Both myself, 44 and my partner of the same age travelled on this cruise as part of a "Cruise and Stay" package deal with Thomson. I carried out quite a bit of research beforehand with this being our first cruise as quite a few of our friends have travelled on various ships and cruise every year. We decided on the Thomson brand as a friend said this one was the best for entertainment for British people - I personally don't fancy being on a ship which is fully of Americans but that's my personal opinion and our friends have had experiences of ships with various nationalities on board.

I have to say that the whole experience was truly fabulous. From the moment we entered the ship to when we left, we really enjoyed it. It took us a few days to know our way around the ship but this is all part of the fun. Our outside cabin was better than I expected (a little bigger) and has everything you need. It really is remarkable the amount of storage in those cabins for the size of them! The only gripe was that the shower was quite compact, and with me not being so big, I can imagine some bigger people may struggle. The shower curtain also always sticks to your wet skin lol !

We very rarely used the Islands restaurant as any time we went, it was so full that it was a bit of a free for all and we actually couldn't find a spare seat any time we went! We ate breakfast mostly in the restaurants as this was so much more peaceful and a much better experience. I can't understand why they are never very busy in the mornings? We never used The Islands for dinner either, we always used both a la cartes and the menu was changed regularly. We preferred the a la cartes as the portion sizes were just perfect and meant you didn't over indulge in the buffet restaurant! We also sat with some other couples for dinner as we opted to share - this is interesting and is good to get to know other people on board. Read more