Ambience Customer Reviews

Wonderful time. Excellent food, staff and entertainment. Cabins a little dated and aircon not always working but overall very happy and going on another Ambasader cruise this August. Very sad that this will be the last multi-generation cruise as Ambassader are no longer doing them. My family and I have loved all our cruises with Ambassader.

Great destinations … Carribean islands so a great taster cruise to research where to go another time…. Ship well run and excellent entertainment, but layout of pools a disappointment but not something that could be easily changed. Staff less attentive than on Fred Olsen, but still great service and food. Everything kept nice and clean despite being an older ship. Tours very competitively priced too. Great first time cruise with Ambassador but shame Trumps antics meant we missed our Cuba ( it had been that which had swung our choice between Fred 35 days and Ambassador 40 days including 🇨🇺 Cuba in the first place )

1st class cruise staff excellent food 5* entertainment brilliant. My second cruise with ambience this year can’t wait to my next trip with them. Nothing too much trouble.

7 Days((& Nights!) 80s music cruise to Benelux ports. Nice talks from Ken Bruce.Martin Kemp, Lulu& co....with great food,quizes & entertainment from on board crew& troupe! All in all, really,really ace...great bunch of fellow solo travellers,too!

A 5 week solo cruise on Ambience proved to be the highlight of 2022, the most extraordinary year of my life! Not that I was looking, but I couldn't fault it. The food was amazing, the service was brilliant - nothing was too much trouble - and the best of all for me, I got to play bridge every day. My cabin was at the front of the ship and the restaurants were at the back. Walking back and forth three times a day meant I got my 10,000 steps in easily and I didn't feel at all guilty having dessert!. I loved the olde worlde charm of Ambience, the ship never felt crowded or noisy. I am hoping to do the 31 night cruise in November and I cannot wait to get back on board. X

I booked a suite with 3 friends for a Christmas market girls getaway. It was my first cruise but now I am hooked. Everything was wonderful from the champagne and cake in our room when we arrived, first class dining and wonderful hot tubs and wellness suite. The perfect pre- Christmas mums getaway to recharge our batteries

Being out first it was exciting and new. We enjoyed it though it took a few days to get into the cruise life rhythm. Firstly bear in mind currently Ambassador cater to the 50+ age group, so no children nor facilities for them. The service was excellent, all the staff were friendly and helpful. The buffet had a good selection of food - for dinner there are typically 5 distinct types of food - a salad bar, Italian being pasta, something spicy of Indian or Chinese style, an English dish like beef, and something else I cannot recall. There was a few vegetarian dishes but could do with a couple more but I still ate well. There was various potatoes including fries, mash, roast, boiled etc, not always on the same day but there was always several variations. The only thing they could not do was the little desserts dishes/cakes - they were typically dry and/or tasteless. Breakfast was always a good selection - typically cereals - cornflakes, muesli, granola etc, fruits, toast (though it was not in long enough and was a bit anaemic), typically English breakfast food - scrambled eggs were good, but mushrooms were so so. Fruit juice, water, tea and coffee, There isn't any branded coffee's if you like them, like Costa for example. The standard coffee was ok. Also fruit teas. Vegetarian sausages would have been a nice touch. Lunch was similar to dinner. Afternoon tea was very popular for the scones, jam, and cream with queues but only for 1-2 mins tops. Again the little cakes were a disappointment. If you wanted to get a table for two you need to get there very early or as we called it, the walk of hope! walking round and round till a table become available. We only used the main dining room once each for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was fine and lovely service. As like most ships you will struggle to get a 2 seat table. Again, vegetarian dishes were limited. In one of the bars they did cakes which were nice compared to the buffet but was a large slice! The ship was clean but from looking at pictures and reading descriptions of other ships Ambience is a little old and tired looking but it was not a major issue. The botanical bar is a lovely place for a drink especially with the piano and cello musicians who did pop music covers more than classical - very relaxing. Raffles bar was lovely in the evening with a great singer/piano player. A little like a bar lounge. He sung both old and new songs from Rat Pack style to Elton John to Motown to Coldpay. The main entertainment area is the crows nest area called the Observatory. The seats here during the day were at a premium - they were two large high backed armchairs - everyone wanted those, and instead of a walk of hope like for the buffet seating, we called this the walk of disappointment! as there rarely was a pair of chairs free. But on sunny days those seats become a greenhouse with all the glass and it was too hot for us. In the evenings they had a duo called Salt and Pepper - singers and one played guitar to backing tracks. I thought they were okay but as the week went on they seemed to get worse. And then we discovered a three piece group who played in the pub style bar who were much better. Our fault for not checking them out sooner. The disco was okay - it is what it is. The dancers/singers in the theatre were good but the productions were a bit boring after you've seen a couple. Mostly singing and dancing. There was a play/farce which was okay but I had not heard of it. They did a West Side Story show, again it was okay but did not wow me. I would like to see more comedy, more well known productions. But worse, for me at least, at 6'1" tall, the seat backs were too low, and the seats were uncomfortable after 15 mins. My partner agreed and she is 5'7". The beer and cocktail selections were good and the prices reasonable - a Guinness was £5.20 - cheaper than some pubs where I live in South Derbyshire. Cocktails were £7. A very popular one was Sex on the Beach - terrible name but lovely drink. I had a window cabin - lots of storage. Good shower though a little short for my height. My partner had a balcony cabin. Again lots of storage. The only minor thing was there was a lot of paint splatter on the window doors, balcony floor and the seats - it looked like a rush job to paint it and not cover things up. And the outside of the window door had been repaired around the handle which was very messy with glu I think all over - so aesthetically it was messy but it all functioned ok. We did not do the formal night but saw lots of very smart gentleman and beautifully dressed ladies, so it was popular. Overall it's worth going for the adults only aspect. But we are trying P&O's Arcadia in July 2026, again adults only, so it will be interesting to compare.

Great 40 night cruise, food excellent and venues too, ship dated in some areas and some staff could be more attentive… but great time had by all !

Value, value, value. So much space. Excellent itinerary around Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Food is wholesome, if not the fine dining on other cruises we've had. Generally felt very looked after. Traditional is probably apt description. We're also very impressed with the Tilbury cruise terminal.

Friendly and attentive crew, always smiling. Great entertainment fabulous food and clean roomy cabins. Whats not to love. Going again at Christmas. Can't wait.

Absolutely fabulous cruise, lovely staff and brilliant itinerary, not forgetting the ship as well.

Sailed from Tilbury, embarking was smooth and stress free. Staff, food and entertainment were all really good. Would definitely return again. Looking at the moment for next spring.

This cruise was absolutely perfect. The food ad etertaiment were superb ad the company matched it. Also the crew were the friendliest ad most helpful that I have come across i may years of cruising. As a solo traveller they looked after us with special events ie;a champagne reception and a special solo's lunch with wine included. The ports of call were also very iteresting I especially enjoyed Klaipeda in Lithuania an unusual port to visit. The local population were on the dock to see us off wavig their phones as we were the first to visit in the winter. We also had 2 lovely speakers,one was a man who grew up as the son of the lighthouse keeper on the Isle of Mull. He got to know the Mcartneys very well and worked with Paul and Linda very well and finished his career helping Bob Geldorf with Live Aid. The second speaker was a lady who spoke on the Vikings,she also was extremely entertaining. I now have great difficulty in ever considering another cruise line.Hence the fact that I have 3 more cruises booked with them before Christmas. Enough said.

I am an attendant-propelled wheelchair user and was on the cruise with my mum who had to wheel me around. We wanted to try to see the Northern Lights and spend quality time together. The ship was accessible and staff were very helpful, moving cleaning trollies out of the way if they were around when we needed to get past, taking my wheelchair while I was at dinner as hard to get the chair in at the table, bringing our food to the table in Borough Market if we had trouble managing and generally checking if I needed help without being overbearing or demeaning. All the staff were friendly and would say hello and smile any time they saw a passenger, even when not on dinner greeting duty. Our waiter at dinner was always up for a joke and remembered people's preferences. If anyone has allergies, you are called to a meeting on day 2 to fill in the relevant forms and you get the next day's menus so you can check off which meal you want and any adaptations you need e.g. you could have that meal if they replaced the cream with plant-based cream for dairy allergy or cook it without capsicums etc. The food was always good , the entertainment was hit and miss with Callum being a standout as "piano man" though marks were lost for the karaoke only being one night, words behind the singer and limited repertoire - just get a Karafun subscription and run it in the Observatory every couple of nights instead of having the band. We weren't impressed by the groups and the big productions were a mix of really good fun, badly mixed or not that good. Everything's subjective though. We only did 1 excursion, which was good, but most were not accessible as required quite a lot walking and potentially unsuitable terrain, which we couldn't manage. It would have been helpful to know beforehand that courtesy buses were available at most ports and those without were really close to the main town, like 10-15 mins walk for older people. It would also have been good to know that a lot of Norwegian pavements are highly sloped with steep steps to crossings, which makes it hard going for wheelchairs, mobility scooters and people with more limited movement. It was a mostly older crowd and going into the restaurant in the evening there were lots of mobility scooters, wheelchairs and walking frames lined up around the edge. Evening events ended about midnight or earlier so not for those who want to boogie all night and you need to pick your dinner time according to what you might want to do in the evenings so you don't miss things or have to go to a later showing in the theatre if you like an early night. There was quite a lot to do on sea days and in the evenings, catering for different tastes from craft to lectures to cocktail class to a variety of music and performances but obviously not the same scale as some of the bigger cruises that have full West End shows and huge parties. We didn't go down to the spa to use steam rooms as the hot tubs were on a different floor and didn't have hand rails for me to get in and out and too cold to use the pools, which were also drained when we hit bad weather, so didn't feel it would be as beneficial. If you just want to sit and read your book etc there are plenty of places where you can do that inside and with covered seating outside so you can get some air while you look at the scenery or relax even if it's raining or windy. The Borough Market dining area has free tea and coffee machines so you can grab a hot drink while outside and there is also a paid coffee shop on deck and 1 inside for less basic drinks (free if you have the full drinks package). Drinks prices outside of the packages are generally fair, though soft drinks are cans at pub pint prices. Our balcony cabin was a decent size for 2 sharing and although you could sit on the balcony with provided chairs, there isn't room for sitting out with a table like some of the bigger ships but in Norway in November we didn't want to do that anyway! The shower is roomy enough and has grab handles in case of more choppy waters and that was ideal for me with my health issues as I didn't want a fully adapted cabin but that extra stability provided by the handles made me a lot safer. The corridors were quite slim in places, especially when cleaning in progress, so sometimes I did have to get out of my wheelchair, partially fold it and walk it past the trollies, and some of the floor joins needed a bit of a run up so the front wheels wouldn't get stuck if they turned sideways and for the impetus to get over a slightly higher threshold e.g. from Borough Market outside. Generally, though, the ship was perfectly fine for wheelchair use and you soon get to know where you need extra oomph to get over a tricky bit. This company leaves from Tilbury which was ideal for us as trying to get to Southampton with wheelchair and luggage would be a nightmare and neither of us wanted to fly and risk damage to my wheelchair, along with the hassle of trying to get us to the airport etc. There is a drill on first night so you can hear what the alert signal is, where to muster and what to do in case of emergency but you don't need to take belongings and life jacket down with you and wheelchair users can still use the lifts as it's only a drill. All in all we had a good trip and have booked again for this December doing a slightly different North Europe cruise on the same ship.

entertaining / interesting / well worth going /

Excellent trip on a fabulous ship