This was our first sailing on the Victoria and it really is a most impressive ship . We had booked Balcony Club as we prefer the availability of dining when we choose . Shortly before leaving we upgraded to Princess Grill and considered the larger suite and good sized balcony well worth the extra cost . We were not , however, impressed by the Princess Grill dining room . It is large and caters for well over 100 people and is thus not an intimate venue . It compares unfavourably with the Club Balcony on the Elizabeth which ( on our earlier cruise) only catered for about 50 people . The waiters ( dedicated to a group of tables ) were polite and charming and very willing to please but on occasion did not notice when the plate was not as ordered. I could not fault the menus – 5 courses for Dinner and Lunch . We don’t have hearty appetites and never ate lunch there preferring to use the casual Lido restaurant where there was always a large range of different types of food where we could “graze” from the self service buffet .

Even though we had the onboard spending allowance ( much of which was taken up by the automatic daily charging of staff gratuity charges of $27 ) I found the wine pricing exorbitant. In the restaurant a bottle of Cloudy Bay, Sauvignon Blanc had a basic price of $40 which was not too bad seeing that , tax free , in the UK it would be about £20 (c $26 ) . However a corkage charge of $25 was then added and ,on top of that , there was a service charge of 15% bringing the total up to $ 74.75 . I refrained from any further purchases there . Quite a number of people to whom we spoke also complained about drink pricing policy on the ship .

The air conditioning throughout the ship was set low This was affecting the ladies, especially as they had to dress accordingly . A number complained that they had been unable to wear dresses which had been brought especially for gala nights . Perhaps this was a factor in the ship seeming deserted after 10pm . People were more comfortable in their suites. Read more