We booked this cruise fairly last minute to celebrate my mum's birthday and got a really good deal. The flight from Glasgow to Paphos was on time and fine, some lovely views of the Alps flying over. Paphos airport is very small and lots of Thomson flights from other parts of the U.K. arrived around the same time so queues quickly built up. Our flight arrived at 16:15 but did not get our luggage until 17:45, then onto the coach. Once we were seated we were given a letter from a Thomson rep explaining that our itenary for the week's cruise had changed due to needing more time to prepare for immigration processes when arriving in Beirut. So, instead of Beirut being the first port of call it would not be the last. This meant that our days in Turkey and Israel were different and I heard some other passengers have to call their independent tour guides to re-arrange private shore excursions in Israel while on the bus. It didn't bother us as we had no private excursions booked.

Arriving at the port in Limassol, again there were queues to get to one of the check in desks although staff from the ship were handing out cold drinks to make the process more comfortable. Once through check in there were desks selling safe keys £15 for the week, a small duty free shop and you get your photo taken by the ships photography team before you board. You are then taken right to your cabin by one of the stewards. I had a single outside cabin on deck 2 and my parents a deluxe cabin on deck 6. Both cabins had plenty of space for our needs and were kept spotless by our lovely cabin stewards. I had some engine noise in my cabin when sailing and struggled to sleep the first night but reception provided me with some ear plugs and always had a good sleep after this. It was also great having Sky Sports News in the cabin meaning I could keep up with the latest football scores!

We thoroughly enjoyed the food and entertainment on board. We used the Lido buffet for breakfast each morning, and also the fresh pancake/waffle and omelette stations out by the pool. For lunch we predominantly used the Lido buffet, there was always numerous choices available and if you didn't like anything there, just head out to the pool side where there always had burgers, hot dogs and pizza available. We did eat in the main Compass Rose restaurant for lunch one day and service was quick and efficient and the portion size generous. There was also a pub lunch buffet one day in the Explorers lounge which we attended and they had a pub quiz to take part in while enjoying lunch. Read more