My First Cruise With This Line Was a Disaster… So I Tried Again

I’ve just disembarked a cruise that I honestly never thought I’d be taking again.

The first time I tried this trip, it went very wrong. We were just four hours into the cruise when the Captain announced that the entire cruise had been cancelled.

We all would have to get off and go home.

I found out later that it was because they had found a serious problem with one of the lifeboats, which isn’t what you want to hear on a cruise.

We got a full refund, of course, but that wasn’t the only problem we had on the ship, so I wasn’t in a rush to go back.

Broken toilets and air conditioning that didn’t work were among my main memories from the few hours I spent on onboard Ambassador’s Ambience.

That first trip was a couple of years ago, though, and I’ve been curious ever since.

When I saw that the exact same ship was doing an almost identical cruise at the same time of year, I thought this would be a good chance to give it a go.

I didn’t have high expectations, but I was hopeful that the ship would actually leave port this time. 

Ambassador aren’t a cruise line that I’d usually pick to cruise with for a few reasons.

They have fixed dining times and table sharing, which isn’t something I like, but I couldn’t resist seeing if coming back was a massive mistake, or if everything had changed. 

I hoped that it would be good, because Ambassador have some great deals and up until now I’ve not been considering them. 

Reading the reviews pre-cruise, I did start to get a little bit nervous…

There were some good ones that said that the cruise exceeded expectations, that it was fantastic and amazing, 5 stars, but there were people describing the cruise as an utterly horrendous experience, another saying it was appalling, and one just said “BEWARE” in capital letters.

One review went so far as to say this was a good cruise if your standards were low, so I went into this with a very open mind and a low bar. I’d always prefer to be pleasantly surprised.

I boarded the ship at London Tilbury cruise port, and embarkation was very easy.

We dropped off our bags directly from the car, which is nice as it was raining, and then we queued for a little while to get into the terminal.

The terminal felt so familiar from the first time that I boarded, but things were already going better than last time.

Embarkation was much faster, and I was given my cruise card right away. I hoped that this would be a sign of what was to come. 

Walking into the ship and into this big atrium area was so exciting. It was beautifully decorated for Christmas with the most amazing Christmas tree in the middle.

On the stairs, it said that Ambassador gave the ‘warmest welcome at sea’ and I was looking forward to seeing if that was right.

I joked that that might be because the air conditioning still didn’t work, but I hoped not… 

Being on onboard for lunchtime was such a great treat. Lunch in the buffet on embarkation day can get really busy, but as the main dining room wasn’t open for lunch, I was hungry, so I didn’t have a lot of other options.

I did see that there was an outside grill area, so I decided to go there instead to just grab a quick slice of pizza.

This pizza might not look that amazing, but it was actually pretty nice, and they even had ketchup for it. It certainly wasn’t sunbathe by the pool weather, and this wasn’t the best food I’ve ever had, but I was full and happy, and we came back here a couple of times during the cruise.

They serve burgers and hot dogs here too, and having this option was great because this was open in the day, even when the buffet wasn’t. 

It was here that I found out that this was English mustard, not American. English mustard is so much stronger, and I definitely wouldn’t have put this much on if I knew.

Still, Ambassador are a very British cruise line, so that mistake was on me. This is one thing where I do prefer the American version, like the American version of “The Office”. 

The ship might be British now, but she started her life with Princess Cruises as Regal Princess and then transferred to P&O Australia to become Pacific Dawn.

This ship has been around the world thousands of times in her many lives, and I hoped that the age of the ship wouldn’t cause us any issues.

I do remember it feeling run down and grubby the first time I was onboard but that was years ago I hoped that those problems would have been fixed. 

Wandering around the ship and the corridors, it felt like a real mish-mash of older style carpets and new.

I’m pretty sure that this is something that Ambassadors are changing piece by piece because there seemed to be a lot more of the new style than the first time I was onboard.

The ship has had a lot of refits in her time, and she is due for another one next month. 

That said, though, I don’t mind the design of the corridors at all, even the older bits.

The odd bit of worn carpet certainly isn’t enough to ruin my cruise. It felt light and bright and comfortable, the crew welcomed us on board, and overall, I was feeling optimistic. 

There were a few parts around which definitely show the ship’s age, but overall, I was impressed with the first impressions of the ship.

Wandering through, we found ourselves at the pub called the Purple Turtle, which is on deck 8.

This area actually used to be a casino when the ship was owned by P&O Australia, and that’s why you’ll see this bit in the middle is lower down. That’s where they used to have the casino tables.

The casino is now a tiny little room near the atrium, and I only ever saw a couple of people in there, even on sea days, it was very quiet.

Gambling certainly isn’t a big thing on the British cruise ships, not like the Australian or American ones anyway. 

I loved this pub venue, there were so many different types of seats, just like you might find in a pub on land, there were high tables, long bench seats, the decor really felt like a pub too.

It was a popular venue onboard, and this is where they’d host Trivia most days. I did give it a go, and I’m not sure who named it ‘easy trivia’ because it definitely wasn’t, but it was still good fun.

They’d have live music in here sometimes, too. 

When you buy anything on a cruise they just scan your cruise card and it gets automatically added to your account, you sign for it on the little phone tablet thing that the crew have.

You can see your running total of how much you’ve spent inside the cruise line’s app. I didn’t buy a drinks package on this cruise so I was just paying as I went for my drinks. 

Ambassador have three drinks packages that were very clearly explained. I love how these dots on the menu made it really clear which drinks which were included in which package.

If it’s a half, that means you get a half-price discount on those drinks, which is much easier than having to remember what’s included or what the price limit is. 

There are no gratuities or anything extra added to these prices either; it was just £3 for a ($4) soda, which isn’t bad at all.

Every time we’d get a can of Coke, and they’d ask if I wanted ice. I’d always say no. 

Next, we had to go to an old-style muster drill, which meant that everybody on the ship gathered at the same time in a few lounges, and they told us what would happen in an emergency.

It usually just means standing there awkwardly for 20 or so minutes because it’s busy and there’s never enough seats.

Although I much prefer the new style where you get the same information on your cabin TV or on the app, it wasn’t too bad, it didn’t last too long. 

I hope that Ambassador will update it one day as it definitely is something that puts me off a cruise line.

There are only a couple that still do the old style. Another thing that often puts me off is overly traditional dining, particularly if I’m randomly assigned strangers to eat with.

That is such a strange idea to me. It isn’t something that happens outside of cruising, and I do think it puts off a lot of potential cruisers.

The vast majority of cruise lines don’t have table sharing, Ambassador are just one of a few who still do. 

I had requested a table for 2 when booking, and I even upgraded my cabin to a suite in the hopes that that might help.

I don’t know if it did but I did manage to get a table for 2 which was fantastic, they are like gold dust there are so few. 

It was at the late dining time of 8:15 pm, which wasn’t ideal, but at least I could film my food and answer the odd work email without being rude to my tablemates.

I’m usually a 5 or 6 pm dinner kind of girl, but I thought to myself, if the biggest problem on this cruise is that I’ll have to eat a first dinner while waiting for my second dinner, that isn’t too bad. 

I have heard from a few people that they like late dining so that they can stay by the pool longer, but that definitely wasn’t something we were doing on this cruise.

The cruise was a Christmas Markets northern Europe cruise, and I didn’t see one person brave any pool the entire time.

It was around 5 °C (40°F) for most of the cruise. 

It did make me laugh how Ambassador have this little splash area and the sign still says “do not dive”. The water here is maybe half a foot deep.

I really hope that everybody knows not to dive into there. As a diving pool, it’s about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

That is your Britishism of the week, ‘As useful as a chocolate teapot’ just means that something isn’t useful at all. This is a common one and really easy to use when talking about something that’s pointless. 

At some point, I do imagine that this was a deep pool, though, just like the one on the other side.

I loved the purple colours around and wandering around the top decks, it certainly felt as though the ship had a lot of outside space.

I liked how they would have games on the screen here, too, so I could play their version of Countdown while I was walking around the top deck. 

One of my favourite features of older cruise ships like this is that they usually have a big bar or lounge up high where you can look out at the view. I was so happy to see on the deck plan that there was a bar called The Observatory.

We headed into the ship and went up the stairs to find it. 

One of my favourite things about cruising on ships of this size is that nothing is ever too far away.

On the biggest cruise ships, they sometimes have 20 or more decks, but Ambience only has 11.

I say only, she’s still 56 metres tall, which is about the same height as 100 capybaras standing on each other in a pile. 

At first I thought this was a mirror on the stairs, but it’s more like a double staircase. I’ve never seen that on a cruise ship before, and it was just one of the little quirks of being on a ship of this age.

She’s 35, which might not sound that old, but she’s the second-oldest cruise ship I’ve ever been on. Cruise ships are usually scrapped after 25 or 30 years.

Find out more about what happens to retired cruise ships here:

Where Cruise Ships Go To Die: What Really Happens When a Cruise Ship Is Retired

This ship was meant to be scrapped, but she was saved.

The oldest ship I’ve ever been on, Celestyal Olympia, was recently scrapped. She was originally “Song of America” sailing for Royal Caribbean.

When I walked into the observatory, I was instantly transported back in time to that first cruise.

We came in here for drinks on that fateful evening and being in here again reminded me that we actually hadn’t set sail yet.

I had no reason to believe that we wouldn’t, I’ve never heard of a cruise being cancelled on embarkation day before or since mine was, but still until we actually set sail I was nervous. 

If the cruise was cancelled again I don’t think I’d try for a third time, I’d just consider myself a bad luck charm at that point and decide it wasn’t meant to be. 

Have a look at that first cancelled cruise here:

The lounge is absolutely huge, it has windows all the way around the outside and loads of seating.

I’d often sit in one of these big seats by the window and I’d watch the scenery outside. That is exactly what I did when we finally set sail and it was so exciting.

For three years I’d wondered what it would be like, in reality it wasn’t really like much at all, the ship felt smooth I couldn’t tell that we were moving.

That wouldn’t last, but bad weather is always a risk when cruising at this time of year. 

In this lounge, they’d often have live music or they would do karaoke. There was a big dance floor in the middle and I love the decor.

It was a popular venue and really great fun, if I were designing my own cruise ship, I’d definitely include this lounge. 

I didn’t notice it being any more worn than any other cruise ship I’d been on, but it was pretty dark by this point, so I was looking forward to investigating more tomorrow, since we would be at sea.

I was just about ready to go to bed when I realised that it was dinner time.

I am exaggerating, of course, but I would normally have to have a first dinner in the buffet at around 4 or 5 if I were to make it to late dining. The 8:15 time meant mains were served around 9 pm.

I don’t know how anybody can eat that late. I’m so hungry by 5 pm; I do have my dinner at midday, though, normally. 

It was so strange to see everybody waiting outside the dining room, and us all going in together like a herd.

The dining room itself was absolutely massive, and it is beautifully designed; it really felt grand and elegant.

I wasn’t expecting incredible food on the cruise, but we never had anything we had any complaints about.

I loved how the allergen markings on the menu were really clearly marked and the bread was great. We had two meals in here, which we really enjoyed; it usually took around an hour and a half. 

Our servers were friendly and helpful, and if we had early dining, I definitely would have gone more often. I was quite happy with myself for making it to late dining twice though.

After a quick drink in a very snazzy, bar we found call the botanical lounge I decided to call it a night, I was excited to explore more of the ship on the first sea day because I really didn’t feel like I’d seen a lot yet. 

The first thing that I found on my ship exploration day was this room that had LEGO sculptures that were just staring at nothing. I have no idea why this was here, but I loved it.

It made me laugh and I took a photo with it. I also found a whale skull replica, so I really didn’t know what I would find around every corner. It was like a treasure hunt, but I didn’t know what the treasure was. 

The whale is because Ambassador are partnered with the charity called ORCA, who protect whales, dolphins and porpoises in the UK and European waters, so that’s great. 

On the other side was a craft room, and Ambassador have a good schedule of crafts on most of their cruises.

On the walls were art pieces of the ship, which was so cute, and one of them was a cross-stitch of Ambience. I can’t even imagine how long that took, but I think it’s lovely that it’s displayed on the walls. 

On the daily schedule for the sea day were very traditional cruise ship activities like trivia and dance lessons which happened in the observatory.

The ship was rocking around quite a bit on this first day, I even had to catch a lady who nearly fell over in the buffet when I went there for my lunch.

I took some of the seasickness medicine Bonine as a precaution and felt totally fine, just sleepy.

Have a look at the rough seas in my full Ambassador video, here:

I even enjoyed filming the horizon going up and down, which isn’t something I normally like. I know these clips make it seem quite rocky, but that’s just because it’s the horizon and it’s far away, the ship isn’t really lurching that much.

It’s more of a strange feeling where you might just be walking a bit wonky down the corridor, or you might get a power-up when you go up the stairs.

When the seas get rough and try to eat little and often so we headed to the buffet. 

The buffet is food court style, where all of the food is served to you, and I love all of the different seating options in here.

When Ambassador bought this ship from P&O Australia they bought it including all of the photos of the walls, this design really came with the ship but its nice and doesn’t need replacing.

I love how the forks and knives are on the tables like this, I know that’s a small thing, but on a lot of cruise lines, they are all wrapped up as a set with a napkin and even if you just want a knife you have to take the full set, which means it needs to be washed everytime.

This way is much better, I’m all for reducing waste wherever possible. 

On each section was a menu and then you would ask for what you wanted. There was always a roast dinner section, a fish and chips section and a few others. Along with desserts, and a place where you could get water, tea, and coffee.

We would come here for dinner when we didn’t want to wait for the main dining room and it was usually pretty quiet in the evenings.

Lunch was definitely the busiest time, but my cabin was just one deck down from here, so I’d usually take my food down there to eat it. 

They did serve afternoon tea in here too, which was nice, with scones, cakes and sandwiches.

The buffet closes completely at 9 pm, and there isn’t any more food anywhere on the ship apart from in the bars.

That didn’t bother me because of my late dining, and I did have an emergency packet of custard creams in my cabin in case I got hungry. 

Overall, I was impressed with the food. I wasn’t expecting a lot, but it’s definitely comparable to the other mainstream cruise lines.

I was happy to realise that, because I didn’t want to keep ignoring those Ambassador deals just because I didn’t know if I’d like them.

I still don’t think the Ambassador suits me particularly, but I’m so glad they are in the market. 

This first sea day was the first time that I went to the theatre to watch a show.

We’d end up coming here most nights, and there was a show by the showcast every day.

That part does suit me really well. I much prefer singing, dancing shows to comedians or magicians and there were some really incredible voices in the showcast, sadly I wasn’t allowed to film anything but they did have shoes with wheels in them at one point.

I do own some heelies but can’t move more than 20cm without falling over, let alone doing it on a ship at sea. Very impressive. 

The musical-themed show was my favourite, of course, but I always enjoyed coming here. I loved how the stage came out into the theatre and how there was bar service too.

There are a few seats that have pillars in the way, but that isn’t abnormal for a ship built so long ago, and because the stage came out and the singers moved around, we’d always see something, even if not everything.

The earlier show was always much busier than the late, I’m assuming, because most people had the early dining time of 5:45 pm, or they went to the buffet early, as I did.

The service was always good, we never had to wait long for a drink anywhere, and the waiters were friendly.

As was everybody who worked on the ship. I definitely felt as though it was a warm welcome. I’m not sure about the warmest at sea, but I felt warm.

The ship was very warm inside, generally, and I do think they are still having some air conditioning problems. I upgraded to a cabin with a balcony, mostly for that reason, and just being able to open the door to cool down the room was amazing.

We never saw any broken toilets or anything like that, though, so that was much better than my first time onboard.

The crew came onto the stage on one night of the cruise, and I love to see this – it makes you realise how many people work behind the scenes.

The ship has 660 crew members, which is impossible to imagine. There are maybe 50 or 60 people here, so 10 times this number!

The crew must have been extra busy on our cruise because when I walked down the stairs one day, I came across this incredible huge gingerbread display.

I love gingerbread, so I would have loved to have taken a piece of this, but it is just for display.

Impressive though, the cruise definitely got me into the Christmas spirit, and no expense had been spared. There were multiple Christmas trees and snowmen all over the ship. They’d play Christmas music as well. 

Our first port of call was Hamburg, and we docked in a port I’ve never docked in before.

I’m used to docking at the big industrial port far away or the small port that is right in the middle of town, this time we docked at I guess the medium sized port that was about a 45 minute walk into town.

I was in Hamburg recently on the mystery cruise I took with Fred Olsen, but I am always happy to be there. I love Germany, and even just looking at the signs is so interesting to me.

I know some people are nervous about going to a place where they don’t speak the language, but wandering around, I love it. It’s actually really relaxing to not be able to read anything or understand what anybody is saying.

Your brain has less to focus on. It’s so much easier now we have Google Translate and Google Maps, though! 

When we docked in Amsterdam, we docked right in the middle of the city, where the river cruise ships dock, so that was fantastic.

We were able to walk right in without any shuttle bus or any planning. I love Amsterdam and one of my favourite things to do there is to watch people parallel park right alongside the canals.

I know they’ve done it a million times before, and it isn’t scary to them, but to me it is terrifying. One wrong move and your car’s in a canal.

Apparently, 35 cars end up in the canals a year, which is less than I thought. Plus a lot of bikes, as everybody cycles to get around in Amsterdam. 

After a chilly day out, we came back to the ship and decided to go to the cafe on the top deck for a slice of cake. This cake does cost extra, but it made a nice change. I always try to visit all of the venues I can when I cruise.

I definitely did miss having lots of included dining venues like on one of my favourite lines, Marella, but it’s hard to argue with Ambassador’s value. 

I didn’t go to the speciality restaurants on this cruise, although I have heard good things; they’re relatively cheap, too.

On the Ambassador’s website, it says that they offer “The charm of a traditional cruise at an affordable price”, and I do think that summarises it pretty well.

Ambassador certainly isn’t a premium or luxury line, but for those who want a traditional, budget-friendly experience, there’s nothing quite like it. 

I originally paid £599 ($800) for the 5-night cruise in an oceanview cabin. That isn’t a particularly low price for Ambassador,

I booked this cruise to recreate my first, not because it was a great deal, and it’s totally possible to find an Ambassador cruise for half that price. 

I did then bid £330 to upgrade to a suite, which was well worth it. I paid £75 for the premium WiFi for 5 days, and it was surprisingly good.

Adding on the daily gratuities of £7 per person per night and then £46 for drinks and cake my total comes to £870 per person which is $1100. That is my cruise fare, just for me, based on sharing the cabin. 

For a cruise in a suite, I think thats pretty good, it was a rare treat I wouldn’t have been able to afford on another line. 

Cruising at Christmastime is always fun, and last year I was in Sierra Leone on onboard a floating hospital run by a charity called Mercy Ships.

This trip changed my life, and this video will restore your faith in humanity, so make sure that you watch it next.

If you haven’t seen toy cats in my videos before – they are Captain Hudson. Every version of him sold has raised money for the Mercy Ships. They provide free medical care to thousands.

Find out more about my time on a Mercy Ship here:

Before You Go

Many traditional cruise ships charge a discretionary daily gratuity. I never remove these gratuities. Find out why here:

Removing Cruise Gratuities to “Tip in Person” Doesn’t Work – It’s Unfair and Here’s Why

Find out about the most memorable cruise line excursions I have taken here:

5 Cruise Excursions I’ll Never Forget (For Totally Different Reasons!)