Welcome to Your Favorites, where you have the opportunity to share your travel experiences with fellow Internet Travelers around the world.

Airtours

MV Sunbird

Your Rating:
Reviewed by:  Horace Plotkin
# previous cruises: 10+
Date of Trip: February 12, 2003
Itinerary: Caribbean - Western

Good value for last minute price, everything is good, nothing is spectacular, except for the service, which was as good, if not better than any we've had, even after 20 odd cruises.

Public areas are generally very good, 2 pools, plenty of deck space, sports deck, outside areas are a bit worn, but not so bad, inside lounges ate excellent, casino is adequate, saw 3 jackpots paid out on slots in our weeks cruise.

Found the outside buffet a bit tasteless and as you might expect, food tended to get cool quickly, they had problems with coffee and hot water, which was not always available. Main restaurant service was excellent and friendly, our waiters Fraulen & Roland at table 63 were great, food was ok but a bit disappointing as there were no 'real' steaks and no shellfish other than shrimps/prawns. We were a party of six at a table for ten and had a great time at lunch and dinner, unfortunately two of our party got what appeared to be food poisoning, though the doctor on board labelled it 'gastritis', they both became ill around the same time on the third morning about an hour after breakfast in the main restaurant, both of them suspected the kippers. Anyway the rest of us were fine, so I guess they just happened to be unlucky.

We had 3 cabins 5015, 5017 & 5019 and found the to be well kept, though a bit worn, daytime arrangement was good, where one bed was folded into the wall and the other became a couch, it gave quite good space. Got a bit of excitement one night around 10.30pm, not what you're thinking, the PA system inside the cabin announced that there was a 'code red' in the engine room, I'd seen from the TV that this meant a fire, so we sat ready to leave for 15 minutes until the captain announced 'all safe'.

We've been with this company 5 times before and every time have been very happy with the entertainment, this time however, I cant say the same, average is as kind as I can get, though one of the comedians, Andy ??? made me laugh a few times. All in all, entertainment was not that bad, Oasys, the Lounge and deck band were very good and there were a couple of good deck parties.

After Montego Bay, we stopped at Santo Domingo (good), we watched two passengers get left behind as they came running up the dock when the ship was about twenty feet off, people are warned to be on board half an hour before sailing. Everyone on deck cheered/jeered them as we sailed off, the wife was wagging her finger at her husband, last I saw. We'd been to Tortola before, so this time we took a taxi over to Cane Garden Bay Beach which was ok, unfortunately that was the morning two of our party became sick and we had to cut the visit short. St Martin has always been a favorite of mine, friendly people, lots of shopping and cheap beer in the beach front bars, Joe Cools has Canadian beer at a dollar. Catalina Island was good, nice beach though the water could have been a bit calmer the day we were there.

Mostly British and Canadians, all age groups, though mostly middle agers.