This was our 4th cruise with Thomson's and our son and daughter in law came with us for their 1st. What a great time we had from start to finish. We dined daily in the Sirens Restaurant for Breakfast, and Orion's for Dinner. On our first evening in Orion's we met Mervin and Marlon - Assistant Waiters and Jesus the Wine waiter, needless to say we had the same table each evening and these lads are a credit to this ship, they made our holiday with their friendliness and couldn't do enough for you, don't be frightened to say you don't want a sauce on a meal, I did often and it was never a problem, they are their to help you, even if you didn't like a main course that you had ordered they would get you another to try, we never did this as we thought it was a waste of food. Jesus kept topping up our wine glasses.
We did dine in the Grill for an extra charge of £19.95 per person to see what is was like - lovely meal, but atmosphere a little stuffy, take my word the Orion is just as good. The bar service could be a little slow when busy but not a problem, all staff were helpful and very polite. The shows were very good and thoroughly enjoyed every one. We went to Erice in Sicily - very good half day, Pompeii and Herculean very busy and hard on the feet , Rome hectic, 10 hours and rushed through the Vatican and St. Peter's. My son and his wife did Rome and the colosseum and they were also rushed, however they did a 4 x 4 in Calvia (Corsica) and they were very impressed and would love to return to Corsica one day. All in all we had a fabulous week, hectic at times with late nights and early mornings, but well worth it. Go with an open mind on this cruise and you WILL enjoy yourself.
We had always had outside cabins on previous cruises, and decided on an outside plus, worth paying the extra, it was much larger and had a bath with shower overhead, also had a settee in the cabin and larger wardrobe/drawer areas. No noise and close to the lifts. Perfect