ten minutes and that includes walking with our hand luggage to the port building, checking in, having a photo taken, picking up our cards, and following the throng through the walkways jutting out from land to the jetty against which the ship was docked. It was so quick that I didn’t have any chance to take any pictures from within the cruise terminal building itself which is a shame as it’s truly lovely, but below you’ll see what the building looks like from the outside, as seen from our balcony a little later in the day.

The cruise terminal building was completed in the 1920s, just a little too early to embrace the Art Deco that would have totally suited its role, instead favouring some lovely neo-Georgian touches. Of historical significance is that the Empire Windrush docked there in 1948, bringing migrants from the West Indies to help in Britain’s post-war restoration efforts.

Boarding the ship brought us straight into the heart of Ambience. This was the spacious Centre Court, spread over three levels. We had arrived before the rooms were ready and we had a carry-on wheelie case with us so we decided not to have an explore of the ship – there was no rush, after all – but instead grab a seat in Centre Court as we could see some vacant. It would have been rude not have some drinks and we’re not rude people.

We were finishing up our second drink when the announcement was made that our cabins were now ready. As I’ve already mentioned, we’d booked a balcony room for this cruise, deck 10 forward (always nice as we’re Star Trek fans), starboard side, cabin 10135. The cabin was bright and clean with the bathroom coming across as understandably dated but perfectly fine. We weren’t on the cruise to spend copious amounts of time showering. Storage was incredible. You could pack for four people for a world cruise here. The television was small with none of the on demand offerings we’ve come to expect, but that wasn’t a big deal. We weren’t on the cruise to watch TV either. One thing that was a problem in this room – and this might have been a transient thing that’s since been fixed, or it might have been because we were heading to the far north in winter time with a lot of old people aboard – was the air conditioning’s base temperature of too bloody hot. If the thermostat did a thing then we never found out why or how. It was very warm in this room, to the extent that we ended up wedging a chair in the doorway to the balcony just to sleep at night. Yes, we slept with our balcony door open while cruising past snowy landscapes in the Arctic Circle.

We had time for a little explore now before muster and that began on the top deck where Ambience’s pools and Ambassador’s purple and green colour scheme took centre stage. We didn’t actually venture into the pools at all on this cruise and I’m not entirely sure why as they looked very inviting.

A friendly member of staff decided we looked parched and convinced us to grab another drink outside before we went forward to the Observatory, Ambience’s nightclub venue and crow’s nest area. We were blown away by how lovely the Observatory was during the daylight hours and we’d come to the decision very quickly at night that it was in fact the most beautiful nightclub at sea. The ship was designed with passengers in mind, not profits at the passengers’ expense, and you could really tell. The public spaces on Ambience aren’t just big and airy, they’re also gorgeously decorated. She may be an old ship with a somewhat unique look from the outside but she’s one of the classiest vessels at sea once you’re aboard.

Muster was held in the theatre for us and this was another venue that immediately surprised and impressed us. Leg room! So much leg room! We could stretch our legs out and not touch the seats in front.

If we have a balcony cabin then we will typically enjoy the sailaway from our balcony with a drink in hand. However, not only was Tilbury a new port from which to disembark for us, it also meant we’d be sailing along the snaking course of the Thames before hitting the open sea. This would all be new to us and so we wandered out both forward and aft to catch the evening departure views. One of the big benefits of our cabin being forward on deck ten was that we were on the same deck and only a dozen metres back from a forward viewing spot under the bridge. We’d end up popping out here a lot on this cruise because Norway’s landscape encourages that sort of behaviour. The sunset scenes from the ship’s aft were a particularly nice view for our first night aboard Ambience too.

Ambassador do fixed-time dining which isn’t our preferred choice but we understand why a lot of the older and smaller ships do things this way. We had the late sitting and were on a table for four, only our table companions didn’t join us for this first night. In fact, we probably only saw them about half the time as either they were trying some speciality dining or we were or we’d eaten late and hit the buffet or they’d decided on the buffet or they’d got talking to other people and missed dinner entirely. That saved us having to come up with new conversations every day, at least. Service was superb. Food across this cruise was good, without being spectacular, with the exception of one speciality evening which very positively impressed us. You’ll have to wait for that write-up.

After dinner we found ourselves in Raffles, the up-class piano lounge on Ambience. Again, just stunning decor with a height that just made it feel that little bit more special again. The pianist was excellent on this cruise – actually, all the performers were excellent – and this would be our early evening venue almost every evening. We finished this first night by taking an elevator up to the Observatory and this started our fun game of seeing what elevator decoration we’d get. Polar Bear on this occasion, as you can see. Quirky, but simple fun.

The Observatory at night was utterly stunning. Various sorts of entertainment would take place here across this cruise but it would always end with a late-night disco, and we’d almost always be some of the last people in it each night. On this first evening aboard Ambience we got talking to a guy who’d known Divine. Disco royalty.

Ambassador don’t run a late-night buffet but they do bring around trays of nibbles at about eleven o’clock each night. Odd, we thought, on our first night on the ship, but by day three we were already experiencing a Pavlovian response of extra salivation as snacking time approached and we wondered what choice there’d be to tempt us now.

That’s the end of our first day aboard an Ambassador Cruise Lines ship. In the next post in this Ambassador Ambience cruise travelogue series there’s a sea day and formal night dinner to look forward to.

We’ll start at the aft of the ship and the pool overlooking the wake.

The pool is sheltered above by Skywalkers nightclub, a unique arrangement within the Princess Cruises fleet now that Star Princess and Golden Princess have been sold. The travelator walkway leading to the nightclub is the Skywalk after which it’s named, and after which the nightclub is still named across the fleet’s Grand-class ships even though no other ship has the travelator. The reason for that is due to fuel efficiency as the raised nightclub adds drag and instability to the ship’s normal operation. A shame, because it’s a lot of fun to ride it.

A children’s splash pool area was also present around the nightclub walkway area but this wasn’t a cruise that families were interested in so it was never in use. Right under the walkway is another small but deep pool that was rarely if ever used to my mind, but the reason for that might have been that the high lip on it and metal walkway overhead didn’t make for any sort of view. However, it could be a good option for a quiet soak if it’s windy.

Below are photos of the Skywalk travelator and the daytime interior view of Skywalkers. At night the club would be flashing lights and disco music, but in the day it was usually a nice quiet spot for reading until the early evening when it served as the Elite Lounge, the private snacks and drinks venue for those who reach Platinum or Elite loyalty with the cruise line. Like us.

A generic sports court for all your generic sports needs, which typically involves bouncing balls noisily.

Moving forward along the top deck, this class of ship has two large swimming pools for use by everyone.

The pool photos above were both looking forwards on the ship. In the photo below you can see the view backwards instead, catching one pool and the Movies Under The Stars screen over the other pool behind.

At the front of the ship there is the Sanctuary Pool (also called the Lotus Pool). The Sanctuary is an additional charge retreat area at the front of the ship but the pool is free to use and for adults only. It’s small, but good enough for short laps and lounging about and because there are no children allowed and it’s not surrounded by hordes of people taking up all the loungers, it’s the pool that we most often use on these ships. The only real problem with this pool is that because it’s small but has two different depth levels in it, neither of which are particularly deep, it is susceptible to a lot of wave-generation if the sea conditions aren’t great and that means this pool tends to be closed off for safety more often than others.

You can’t say you’re not spoilt for choice when it comes to swimming pools on Grand-class Princess cruise ships.

Staying outside for the moment but moving down a few levels, Caribbean Princess features a full wraparound promenade deck and this affords the closest view of the ship’s wake which is noisy but mesmerising and a firm favourite sight for many cruisers.

The central atrium on Princess ships is known as the Piazza just to be different, and on these ships it spans three decks. It’s where some games take place – typically ones involving the ship’s crew versus passengers, or throwing games where the wind would be a problem – and music is played at points throughout the day. Shops encircle the upper and central decks around the atrium, while food and drink can be found in bars and the café on the upper and lower levels.

At the aft of the ship on deck seven there’s Club Fusion. Captain’s Circle events take place here, trivia is sometimes held, dance classes and group exercises sometimes take place, and in the evening there’s typically a mix of live music and/or comedy, followed by a late night disco session just to compete with that going on in Skywalkers.

Moving forward brings you to the Sabatini’s speciality restaurant (not pictured here) and the Wheelhouse Bar.

Crooners, around the top of atrium, is the Martini bar on Princess ships, and it’s a good one with a great range of drinks, so no surprise that we spent a lot of time here.

Down one deck there’s the Shore Excursions desk – which wasn’t getting a lot of attention during the second half of this cruise for obvious reasons – and the other main speciality restaurant, Crown Grill.

We didn’t really visit the theatre, the gym, or the casino so you’ll have to hunt elsewhere for photos of them.

A general outline of a typical sea day for us, not just on this cruise but certainly also on this cruise, was to get up, have breakfast, do trivia, find somewhere to read for a bit until our cabin was cleaned, go for a swim, have some lunch, read some more but on our balcony now, do more trivia, drink, eat, and disco into the early hours.

Our balcony was very large because decks 9 and 10 on this class of ship have some double-sized ones. We always pick deck 10, though, as it’s partly covered in case the weather is an issue. Deck 9 is fully exposed to the elements and potentially to people looking down from above (it’s never really an issue) but the rooms have lounge spaces too. It’s a trade-off for what’s most important to you.

The next post in this series will be the penultimate one and it will feature some of the food we enjoyed aboard Caribbean Princess on this second week, including speciality dining we treated ourselves to.

We started by passing over a couple of watercourses that run from the ravines higher up in the mountain areas around Funchal down to the Atlantic Ocean.

Chafariz Square had that black and white tiled surface that Portugal seems to love. The obelisk structure may have been part of a fountain, but whether it worked we couldn’t tell for sure. There was a fountain erected here in 1827, apparently, and this may actually have been it. That’ll teach us for not getting closer to take a look.

It was hard to miss the church tower so we headed there next. While neither large nor particularly impressive from the outside this was actually Funchal Cathedral, completed in 1514 and largely unchanged since building was completed.

Generally Gothic architecturally, and obviously Catholic, it was impossible not to miss some Islamic elements with some of the interior arches and the roof in particular sporting geometric art typical of the Mudéjar.

Leaving the cathedral we headed towards the sea, passing a couple of interesting sights along the way.

The sculpture of Józef Pilsudski was erected in 1999. Madeira has a large contingent of Polish expatriates and the Polish pope, Pope John Paul II, is the only pope to have visited the island. Pilsudski is considered a hero in Poland and founder of the Second Polish Republic, and in late 1931 he stayed on Madeira for three months. During this time a young boy who would become Pope John Paul II wrote a letter to Pilsudski as part of a school writing exercise expressing a wish to also visit the island.

A very short distance further on were two very modern items in the form of a fancy fountain, part of the parliamentary library, and a cylindrical sculpture to honour the health workers during the COVID pandemic period.

I liked the colours and the style of the Madeira lettering that tourists do like to photograph – I’m a tourist and I did – but it’s a shame that the backdrop to it was so busy and that there were railings in front of it.

Along the waterfront just in front of the Madeira sign there was a pleasant public space – the Praça do Povo (People’s Square) – comprising a few parkland areas and some tiered spots where I imagine lovely views of the sea and sun could be had on perhaps less overcast days. Commemorating a brief stopover on the island in 1906 during a trip from London to South Africa there was a bust of Gandhi on display and we also encountered a monument to Nelson Mandela. Closer to the main road there was a monument to Madeiran emigrants.

The place we’d been heading towards was BeerHouse, a microbrewery which had lovely views out over the marina and towards the cruise ships docked in the port, plus, of course, beer. They also did food but we were only really there for the craft ales and ended up staying for three each. In truth, the ales weren’t quite to our taste and you can’t say we didn’t try to find something we really liked, but we always appreciate local breweries and we’re glad we went. With it being on the way back to the ship it’s highly likely we’d stop there again on a repeat visit to Madeira.

All that remained of our day in Funchal was to then take a slow stroll back to the ship.

An artist whose work you’ll quite likely have seen if you’ve spent any time in Lisbon (and we have) is Bordalo II. His colourful trash animals have an unmistakeable style and it was a nice surprise to come across a piece of his on Funchal highlighting ocean pollution.

I took advantage of drier weather to take more photos of the harbour murals we’d noticed (well, it would be hard to miss them) when we’d disembarked the ship earlier in the day.

In the next post in this transatlantic cruise series we sail away from Madeira and towards the final port of call before our relaxing week crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

It was formal night on Caribbean Princess and our views on formal nights is that we’ll take part in one on a cruise but any more than that is more effort than we’re typically prepared to make especially when the cruise lines sometimes barely make any effort to make these occasions special themselves. The cruise line and cruise duration do have an impact here, though, as some lines are more strict while others are more relaxed. Princess are pretty relaxed these days, which we like, and with this being a repositioning, transatlantic cruise there were not many people very dressed up at all but I still brought out my tux, bow tie, EU cufflinks, and fake Rolex for the night. Naturally, if I’m dressed like James Bond – if you squint at my reflection in a distorted mirror stolen from a funfair – then a Vodka Martini is on the cards too.

We will book something other than a balcony cabin if money is an issue or we book late so that availability is an issue or it’s a smaller, older ship with few balcony cabins available, but on a Grand-class ship like Caribbean Princess we’ll always go for a balcony, and with this being a repositioning cruise with a lot of sea days in the second week aboard the pricing was very low. We knew we’d be spending a lot of time on the balcony during those sea days but we also love heading out onto our private space late at night just to enjoy the stars. It’s this reason why we don’t like the newer ships that the likes of Princess or P&O have built – Star and Sun Princess, and Iona and Arvia – as night views are trashed thanks to setting back the balconies from the floodlit promenade deck spaces. The days when cruise lines considered what it is that their passengers might like rather than simply trying to cram as many rooms onto ships as possible is long gone, sadly.

The following day saw Caribbean Princess docked in Málaga, Spain, a place we’d never been to before but one which we’d made some lovely plans for as there were plenty of places of interest to explore. We were looking forward to having some food then setting off early to hit the bull fighting museum, the Roman amphitheatre, maybe the castle, the cathedral, and a great-looking craft ale brewery.

It was raining quite heavily when we pulled open the curtains and stepped onto the balcony. Really quite heavily. The photos don’t do this justice.

There were a few other ships in port and we could see one of the Virgin ships anchored in the very choppy Mediterranean Sea off the coast. We noticed immediately that there didn’t seem to be any tendering operation taking place from it but didn’t think too much on that.

We ate breakfast and then had to stop and take some photos from the top deck as the heavy rain had actually got heavier, coming down almost like hail on the loungers and already forming a small lake on the deck surface.

We headed back to our cabin just to get our coats. Yes, it was heavy rain and yes, we would be getting wet, but you don’t just skip a new place to visit because of the weather.

We headed down to the gangway to get off the ship and joined a short queue of people swiping their cards for security, buttoning everything up, then disembarking. We were just two people from the front of the queue when the captain made an announcement. The local authorities in Málaga were effectively closing down the city as the rain was expected to get even worse with strong risks of flooding. For safety reasons everybody needed to stay aboard so getting off was now suspended. That was that for our day in Spain then. On the one hand we were disappointed that we hadn’t got off the ship but we counted ourselves lucky that we’d not been early enough to get off only to then get drenched and find everything closing down. More on that in a few paragraphs.

Back in our room to drop off our coats as we wouldn’t be going anywhere we could now see how the rain was having an impact on our balcony space with the drainage struggling to cope with the deluge.

We spent the remainder of the day doing many of the same things we’d done on the previous one: reading, eating, drinking, taking part in trivia again.

The weather had cleared somewhat by the time late evening rolled around and we could depart. The ship had needed to stay in port to take on staff and supplies, plus some people had managed to head ashore before that was stopped so they needed to be accounted for. As Caribbean Princess made her way out from Málaga we saw that we’d been docked next to Marella Voyager. We’ve only cruised once with Marella so far, and on another ship, but we very much enjoyed the experience and would like to do so again one day.

Early in the evening we bumped into our new Romanian friend we’d met on the first night on the ship. She introduced us to a Canadian man she’d also met who, like us, had flown into Italy on embarkation day. Unlike us, his luggage hadn’t come with him and hadn’t caught up in Sardinia either so he’d been making do with what he’d been wearing for the flight and a few things he’d bought on the ship since then plus some loans from the cruise line. It turned out he’d got off the ship as early as possible just to buy more clothes, not trusting that his luggage would find him in Spain either. He’d made it into the city only to find nothing open and he’d got soaked to the skin, sometimes sheltering near buildings but mostly finding it impossible to escape the rain. That left him with almost the only set of clothes he had now completely sodden to add insult to injury. His attitude was good, though, and we all had a good laugh about it. We’d check in with him a few times over the next few days and the last we heard was that his luggage still hadn’t arrived by the last port before the transatlantic crossing.

We’d not had the day we’d planned on having but the evening was as intended with a speciality dining experience at Crown Grill. Starters and desserts often change around a bit but for the main course we always go for filet mignon, rare, and Princess never disappoint here.

In the next post in this Caribbean Princess cruise series it’s a new port for the pair of us and even a new country and continent for my wife as our ship docks at Casablanca in Morocco where we set off on an excursion to visit Rabat.

In September 2024 (well, starting on the last day of August really, but mostly September) we hopped aboard Ventura for the third time to spend ten days visiting Spain and Portugal. As usual when we sail on a Grand-class ship we went for a deck 10 cabin. The balconies on this deck are twice the size of normal balconies – which are already very well-sized – and unlike the mini-suite category of cabins on the deck one down these balconies are half-covered to give you both privacy or shelter when needed and all the space you could want all the time.

There were a couple of surprises inside and outside our room once we’d got aboard at Southampton. In the cabin we had pin badges for advancing a P&O loyalty level, complete with a voucher for a glass of fizz. The additional percentage discount on spending is arguably the best part of the loyalty increase but the drink was appreciated too simply because we didn’t buy a drinks package. For this cruise, given P&O’s limited drinks range and pricing the drinks package just wasn’t cost-effective, although as of 2026 there’s a new drinks package in effect which alters the calculation somewhat. The second surprise was seeing a Border Force patrol vessel and seeing it apparently doing some training to take aboard and release a motorised dinghy.

We were out on our balcony to see Regal Princess set off a little further along the port area in Southampton ahead of us. On it were my wife’s parents and their friends, celebrating my mother-in-law’s birthday, and they were mostly following the same itinerary and on the same ship we’d cruised on just a few months earlier (see: Regal Princess British Isles cruise). We’d arranged for cake and canapés to be delivered to their room and had already received photos from them. They were very happy.

Drinks were consumed this first day. And every day. There was the free fizz, of course, and since we had this in the Glass House we followed that with a glass of wine.

We then discovered two odd and disappointing things.

Firstly, after chatting to a waiter just because we were interested to see what the food menu in the Glass House looked like we were told that they weren’t serving food there for this cruise, nor had they done so for the cruise before, and he didn’t know why, or when or even if it would return. It’s my understanding that this was temporary, and perhaps staffing-related. I hope so because we’ve had good meals in the Glass House before and we’d like to do so again one day.

The second disappointing thing is shown below. That’s what we got when my wife asked for a Bloody Mary. The waiter was very apologetic but said that it’s not a drink on the menu so they can’t make it, but they can sell the vodka and the tomato juice and give you some Worcestershire sauce to make your own. And no, you can’t pay for these things and have the barman make you one. If you’ve seen the TV adverts of relaxed, upscale cruising with P&O then the reality of them handing you a glass with a shot in it and a couple of bottles and telling you to make your own drink is quite the shock.

As this first evening started to darken and Ventura made her way along the English Channel we kept our fluid intake up ahead of dinner and noticed the arrival of “motion discomfort” bags on the stairwells. Veteran cruisers know that this means we’re expecting rocky seas and as the following day we’d be traversing the Bay of Biscay we were quite excited by this prospect as we’re fans of proper motion on the ocean.

We decided to try the Beach House for the first night’s meal. There’s a small upcharge and it takes place in an area of the buffet set aside in the evening. You can see the menu and food below. It’s not really our sort of food but we do persevere and try it when we can just to see if our tastes have altered or the menu has. My notes of the meal are that my starter was actually very nice but nothing else was. We would generally find the food overall on this particular cruise to be poor in terms of quality and variety. When you’re on a cruise with a line and/or ship you’ve cruised with before then you can wonder whether this is a sign of things to come or cost-cutting, but it also might just be one of those nights for the kitchen staff.

The next day was spent crossing the Bay of Biscay and, no, the rough seas failed to materialise. I’m sure most people were happy about this but we’re not most people. A more overcast start to the day soon gave way to warm sunshine as we headed south.

We decided to pay for the elevated Afternoon Tea and while the setting was nice and the presentation was lovely, the food itself was just okay. I know it sounds like I’m just moaning here but we’ve cruised enough to know when everything is just not as good as it could be or has been. Hey, we were on a cruise and we were still having a lovely time.

This first full sea day gave way to the first formal night on Ventura. We’d packed our posh clobber because we don’t mind doing one formal night on a cruise (just one) but we ended up not really being in the mood for it all when the time came around, hit the (very busy) buffet for dinner, weren’t massively impressed by that food either (surprise!), took a bottle of wine back to our room instead to watch a movie, then headed out onto the balcony for some stargazing. On the way out from the buffet and across the top deck of the ship I snapped a quite attractive view of the swimming pool lit up beautifully.

In the next post in this Iberian cruise series we’ll reach the first port of call in northern Spain, Santander, and we’ll head off on an excursion that starts with a visit to the town of Comillas.

On the evening that we departed Scotland our meal in the main dining room was as below:

We caught a little bit of some entertainment, although I can’t remember what it was exactly, only that it was amusing. Afterwards, though, we headed to Crooners and decided to splash some of our onboard spend on the special, double-size cocktails that include the glasses to take home as souvenirs. We still use them occasionally, but due to their size it’s only ever with something that has a lot of mixer in it. We like to drink, but you’ve got to be sensible sometimes.

We’d not had many sea days on this cruise and this was the last of them, heading south on the North Sea down the east coast of England. The weather had mostly been good on this cruise and that remained the case on this day.

The Red Hat Society were out in force and gathered in the piazza of Regal Princess for some last group photos because it was the final formal night on the ship too. They added a lovely burst of colour to the cruise.

We’re fond of trivia when we cruise but the port-heavy itinerary meant we’d not taken part as much as we’d normally have liked. However, the sea day presented several chances to give our brains some exercise and we pretty much cleaned up.

Because it was formal night we decided to hit the Elite Lounge for some pre-dinner nibbles and drinks in relative quiet, entertained by the house band.

Passing back through the piazza area on the way to dinner a little later we had to run the gauntlet of photographers but having my own camera to hand meant I was able to turn the tables on one of them. I do this quite often on ships.

So, finally, here’s the menu and photos of the food we ate for this gala night on Regal Princess.

In the next post in this series we hit the final port of the cruise and the only one that’s outside the British Isles: Le Havre, France.

This was from our very first cruise all the way back in 2008 aboard Diamond Princess in Asia for our honeymoon and it was taken on one of the last sea days of the fabulous experience. I didn’t really take very many photos of the ship at all which can be explained by a lack of mobile phones with good cameras on them and me only having a 50mm prime lens on my DSLR at the time with the photography hobby being very new. I did pick up a Tokina wide angle lens in Hong Kong during the cruise and this shot was using it and getting more of the ship in view. But because it was late in the cruise all the excitement and strangeness of being on a ship for the first time had eased away into wonderful relaxation aboard and things like photos and videos of ships just wasn’t a thing back then. Oh for a time machine.

The photo now is a lot brighter and sharper, with a lot of the noise colour noise removed and some brightening of the shadows to just pick out what’s going on under the covers. A pale wash to both lighten the yellows and make the water in the pool pop has been added and the curves have been stretched to bring out more contrast.

We therefore never considered a cruise to British ports until very recently but in May 2024 we headed down to Southampton and embarked Regal Princess for the start of twelve nights visiting Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and France. For me there would be no new countries to tick off the list but my wife had never been to Ireland before and she was keen to do so.

Embarkation was perfectly simple, the muster process was a breeze, it was nice to see new Princess Cruises tote bags in our room (we have quite the collection now), and the most important task of the first hour aboard was to head up onto the top deck and grab ourselves a 24K Margarita and a Dirty Banana. The staff are usually so busy delivering luggage or cleaning or dealing with confused passengers on embarkation day that it’s far easier to head to a bar rather than take advantage of the excellent room service through the Ocean Medallion system.

As Regal Princess left Southampton in the afternoon we saw a few very familiar sights. Hardly surprising given how often we do this.

First up was Steamship Shieldhall. We had a lovely time sailing on this 1950s vessel past all the cruise ships in port in Southampton back in 2022.

Further down the Solent and we got to admire the hovercraft on its Ryde to Portsmouth flight. That’s right, they’re called flights when you’re on a hovercraft. The ultimately useless, nineteenth century forts are also always a nice sight on these cruises out of our home county.

We don’t tend to do much on cruise ships – for us they’re for reading, listening to music, drinking, enjoying the sea views, and taking us in the most relaxing way possible to see sights around the world – so to conclude this first day aboard Regal Princess here are some photos of the food we had in the main dining room in case that’s of any interest, and some pictures of the Double Down Bar next to the casino, and the place where we’d end up most nights for the disco and cocktails. It was quiet there this first night but it did have its popular nights and with it being on the walking route from the theatre to the piazza – a stupid design decision – it did get briefly crowded whenever the shows finished and you’d have no chance getting a drink for about fifteen minutes.

The first full day on Regal Princess was a sea day, and one of only three on this cruise, and since it was so bright and sunny it was the perfect day to take a few photos around the upper decks after lunch. We had cruised on Regal Princess in 2021 just as we were coming out of the heaviest of the pandemic restrictions so photos of the ship had been taken before but that’s no reason not to take more.

Regal Princess is a Royal-class ship. Regal and her sister ship Royal Princess were the first two in this class and on this particular design their adults only pool has more exposed sides to the sea offering lovely views, little cabanas by the pool, and a far better pool design and depth than that of the later variants of the class. We ended up swimming in the pool and chatting with other cruisers for ages on this first sea day and my wife ended up sunburnt.

A perk of being Elite level with Princess Cruises, other than telling other people at every opportunity that you’re Elite level with Princess Cruises, is that you get a free wine-tasting on a sea day on cruises and that happened on this first day. These wine-tastings are pretty terrible but they’re entertainingly terrible if you’re sharing a table with other people who share your sense of humour and similar thoughts regarding what makes a wine nice and what causes you to screw up your face in horror, and that’s what happened.

We had noticed a few women aboard Regal Princess on embarkation day wearing red hats with other clothing in purple but hadn’t quite realised what the reasoning for this was nor quite how many of them were aboard until the afternoon on this sea day when, with it being formal night, a whole swathe of them (well over a hundred) suddenly swarmed the piazza where we were sitting down with a glass of decent wine now. They were all in 1920s themed clothing and had turned up for lots of group photos, and they looked fabulous. This was the Red Hat Society, as it turned out (not that unsurprisingly), and they’d prove to be entertaining both on the ship and off during this cruise.

Before the cruise we’d pre-booked some speciality dining and it was Sabatini’s, the Italian trattoria on the ship, that we dined at on this evening. We will almost always dine here at least once on any Princess cruise because the food is always fantastic and you never feel like you’re not getting value for money from the experience.

In the next post in this Regal Princess British Isles cruise travelogue series we’ll arrive at the first of two ports in Ireland, Cobh.

“We’re going on an Aurora cruise!”

“Very nice! Remember to wrap up warm!”

“What? We’ll be in the Bahamas.”

“You’ll never see the Northern Lights at that latitude.”

We weren’t going to the Bahamas, but in March 2024 we were going to the quite possibly equally exotic destination of Rotterdam. This was our first (and so far, only) time on P&O’s old lady of the fleet (not an official designation), and a short cruise of effectively a long weekend. The time of year, rather common cruise destination, and short duration made this cruise quite affordable even with a balcony cabin on a small ship like Aurora. Typically, the smaller the ship then the more you’ll probably pay, and while we are keen to get value for money on cruises we also have no love for the newer, bigger ships, particularly in P&O’s fleet, and will often look at the older, less-promoted ships that cruise lines operate even if they cost a little more.

We drove down to Southampton, parked in the West Quay multi-storey car park, then walked our carry-on luggage down to the terminal. We’d decided we weren’t going to partake in the single, planned formal evening on the ship so didn’t need to be weighed down by my tuxedo or my wife’s heavier, more glamorous dress, and the short duration meant we didn’t qualify for free port parking despite paying for the higher fare in order to pick our cabin so we crammed what we needed into the smaller cases and got a little bit of exercise instead.

We had a late embarkation slot and arrived after that because we were in no hurry to board. We had no pressing need to get on with all the crowds and start drinking as early as possible, and much of that was because we no longer get the drinks package when sailing with P&O. I’m sure they suit some people’s drinking style but they certainly don’t work out to be good value for money for us, and you know how much I like value for money because I’ve already mentioned it. Plus, with no free port parking we did have additional on-board spend instead so we knew we could offset some drinking with that, although we had some food plans to take into account first.

The terminal was pretty empty when we arrived so five minutes after arriving we were on the ship, had visited our muster station, and were in our room with the safety video on while we unpacked and checked out the view from our cabin’s outside space. This was cabin C127 and there will be photos from inside it later in this series but for this first day all I did was snap a shot from the enclosed balcony.

A quick wander around the chilly top deck brought us to the Crow’s Nest at the front of Aurora and we grabbed a drink each before returning to our room for the sail away down the Solent.

Prior to the cruise we’d booked speciality dining for the first night aboard, and on Aurora that pretty much just means Sindhu, P&O’s Indian-inspired restaurant. This was located just off the top floor of the atrium with its very stylish design incorporating some lovely Art Deco lines and artwork.

We are not fans of Indian food. We’re not fans of what some people call “spice” but what we call “pain that overwhelms your senses”. Flavours are what we want from food. Flavours and textures. And maybe not all the same shade of brown. And definitely not something that tries to strip off a layer of skin inside your mouth and on the surface of your lips as you’re eating it. For these reasons we’re not fans of Indian food. But despite this, we do keep trying it out on ships. We still haven’t done it ashore as a couple, although I’ve been to a couple of restaurants on dry land for work-related reasons and not been massively impressed.

Below is the menu from our visit to Sindhu on Aurora, and after that all the dishes that ended up filling every space on the table. There were some okay bits, and even a few bits that strayed over the border into fairly nice territory, and certainly when comparing it to an experience on Iona years before it was a great improvement. It’s still not really our thing, though.

If you do like Indian food then absolutely consider booking your visit to Sindhu ahead of your cruise because it can be popular and you can save some money. We’d pre-booked for a discount, then received another discount on board because we’d booked for embarkation day.

The next day was spent at sea, slowly heading along the English Channel then up the coast of mainland Europe towards the Netherlands. A chance then for a bit of an explore around Aurora. After breakfast we stepped out onto the aft of the ship and it’s a very attractive aft indeed with those tiered, wraparound decks.

Staying outside, Aurora’s promenade deck was nice and wide.

In from the promenade deck we descended the attractive, gently spiralling staircase around the Glass House area down to the pub below and took part in morning trivia (which we won) before continuing on, through the art gallery (no Park West collaboration on P&O ships), then up the much-photographed atrium area to Anderson’s.

Anderson’s was a lovely, upmarket, homely-feeling lounge, reminiscent of the sort of thing you find in stately homes now converted to fancy hotels (not that we stay in them any longer as they are far too pricey for us these days). The big problem with Anderson’s was that it wasn’t big but it was popular across this cruise – understandably so – which made finding a seat in there in the evenings troublesome.

We don’t often visit theatres on cruise ships when there’s anything actually going on in them but we’ll often pop in for a look when they’re empty. What we did like about the Curzon Theatre on Aurora were the vintage posters on display in the entrance to the venue.

Finally on this brief wander around the ship on this sea day, back up to the Crow’s Nest to see if there was anywhere to sit down and read our books and to also take a quick look at the library just next to it. A decent-sized library as it turned out.

This sea day was also formal night on P&O Aurora and it’s something that P&O are a bit fussy about, limiting some of the venues you’re allowed to hit if you’re not prepared to dress up, including the main dining room. I’ve already said that we’d decided not to lug our formal clothes with us on such a short cruise so we had the choice of the buffet or the Glass House for our evening meal and picked the latter.

The Glass House isn’t a speciality venue but it is an additional charge restaurant that you can’t book ahead of time. No matter, we thought, and wandered over to get a table. The maître d’ made every effort to dissuade us, first telling us it would be over an hour (“No worries. We’ll have a drink over there and wait!”) then telling us he couldn’t add us to any queue because the software wouldn’t allow him until it had cleared down and we’d simply have to come back later and try again. I don’t think so. We eventually persuaded him to put our names and cabin numbers down on paper, along with those of other people in a similar situation to us, and told him that as spaces turned up he could then add us to the queue in the order in which we’d arrived rather than just continually coming up to check. I mean, quite why I needed to explain to him how to manage a queue is beyond me.

We were eventually called forward – and in well under the hour – and proceeded to enjoy the meal immensely, sharing a selection of small dishes before a larger course each. We had enough room left to go for desserts too.

Carmen’s was where we ended the night, catching some Motown music by a singer called Nick James before the general disco.

In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll wake up in the Netherlands and head off to take a look at Rotterdam Zoo.

So we had another sea day effectively, and there had already been a fair few of them which doesn’t make for the most thrilling of updates here. What was new and exciting to share? Not a lot. There was an event right at the end of the night that raised eyebrows (and tempers) so scroll to the bottom for details of that, but otherwise prepare yourself mostly for some photos of the top deck of Ruby Princess.

The morning view from our balcony reminded us of departing Singapore on our very first cruise and being mesmerised by the huge numbers of oil and cargo containers just lined up at anchor. Here at the entrance to the Panama Canal (which we’d be heading through the following day) was a similar sight.

The day’s weather was one of intense periods of rain followed by searing heat that almost immediately dried everything out but surrounded the ship in an invisible cloud of dense humidity, none of which were things my wife wanted to be out in so I left her in the air conditioned interior of the cruise ship after breakfast while I took a quick look around the top deck.

The miniature golf course on Ruby Princess was a huge upgrade to the equivalent spaces we’d seen on other Princess Cruises ships over the years, with those areas more-or-less accurately described as green surfaces with holes in them. Here there were actual obstacles and proper layouts, and if it hadn’t been quite so hot and my wife had been there while I was shooting the photos then I might even have persuaded her to join me for a round.

The sports court area looked like it had also benefitted from the dry dock changes on Ruby Princess that had immediately preceded our cruise.

The afternoon was spent back in our cabin when we needed to cool down or out on the balcony when we wanted to brave the heat and humidity. We make it a point to always try to book these deck 10 balcony cabins on Grand-class ships because of these double-depth, half-covered balconies. The deck below has equally large balconies but the rooms are larger so the balconies there are fully exposed to the elements and have no privacy (not that that’s really an issue), whereas our deck’s balconies offer protection from the sun, rain, and anyone looking down from above (again, not an issue, and I pity anyone looking down on us) while also giving better night views of stars. If the people around turn their balcony lights off, that is. Many don’t. A big annoyance.

In the early evening Ruby Princess started to move away from her anchorage spot near Panama City to a more distant location and the reason for this was so limit the city’s exposure to any noise from the deck party that had suddenly been arranged to make up for the change in cruise plans.

The Ruby Princess deck party featured the resident party band belting out tracks people could sing along and dance to, the staff dancing and encouraging others to join them, everyone having a generally good time, and us loving the ambience but keeping out of the way of most it. It was wonderful to have it all take place in cooler evening temperatures and the almost exclusive use of blue and purple lighting gave the occasion a pleasing look to accompany the happy atmosphere.

For the rest of the evening on the ship it was mostly business as usual with some pre-dinner cocktails, then food in the main dining room – it was Italian Night on Ruby Princess and the dinner menu is below for you to look at – then a little lounge-hopping until hitting the nightclub.

In Skywalkers it was nice to see some of the ship’s officers make an appearance to dance for a few tracks. They were, of course, treated to the DJ’s standard, small selection of music, but as they’d not heard them every night of the cruise they seemed to enjoy themselves before leaving.

Now to that incident I mentioned at the start of this write-up.

A couple of people we’d not seen before were standing by the dance floor when we decided we’d had enough and were going to head off to bed. Just as we were passing them there was a lull in the music volume enough for me to hear the man tell his wife “I wish he’d play some Led Zeppelin.”

“Good luck with that,” I felt compelled to say to him. “He won’t play anything anyone asks for. We’ve tried.”

“Oh, we’ll see about that!” he said, and headed off to the booth. We stood there and spoke to his wife for a couple of minutes on the off-chance that he’d have some success where we hadn’t, then glanced back. What we could see was the man who’d gone to talk to the DJ leaning across and jabbing his finger towards the dick with the discs. The next second the music stopped, the lights came up, and the DJ shouted into his microphone “No, no that’s it! No more! Security!”

The man returned to us. “That guy is a fucking prick!” he said, gestured to his wife, then left.

I headed to the DJ with the intention of smoothing things over. “Hey, I don’t know what was said and I hope you’re okay but I’m sure whatever was said was just in the heat of the moment,” I said. “I won’t take that from anyone,” the DJ said to me. “Someone else threatened me and yesterday someone punched me and they’re being kicked off the ship so I won’t be told what to do!”

I told the DJ I was sorry to hear that, explained what had happened to some bar staff who’d come across by now to see what was happening, then nodded to my wife and we left.

People who say that violence is never the answer haven’t paid attention to history where it’s been shown many times that it’s precisely the answer and is often very effective. No, I don’t advocate passengers hitting staff members, of course, but it was not difficult to guess what had probably led to someone else doing it given the experiences we’d had with this godawful DJ to this point too.

Who says sea days can’t be exciting!?

In the next post in this cruise travelogue series Ruby Princess, with us aboard, will make a full transit of the Panama Canal.