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Airtours

MV Sunbird

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Reviewed by:  Mark Skullbone
# previous cruises: 7
Date of Trip: August 3, 2002
Itinerary: Mediterranean

The Sunbird is an excellent cruise for the money. It has a great design, and although it is 20 years old, it is in good shape overall. The passengers were a good mix of all ages. We have cruised to the Caribbean, Mexico, Bermuda, the Caribbean and one previous cruise to the Mediterranean on the Carousel, and my wife and I agree that this cruise was at or near the top for fun, food and overall atmosphere.

The public areas were comfortable. The Can Can lounge had some poor sight lines for the shows. One of my favourite decks is the promenade deck, but it would have been better with more chairs. We won in the casino on a slot machine, so it helped us pay for the shore excursions.

The food was excellent in the dining room -- good on the Lido deck buffet. We would recommend the dining room whenever possible for lunch and breakfast. The chicken, fish and pasta dishes were superior to the red meat dishes. The service was good, although if you don't order wine on the first night, they seem to think you don't want it any night. So we had to keep bugging them later in the cruise for wine.

We had a "superior outside" room on the main deck where the dining room is located. It was very convenient from this location. The cabin was smaller than I expected it would be but we got used to it. We had enough closet space, but more hangers would have been nice. By the way, unless if you have a deluxe room or better, you have to pay 7 pounds per week for the use of the safe. The beds were in an L-shape, with one of them resembling an ironing board when it was brought out from its wall mount. The shower was small but it was functional. The walls between the rooms were quite thin. Thankfully, everyone seemed to be sleeping at night.

The shows are geared towards British audiences but they acknowledge that and try to let the others in on the jokes. The comedian Peter Piper was very funny, and he performed on two separate occasions. The dancers were very good and the performances were entertaining yet predictable.

We flew into Palma Mallorca. Then after a day at sea, we were in a port a day -- Naples Italy, Messina Sicily, Valletta Malta, La Goulette Tunisia, and Mahon Menorca. We took the boat's shore excursions in Malta and Tunisia, but otherwise we did our own thing. We enjoyed our visit to Taormina Sicily very much -- great canolis. Mahon was perhaps the most beautiful port we've ever seen. Since the cruise was port intensive, we didn't do a lot on the boat. I never used the health club. There are two pools -- one for kids. They were crowded on the day at sea. There are facilities for teenagers to hang out, but I don't think that younger children would have much fun.

The passengers were mainly British -- probably about 60 to 70 percent. We Canadians were next in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 percent. The remainder was made up of Norwegians, Swedes and Germans. Everyone we met was very nice, and many seemed to be first time cruisers. It was good to see everyone enjoying themselves so much.