Princesa Marissa cruise - General Comments

There were several reasons we choose to do the 2 night cruise to Egypt instead of the flight which does the whole trip inside a day. One is that we didn't want to do the whole thing in such a rush, and secondly we wanted to try out cruising as a possible future choice. Although I realise these smaller vessels can't compare with the facilities available on the big cruise liners, it was a reasonable idea to try just two nights with limited facilities as a comparison to a couple of weeks on a bigger ship. On the plus side we found the staff to be helpfull and pleasant throughout, even if at times they gave the wrong infomation or just didn't understand the question well enough. Both the cabin and the food were also much better than I expected and the bar prices although a little higher than landside were not a complete rip off they could have been given the, by its nature, monopoly they have on your drink purchasing. There is also something more satisfying about travelling by sea than you can ever get from a plane journey. Air travel is to be endured, but with cruising, the 'getting there' is a pleasurable part of the experience. Just leaning on the side rail an looking out at the open sea as your ship plies it's way, has a contentment all of it's own.
However, for me all the pleasures of the cruise were somewhat over shadowed by the endless amount of queueing involved. Each time you went to the bar it seemed like it was for one of those 'I need one after that ordeal' drinks.
I guess this overall ngative feeling I ended up with wasn't helped by our original boat choice being cancelled, and the replacement being late, but I'm afraid, it seems as though cruising has been knocked of the top ten holidays Imust try.