We went into Thompson for a beach holiday and came out with a cruise! It seemed value for money and we liked the choice of visiting different places. We were slightly worried that my 15 year old son would not like it but after a couple nights he met some lovely friends and started to enjoy it. All the staff were extremely friendly even down to the window cleaners that always said hello. We liked the idea of it been a more relaxed cruise not having to dress formal every night for evening meal, my partner and son both refusing to wear trousers, shirt and tie for formal night or any other night for that matter lol however I did take trousers, shirt and tie but they refused to wear the tie, when we got down stairs everyone was dressed up some in tux some in full suits, ladies in lovely evening dresses, they were glad they put them on ! You don't have to go to the captains night but I suggest you do just for the experience, you are told which of the two restaurant to go to on the pink invite you get delivered to your room your not guaranteed to even be in the same room as the captain. You meet in the Jubilee lounge first for cocktails and photos on the way in. The captain comes on stage to speak followed by the heads of different departments after that you make your way to the restaurant where you are seated with other guests on tables that seat 8, it was nice to sit and talk to others, both the other two couples on our table were seasoned cruisers and after seeing my son and partner not wearing there ties promptly took off theirs lol the food was ok but my son wasn't to impressed by the choice and later we realised there was a kids type menu and he could of had things like spaghetti bolognaise. Don't be worried about getting dressed up its part of the night you can soon get changed if you want after.

Most men wear trousers in the evening but if you don't want to you don't have to but you cant go in the seated restaurants on level 5 unless you are. The buffet restaurant on level 10 Piazza San Marco is very nice and we always used this other than the formal night we never ate in the waiter restaurants, you can wear what you like in this restaurant the same for Cafe Royale which does breakfast lunch and afternoon tea, I personally think the food was great and there was plenty to choose from. On the first day at sea we got a shock ! Be up early to get a sun bed as if like us you had a lay in you will be lucky to get one at all if you want to be in the sun its deck 10 sun deck, but there are some on level 7 but these are not always in the sun, at the back of the ship on level 10 it was very noisy and smelly so we preferred to get beds at the front there was still some reserving of beds from those that had gone ashore on trips or just to look around, these towels were not moved even though its said you wasn't to do this, the waiters are always on hand to get you drinks throughout the day and night our favourites were Paul and Rab C.

This was a very pleasant and enjoyable holiday but at times when sun bathing it felt a bit like sardines in a can no space to move your bed about. Level 10 at times can get extremely busy around the pool as this is where they do some entertainment and games during the day, the pools in my opinion are to small for the size of ship. We really enjoyed the entertainment which the staff put there heart and souls into. Make sure you go to as many of the shows as possible. I do recommend this ship as a first cruise.