OK I have good news and bad news - lets do the bad first. The absolute worse thing about this ship is the constant front to back pitching and rocking when sailing which aint too bad until you come to lie down and try to go to sleep - and sadly this stopped me from sleeping properly for the whole cruise. It gets worse too as when the pitching increases then you have the added noise of room furniture starting to rattle. As the Med was flat calm for the entire 7 days the weather / tide is not to blame - its definitely the ship. And why? BECAUSE the Island Escape was built as a CRUISE FERRY in 1982 to work in the Baltic .Its not a true Cruise ship and I have cruised (and slept soundly before)
Ok more bad news on drinks - all hugely expensive eg can of pop £1.40 1.5 litre bottle of water £2.40. To get around this buy your own from Carrefour in the ports you sail into eg 1.5 litre bottle of water 30 cents!
Sadly the trips are all hugely expensive from £34- £40 and these are only half day or less. We did our own thing and here are my tours.. Palermo - walked up to the Capuchin Catacombs to see all the skeletons and then visited the Cathedral. Cost - zilch - we walked Naples - walked around some main streets and then visited the National Archaeological Museum - fantastic dislays here esp the Roman marble statues. Cost 10 Euros each with less for anyone 18-24 - take passport for proof of age for youngsters. Ajaccio - took the Tourist Train 10 Euros each but its nearly two hours and there are stops - takes you to 3 Napoloeon related sites plus right out to the Sanguinas Islands Toulon - visit the market plus the large modern shopping centre - big Carrefour in there then took another Tourist train which starts right by the dock - 6 Euros Barcelona - walked up Las Ramblas to Placa de Catalunya and caught the Metro to Lesseps then walked up to Gaudis Park Guell ( FREE entry) We got 6 Euros ONE day tickets which gives you unlimited Metro travel.