Your holiday is what you make of it !! and lets face it "you get what you pay for "......... a £600 cruise cannot be compared to a £2500.00 one. Yes, the Island Escape is getting a bit tatty,but come on, to refurbish it totally (some areas obviously have been recently) would not be cost effective on such an old ship , then your cruise would cost more .I expect Thomson will take it out of service soon?. And yes the dreaded virus was on board, but by then half a million people in GB had it , so no surprise really. having been on ships that have tried to "hush up" this type of situation I thought it was dealt with satisfactorily, and the decision to take all passengers off the ship for 3 hrs whilst disinfecting it was the ideal solution.....what else could they have done ? The cabins were cleaned twice a day , the public areas were constantly being washed down and hand rails etc polished Any way, we had a fun time, making the best of the situation , I am not easily pleased and do have relatively high standards , in my opinion the food was adequate , varied and I never ate anything that wasn't hot enough.The staff were more than obliging with us , remember "behaviour breeds behaviour"... be polite and pleasant and that's what you will get back .I overheard some very rude conversations from passengers towards staff, as well as constant complaints from some passengers.....one guy went on and on all week about there being no ice cream in the restaurant !!...some people spoil their holiday for themselves and some are simply professional moaners !! we had an 16 month old baby in our party, so were constantly asking for bottles to be sterilised and different food etc,,, nothing was too much trouble for the staff. The bars, disco, party and entertainment were good, again its what you make of it , join in and have fun ...there was a nice, informal relaxing atmosphere which is what we expected. the ports of call were varied, Canaries all nice and the weather was lovely and warm , we spent 3 days on the beaches ....... however after visiting Morocco , I have convinced myself I do not want to go outside of Europe again !! but that's only my personal preference . so overall I would say if you want to go on a cruise, but have a limited budget then this ship is fine. if however you are looking for top quality , 4 star accommodation and food , then you will have to spend much , much more money ...and of course mix with "the types" who go on these cruises.