Let me start by saying we had a fabulous holiday around the med on this ship and I'm sad to see it go. This ship has had its fair share of bad reviews however as a first time cruiser I have nothing more to compare it with other than the time I had onboard. Yes with the age of the ship it was a little dated but it certainly exceeded my expectations. Embarkation was swift and so well organised we quickly were given key card to our cabin and everything was ready for us to settle in. The cabin was 7550 on deck 7. It had 2 twin beds and a fold down bunk which was not needed, a picture window, It had lots of hanging space and drawer space and space under the bed to put suitcases. Believe me I took a lot of clothing and there was more than enough room for what we needed. The bathroom again was small but perfectly adequate with shower sink and toilet with toiletries. Satpal our cabin steward deserves a special mention. He was a most efficient cabin steward who kept our cabin extremely clean and tidy and basically looked after our room for the 2 weeks we were aboard. I loved the towel art he added as finishing touches and he was so happy and polite.

Let's move forward to the dining areas. Dining was buffet style unless you booked a la carte at an additional charge. It was help yourself style and for what I paid for the holiday I most certainly can't grumble about the standard and choice of food. There was carvery meat and veg on every night and many different alternatives. Choices of starters and desserts too? The waiters again were extremely helpful and Midy and Ronny deserve a medal for looking after us. They looked after us so well it made our mealtimes very special. Drinks on board were all inclusive unless you ordered cocktails, branded drinks and speciality coffees fro the cafe. The unbranded drinks were excellent and the supplement cocktails were at very reasonable suplpliments we tried the hot stone a la carte and found it a great experience.

Next to mention was the entertainment. Ross the entertainment director has a very special team of entertainers. Including Ross they are all extremely talented and provide entertainment as good as the west end. I can say this as I've been to watch many shows in the west end and I found the musical showson ship as impressive. The other entertainment was from a very young team and I can't say enough how talented this young team was. As for Ross he was fantastic (and doesn't do the amount of work for a chuffing 0/10 and quite rightly too) it certainly wasn't Benidorm at sea as one review described it. We did many excursions and I thought were organised extremely well and I thoroughly enjoyed them even though I walked my socks off. However I didn't go on a cruise to spend my time on the ship when there was so much to see. Finally all people I spoke to had a fabulous time and were pleased,they booked it. There were many planning to cruise again with thomsons in the future because of the experience. Hopefully this review will set those peoples mind at rest for the four weeks of travel this ship has left.