STAFF: The staff were all polite, well mannered, very customer focused, impeccably dressed, clean and easily identifiable. They could not do enough for us. We felt valued throughout. Some had more confidence than others but that all comes with experience. We felt that every single member of staff smiles’ were genuine. They looked like they enjoyed their work. We particularly enjoyed engaging with Pieterson who served our chosen area in the LIDO Restaurant. We cannot commend him enough and were quite sad that we didn’t see him on our last day on board to say goodbye. He was on duty after we had left.

FOOD: The food was in abundance. So many choices of places to eat. So much choice in each restaurant. We could eat from very early in the morning until very late at night. We could eat as much as we wanted and there was definitely something for everyone. Cooked English breakfast, cereal, toast, omelette, fruit, yoghurts, pastries, continental, hot and cold. Unlimited tea and coffee. No one could complain. Lunch – many choices including burgers, pizza, panini station, noodle station, desserts galore. Afternoon tea with the best sausage rolls, sandwiches, biscuits and scones. Dinner – Choice of 5 restaurants with different types of food. As I said before, something for everyone. We wanted for nothing. And then finally the midnight buffet. We could have eaten 24/7 if we chose to. We all ate more than enough. It was great to have so much choice. Amazingly enough I even lost weight as I was eating more healthily. Although I enjoyed this, the food was of a lesser standard to a previous cruise we took 5 years ago with Thompson.

CLEANLINESS: Everywhere we looked was clean. The facilities for public use was always clean and I bumped into the same cleaner on a few occasions in the ladies. She was very thorough. Our room was cleaned and tidied every day, twice a day. We are not messy people at all, but we still appreciated the effort that goes into keeping things just so. When the LIDO deck tables were in full swing, it did get a bit untidy, but things were soon cleared away once we asked. The staff were never just stood around doing nothing. Read more