The latest 'Supership' is full of suprises if you've deep pockets says our cruise expert Maria Harding.

With cruise bookings booming like never before, the race is on to get bodies on berths by possessing the newest, most cutting edge ships afloat. Just one of them is Norwegian Cruise Line's 2,400 passenger 'Norwegian Sky' - a twelve deck high leviathan designed, so her owners say, to offer the snazzy facilities of a mega ship without compromising on intimacy and style. I climbed on board to check her out.

We start in the restaurant with the maitre d'hotel. "Tonight we have the presidential dinner" he says, "This menu has been created by Henry Holler who worked for over twenty years in the White House, he's cooked for several different presidents, creating chicken breast for President Carter and a special dessert called 'The Floating Island' for Ronald Reagan which he personally delivered to his hospital bed when he was shot".

The sheer range of food on board is truly astonishing, but you stand warned, if you take your children to the 'Norwegian Sky' supervised kids corner, which caters for youngsters up to seventeen you may not be able to drag then away to eat some of it.

"It's great here, he loves it", says one mum. "He goes to school at home so he's used to a routine like this, I like it … you can get a bit of peace… I get a break, we both do and he gets a break from us".

There's a little stage here for productions. "Tonight we have a 'dress up as your parents night' and we also have a 'movie night', which last night was a drive-in movie, we took the cots and turned them in to race cars".

Grown ups don't need to get too envious though, there's lots of fun for them as well, in the shape of pool parties, a casino, cabaret, an Internet café and lots and lots of night life … It may be old hat but I love the disco, I've been on so many cruise ships where the dancefloor is empty every night because the pony-tailed DJ is playing house music, but here on 'Norwegian Sky' they're not in to that, they're doing seventies later in the week there will be a fifties and a sixties evening- and the dance floor is thronged which is the way it should be.

The ships top show 'Hey Mr Producer' was also packed and pretty popular. "Well it's fantastic" said one fan, "We went along last night to the show by Camera Mackintosh and there were all the favourite from Cats and Phantom of the Opera and Oliver and Carousel it was very very enjoyable."

And when you've had enough of shows and parties, I can recommend just the place to chill out .. the ship's spa. I feel like I 've just died and gone to heaven after an hour of reiki with Dina. "It's a new eastern technique," she tells me, "but it has been around for a few thousand years and actually reiki was used by the monks as a meditation script but anybody can have it done to them from children to plants, it's really good."

If you prefer to relax with a spot of retail therapy, the person to speak to is Laurens. He is the 'Norwegian Sky' shopping consultant and the expert on where to find the best buys in the Caribbean. "We alternate between an eastern and western itinerary", he tells me. "On our eastern itinerary we go to San Juan, Saint Thomas, and Nassau as well as to our private islands which are wonderful places for all sorts of duty free shopping, you can buy jewellery, perfume, electronics, linens and collectable items as well."

I have to say that cruising Norwegian sky style isn't cheap. 2001 prices for a nine night Caribbean fly-cruise starts at £1234 per person. Yes, its steep but the quality of food, entertainment and facilities on board make this ship excellent value for money. She's not a vessel for those who hate travelling "en masse" though - go out on deck on days at sea and you will be aware that you have more than 2000 travelling companions. For a perfect getaway though, I joined a small boat of the ship's "Dive In" team to explore a Bahamian coral reef and learn some fascinating facts about fish.

"A lot of people don't know what comes out of the backside of the Parrot Fish, but it is otherwise known as 'Parrot Fish poop' you guys call it sand and when you go to the beach and you're laying there with you're wife and you're saying 'Oh honey this is so nice feel how it feels between your toes, you're actually laying in a big pile of Parrot fish manure'.