Eilis O’Hanlon’s diary of a cruise convert: Dip in a swimming pool, something to eat. Glass of wine? Don’t mind if I do

The trip had 12 nights sailing the Mediterranean with stops in Italy, Greece and Turkey

Eilis O'Hanlon took to the cruise-ship lifestyle surprisingly quickly

Eilis O'Hanlon

My only prior experience of life on board a cruise ship had come from reading Agatha ­Christie’s Death on the Nile and watching old episodes of The Love Boat on afternoon TV.

How much help a familiarity with murder and romance was going to be when it came to knowing what awaited me on my first ever cruising holiday wasn’t immediately clear.