To celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary we choose a cruise around the islands of the Seychelles with Variety Cruises. We had a great week. we had originally booked for April but had to move to May as the boat was being refurbished. THe weather wasn't quite as good in May with a lot of cloud and some rain but it was still warm and the seas were generally calm. Even when the boat rolled a bit we quickly gained our sea legs and found it very comfortable. The whole crew were excellent and we had a brilliant cruise coordinator called Joshua who looked after us on the excursions and kept us informed of the detailed intinerary. The food was good and my wife's dietary requirements were well looked after. We enjoyed the entertainment which was very low key and informal. We were lucky to have a musical theatre start from Kazakhstan on our trip so that led to an excellent karaoke and she even did some somngs herself at the final night party. (it was great to duet with a pro singer) The shore excursions were very enjoyable with generally a shore excursion in the morning with a walk of arouns 1.5 hours. The afternoons were mainly a short journey and a stop for a snorkelling trip or swimming off the back of the boat. The fish life is good and we swam with a manta ray and saw a white tipped reef shark and an eagle ray. It was lovely to be on such a small ship with 35 passengers on this cruise. That encouraged us to make some firm friends that we will keep in touch with. There was a mix of nationalities with Germans in the majority but with English, Canadian and American as well. For a small ship there was plenty of room and as an author I managed to find several spots where I could sit and write another chapter of my latest book. A very enjoyable week and we have our eyes on the West Africa and Greek Islands cruises as well.