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Reviewed by:  Dave Woolcock
# previous cruises: 1
Date of Trip: August 16, 2003
Itinerary: Mediterranean

Excellent family holiday for never-done-it-beforers. We all want to do it again. Cruising in August is very hot - over 30 degC every day!

Show lounges were all fine, but could get a bit crowded at popular times. The "beer cafe" bar was nothing of the sort (no real beer!) and was something of a smoker's den, which put me off. The pool is a small outside sea-water pool, not really suitable for swimming, but good for cooling off. They chuck the kids out for an hour at around 5pm, but the adults then just jump in and float. We couldn't keep our 4-year old out of the baby pool. We found the casino dead but had a go anyway. High minimum stakes, no atmosphere. The staff even referred to it as the "donation lounge" - accurate. Plenty of loungers on the pool decks (but some folk do tend to dump their towels on them then disappear for two hours!).

Games deck has table tennis (duff balls!) quoits and shuffleboard on a sloping deck!

As a rather picky eater I couldn't fault the food - there was always enough choice and the quality was superb. For unadventurous kids there is always the "kids menu". But the kids chicken nuggets tasted "real" and nothing like supermarket junk or pub-fodder.

The restaurant and bar staff seemed to be entirely Thai / Indonesian, and their friendliness, team spirit and standards of service were brilliant. They must have all been on "how to remember people's names" courses, and make a point of using their skills. Most had been on ship for 9 months (!).

Everyone got to look forward to the announcement over the speakers "Waiters and Assistant Waiters please.... Its Showtime". This was when they all put on some form of singing/ dancing / napkin-folding demonstration. Excellent fun if not entirely in tune. Beware if its your birthday on board - you WILL get some attention!

The Pool Deck's Lido Cafe seemed to be as popular as the restaurant, and often had special themed buffets on. Sometimes it's nice to eat outside, and sometimes you need the air-conditioning!

They have a couple of "special" late-night buffets - the Chocaholics Buffet and the Gala Buffet. Both extremely popular, where folk go to take pictures of the food as well as eat it. After queuing for 10 minutes I asked myself what I was doing and left. I am not a good queuer.

Sitting on the pool deck you get the yellow T-shirt bar staff around about once a minute. This can get annoying if you are not interested - learn to say no (the free iced water is much better for you!). Tip - they have a blind spot for the sun lounger deck right above the Pool Bar itself. Choice of beer is ermm San Miguel or San Miguel at #2.05 per pint. We went through the cocktail menu of course (#2.85 a shot), and they do make an effort with "cocktail of the day" promotions...

Worst part of the entire holiday for me was queuing for 2 hours to check in to the boat in blistering heat in a large shed on Palma harbour - the air-conditioning just wasn't up to it. Too slow processing everyone's photo-ID cards, too hot and no relief. They need to fix this. Once that was over, everything was marvellous.

We booked late and ended up with standard inside cabins on the main deck up the sharp end. Perfectly adequate, but showing their age - tatty decor in places. Did we care? no. Our 3 kids were in the cabin next door and we could hear them clearly through the walls. Lots of clanking noises were audible when the ship was parking up in port. Cabin Stewards (Hi Marlin!) were in and out of the cabins all day, tidying up, remaking beds, cleaning bathrooms etc. and seemed to be from the same school of Indonesian friendliness as the waiters. The bathroom and shower were small, and the shower controls random/useless at times.

We went to most of the shows and just left the ones we didn't like. The "Cast of the Carousel" were in most of them and put a lot of effort in, and it was fun trying to recognise them all in their different guises. AJ, the comedienne, was very good, but we didn't go for the cabaret singer guy. Their resident pianist was a real hard-worker plugging away in the Midsummer lounge for hour after hour. Good, but jazz piano is not my sort of music. (I did think of asking him to play Pictures at an Exhibition, but thought it might upset his regulars!).

For families the Kids Club is superb. And as well as that .. its the only place where you get any Freebies! (T-shirts, hats, bags etc). You have to sign the kids up, usually for two hours at a time, and let them know where you are on ship in case of a problem. No babysitting service as such.

We went on 3 of the excursions (there were 5 of us) - beach at Valletta, Taormina and Etna full day, and Herculaneum, and it cost us #423. You could probably do it a lot cheaper independently, but... you'd have to organise it, speak the local language, and the boat wouldn't wait for you if you were late back. The Etna/Taormina trip was excellent.

The daily activities, and schedule are published every day in the "Sundial" - a folded A4 leaflet delivered to your cabin every day. It completely baffles me why they don't publish samples of these online so you can get a feel for what is happening... we often missed things as there is far too much going on.

There is a bit of a Hi-de-Hi atmosphere in places, and Rachel, the Cruise Director, does look a lot like Peggy, but this can just add to the fun. They do spoof TV programs in the show lounges (The Worst Link, Millionaire, Mr + Mrs etc) Good cheap fun, done well. We all liked Millionaire especially when they got their "prizes" (from the gift shop!). "What is this - THAT is gross!". Then the guy lost and he gave him the glass fish anyway. Audience participation is encouraged, with Karaoke Stars in their Eyes shows as well as the regular bingo sessions. I did note there were Scandiwegian dancing lessons as well as line dancing on offer. Missed them - what a shame!

A complete cross-section - families, couples, single parents with kids, singles, elderly. Everyone was very friendly. There seemed to be a large Scandinavian contingent, and the official announcements were in both English and Scandiwegian. I thought I heard the odd French and German accent here and there.