This cruise was a last minute surprise from my fiancee and as we had sailed with Thomson twice before we thought we knew what to expect.(Nothing fancy but good clean value for money) How wrong we were!!!

The embarkation was pretty simple but as we were delayed 2 hours there was no embarkation photograph and no one to show us to our cabin. When we found the corridor our cabin was on there was a very musty smell and a wet floor sign outside our cabin door with a big dirty wet patch on the carpet. We had asked for a cabin with a double bed if possible. We ended up with 2 single beds pushed together with a hard steel ridge down the middle with only 2 single sized covers and sheets to try and cover ourselves with. The cabin and toilet were small as we expected, but we were shocked at how worn everything was. There were dents and marks on all the walls, the varnish was worn off the chests of drawers, the skirting boards round the room were all chipped and broken and the wardrobe had curtains for doors. If I didn't know the boat was built in the 80s I would have said the bathroom had come from the 70s. The toilet seat was all discoloured, the fittings in the shower and on the sink were cracked and oxidised and the grout on the tiles ranged in colour from black to dirty grey.The towels that we got were changed every day but they were never what you could call white and sometimes they had stains on them.

I booked the celebration package as a thank you for my fiancee but there was only the Champagne and strawberries in the room when we arrived, no flowers or cake or any information about the breakfast and photographs that were included in the package. A nice bouquet of flowers arrived at 8:30 the next morning spoiling our long lie in bed.I went to reception to find out about the rest of the package and was told they didn't know about it, strange considering we already had the champagne. I eventually got the voucher for the photograph(no frame included that would coast extra),and asked when I wanted the continental (cold) breakfast and the cake.On Royal Caribbean I was £30 more but we got slippers,dressing gowns to keep, 2 a la carte breakfasts, canapes at night on top of what we got on the Escape. Read more