Mini Cruises…A good taster or abit of a put off?

So this week I have returned back to work after a weekend break away on the Britannia, just myself and my husband for our anniversary which was lovely and peaceful as we’d left our two terrors at home with Grandma. Whilst we had a great time, we couldn’t help but make comparisons to our previous cruise with P&O, a 14 night Caribbean sailing onboard Oceana a few years ago and there were some (using the D word lightly) disappointing differences to our past experience.

Disappointment number 1 for us came from the lack of choice in the buffet restaurant. The evening meal for example was 1 soup for starter or salad, 4 choices of curry with rice and poppadoms or lamb chops with veg and potatoes (and for lunch earlier that day it was fish and chips or curry!!) and 5 choices of pudding – only 1 hot.  Now, like I said..we’ve cruised before and know that the choice of food on offer is fantastic and there is always something for everyone, but sadly this was not the case in the Horizon Restaurant for this sailing.

There were several groups of hen and stag parties who’s main objective was to get as drunk as possible, make a lot of noise and behave like idiots in general really. 14 degrees outside and they were in their shorts and bikinis dancing around the pool like we were in Magalluf. Im only 29, Im not over the hill and dont begrudge anyone  a good time but I really dont think that stag and hen parties portray a positive image of cruising, judging from the look on others faces Im not alone with my opinion.

Service. Whilst the service in the most part was pretty good there were times we would wait longer than usual for drinks. For example one evening we ordered our drinks and had actually finished our meal by the time they arrived. Was this because the ship is much larger than what I am used to? Or is it because, as I have had mentioned to me previously that they allow a larger than usual number of staff a few days off whilst ships are staying local for a mini cruise – something they wouldnt normally get on the 7/14 night sailings.

Ok, so its only 2 nights to Belgium so we weren’t expecting them to pull out all the stops, but having said that since we have cruised before and know just what can be expected, it got me thinking just how clients who were new to cruising felt about the experience as I imagine they were testing the water so to speak. Since they of course have nothing to compare it to, would it convince them to do a full sailing, or put them off completely?

I dont want to put anyone off and I dont want it to look like Im moaning, heck I love cruising. We had a great time and I think for a few nights away we certainly got fantastic value for money. The ship is beautiful (despite a few flaws, but we’ll save those for another time) with plenty of wide open spaces to relax in and entertainment to suit any taste so the ship itself I can highly recommend. My point is that I dont feel that the mini cruise experience really does give a good insight into what cruising is like in general.

What do you guys think? Id love to hear your thoughts on this and of course any mini cruise experiences you’d like to share.