Having sailed on our first cruise with the Thompson Dream some 18 months ago our expectations of the Celebration were that it would be a similar experience. Sadly that wasnt the case. The cabin was fine however the noise from the engine was continuous. That said we got used to it and for the little time we were in the cabin it didnt bother us.

However in contrast to the Dream who seemed to have the balance right, we found the Celebration to be more of a floating holiday camp. The noise around the pool was exacerbated by the entertainment staff and their competitions, interspersed with loud headbanging music. The only quiet area was deck 9 with the usual fight for sunbeds. A perfect example of the "Butlins" culture was at our final dinner in the formal dining room was the interuption of our meal with loud music and the assistant entertainments director announcing in great detail how good the staff had been and then listed each sector reminding us "how grateful" we should be. To say we were put out by this is putting it mildly.

The service wasnt as good as the Dream, it was much slower with less staff and we never had the same ones twice. Read more