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Airtours

MV Sunbird

Your Rating:
Reviewed by:Carolina Leigh
# previous cruises: 2
Date of Trip: June 17, 2000
Itinerary: Mediterranean

I really enjoyed this cruise. The ship is a great value for the money. The itinerary was incredible!! This is a an older ship (1981) it is only about 37,500 tonnes (small by today's ship standards), but we loved it. And if you are looking to save a little money and still visit the primo ports this is the perfect ship for it. Really the ship could be a 4 star considering the value.

There is a walk around the promenade. Two pools which are a good size. The Can Can lounge (where most of the big shows are presented) is a little dated and in need of a refurbishment. The Oklahoma lounge is smaller and has less shows but was very nice, modern and art deco-ish. There is a small store where you can buy film or t-shirts and a few other stores that sell jewelry etc. There really isn't much shopping on board, but you're usually in a port so it doesn't matter. The casino is just big enough and has a small bar. The "Chart room" is a circular bar at the top of the boat (left over from when this was the RCL "Song Of America". This is a nice bar to sit and watch the scenery in, although I would say it could stand to be redone, and the windows should be cleaned more often. That being said, we still went there often. The day we left Villefranche they served hor d'oevres of smoked salmon and caviar which was a lovely touch as we sailed out of the French Riviera.

There is a "library", a cute little room with some books you can take off to read at your leisure. Hmmm.. what else? Neptune's (bar/disco) which is 80's - ish in style but nice enough. They had a wine tasting the afternoon we were at sea, that was a nice touch.

The Lido deck had a buffet that was open for all meals (if you didn't want to order in the dining room) but the food was not great. Well actually it was sometimes even bad. Weird hotdogs at lunch and runny eggs at breakfast. The Seven Seas restaurant served a la carte meals all day and the food was very good, not gourmet but good. Service was pretty good as well. Our waitress (Valentina) did a superb job, even with special requests. I would highly recommend eating all meals in the main restaurant. The midnight buffets were a little disappointing. Of course it hardly mattered because we were always still full from our 5 course dinner. The buffets had nice presentation but little flavour. The "Chinese night" had good stay and Dim Sum, but everything else was a little bland and the sushi was dried out (and not even really sushi at all in my opinion). Of course the 3 meals in restaurant each day made up for it really just eating those was good enough.

Well they were small, but not excruciatingly so. There was a colour tv with recent movies. And radio that played ships stations including one station that played the captain narrating excepts from his autobiographical book (for sale in ship's store - of course). Captain Philip Rentrell's tales were a hoot, though I am uncertain if they were always meant to be.

"Could a full size person fit in the shower?" Hmmm... define full size person. I am 5 ft tall and I fit fine. My 6 ft 175 lb husband JUST fit. Larger than that it could be very problematic. WE both managed to get water all over the bathroom whenever we tried to use it. But the bathroom was kept spotless by our Steward Nataylia and really I expected it to be the size it was.

We attended a few of the shows. The cabaret acts were just ok. They weren't awful but don't expect Broadway. The comedy acts were very good, although I would say they were geared towards the largely British crowd and often the Canadians (and few stray Americans) on board were left a little puzzled while the Brits were in stitches. There are two formal nights and they were quite a lot of fun. The cruise staff and entertainers were enthusiastic and fun.

Incredible Itinerary !!! Palma, Mallorca - Adjaccio, Corsica - Civitiveccia (Rome), Italy - Livorno (Florence, Pisa, Tuscany), Italy - Villefranche (Nice, Eze, Monaco, Monte Carlo), France - Barcelona, Spain. We adored Villefranche and would go back in an instant! Rome was amazing and Corsica was quaint and lovely.

British!!! Scottish!!! There are also quite a few Scandinavians on board as well as the Canadians shipped over by Sunquest. We met two Americans who had been brought by Canadians.