We chose Thomson cruises because we were going on holiday with the family (6 Adults and 3 Children). The price was a big factor in our choice and looking for a cruise that would be more child friendly. My partner & i have been on quite a few cruises with cruise lines such as Royal Carribean, Silver Seas, Regent Seven Seas and Celebrity Cruises. We were not expecting the same quality as these lines, but the whole idea of the cruise was to let the children have a good time. On the down side of the cruise, the cabin that we had was very small and admitedly, the decor was quite tired. The cabins for the family however were really good. They were pretty spacious and they both had a fridge in them.

Once we had got over the disappointment of the cabin we started to explore what the ship had to offer. We had the drinks packages for all of us. On this ship, the drinks package was very easy to understand. Drinks menus had asterisks next to the drinks that would cost extra. All very simple compared to a lot of the other cruise lines. Although the cabin was disappointing, the cabin stewards were first rate. Always a smile and nothing was too much trouble. On the Sunday each week there was a special offer on laundry - a sizeable bag, washed & ironed for approx 25 euros. No big bags of washing to do when you got home!

On the food side of things, there were several choices of restaurant to choose from. We stuck to the same restaurant every night for the first week. The waiters (Manoj & Sumer) were fantastic and the children loved them. We learned that the waiters are rotated between restaurants each week, so when our waiters changed restaurant, we followed them for the second week.We had to leave behind a fantastic wime waiter (Katut) but had an equally friendly wine waiter in the next restaurant (Gabriel). The food was lovely, not over complicated and fancy like may other cruise lines. Anything that you wanted that was not on the menu was no problem, if they had it - you got it. Read more