We have enjoyed 3 cruises on The Celebration previously so we knew what to expect from the ship and had chosen our cabin so we were pleasantly surprised to find it had been spruced up with new upholstery and carpets. We settled in quickly after a horrendous embarkation experience (described by several other reviewers) which was way below Thomson's usual standards and had them apologising many times over the next few days.

To our delight, we found staff members whom we had met on a previous cruise waiting for us in the dining room on the first evening and it was like greeting old friends as they welcomed us! This is one of the special things that we love about Thomson cruises and we hope they don't change as they move to bigger ships in the future. The service in the dining room is easily as good as in any of the expensive restaurants we have been to in London and the staff are always happy and smiling. The food is pretty good too - a double edged sword on a 17 night cruise!

The Celebration is a relatively small ship, but we love her. She has a proper promenade deck and is easy to get around by using the stairs for exercise, or lifts if you're tired. There are free self service laundries and several bars of which our favourite is the Horizons on the 9th deck with panoramic views at the front above the bridge. We were lucky enough to see and photograph a whale blowing from up there as we left Madeira! Read more