There was great wow factor arriving, and the novelty factor of staying on a boat was fun for the kids.
As a hotel it was underwhelming.
The bus connection is regular but the bus stops are in fairly ‘sketchy’ spots, I wouldn’t have felt safe as a lone woman. The shuttle is great but stops at 6pm, it would be better running later into the evening once dark rather than during the day.
The rooms are kitsch with the period styling and they were immaculately clean. The corridor carpets were dirty and the smell of old smoking rooms permeated everywhere unfortunately.
Reception staff were friendly but either unknowledgable or reluctant to help. We arrived at 9pm after a long journey to be told the kitchen was closed and there was no food available on board. The receptionist couldn’t recommend anywhere to go out to eat. They did say we could order a delivery but couldn’t recommend anywhere for that which was unhelpful.
It was disappointing that we weren’t able to visit the upper deck, this was open to visitors doing the door but not for paying guests. We joked that we felt like we were in steerage!
The breakfast was great. There was no reduced price for children which made that expensive, but it was great quality and they had a huge selection of options.
All in all it was a fun choice of hotel for a couple of nights.