For all you first time Island Escape cruisers, Unless you fall asleep reading this I do hope the following will help put your mind at rest if you have booked a cruise on this ship and are now spending the remaining time logging onto Trip Adviser/Cruise Critic to read and worry about the negative reviews you have obviously been reading and probably thinking to yourselves "oh god, what have I done, booking this ship" ?!!!
Well, first of all let me explain, I am not a seasoned cruiser. This is only my second cruise, both booked through Thompson Holidays. The first was with a fabulous ship called the Emerald (sadly no more) and five years later now with Island Escape.So like the majority of you, I too was reading every new review posted as the time neared for our holiday and by the time we set off was actually believing I was off to Butlins on Sea !
We arrived in Palma on 28th June 2011 around 11.30 am to find the tour rep waiting in the arrivals lounge. She quickly directed us to the transer coach. The trip to the port only took about 20 minutes so pleasant drive. The nice thing was that once we were at the port we didn't need to worry about our cases as they would be taken on board for us and deposited outside our allocated cabin within the hour. Anyway, first call was into the Port quay
One thing that worried us about the cabin balcony was that directly above us was the sailaway bar. People were standing there looking directly down on us sitting on our balcony. If anyone dropped a cigarette or drink or worse a glass, it would have landed on our heads as there was no roof or overhang to give us safety or privacy. Not quite sure how Health and Safety let this one go. Hubby Fire Safety Officer and he was horrified.
Shower room/Toilet a bit too small for comfort. Very Claustrophobic once in there with door closed.
Otherwise everything great. Balcony roomy enough, beds comfortable. plenty of wardroom/drawer space. Steward Asash superb, couldn't do enough. A credit to you.