Very expensive, not so classy cruise..shame

I chose this cruise as it was only one available for the time with child a place. Good points are:-

1. Most Staff v friendly, lovely warm welcome aboard, Cabin steward was friendly, Crew at ports very friendly. in fact all of the foreign crew were helpful & friendly most of the time.

2. Cabin was Suite cabin with premier service. large cabin, plenty of hanging space, large bed, good size bathroom with bath/shower. one free complimentary continental breakfast in bed.

3. Some good entertainment from staff & public in evening.

4. Good ports, sunshine.

5. cheap cocktails

6. Excellent service in the paid restaurant Scirocco excellent value for money

7. Tips included...although we tipped extra where we thought we had good service.

8. nice toiletries, plenty towels, no face cloths, robes

Bad points are:-

1. Very dated old small ship, in need of a lot of attention, & cleaning, sticky dirty handrails. actually it has seen better days, apparently this is its last year and you could tell, no money being spent on it.

2. Childs very small paddle pool very dangerous and very very very dirty, smelly, slimy, broken tiles. other pool no better & only slightly bigger. Whole of pool area grubby, messy.

3. outdoor food area - jacket pots ok, Salad basic but ok, Hotdogs/Burgers yuck, Pizza good, Omelettes ok.

4. Buffet - breakfast ok, apart from customers in PJ/slippers..so classy. Lunch - boring, tasteless, Evening boring, tasteless, deserts yuck.

5. one restaurant, queuing most of the time, some evenings good service other times not so good..not consistent..food average.

6. paid to go into Scirocco 19 euro each v. good value for 7 courses..some were nice, others not to my taste, but service was excellent...couldn't fault.

7. Entertainment was ok at times, not as professional as other cruises. Evening staff entertainment was ok though

8. Children's club..could do a lot better..bit boring for kids, always felt as though it was a trouble for the girls to take the kids. not always on at convenient times. unable to finish dinner to get back for them.

9. Spa treatments seemed very reasonably priced, but as there only seemed to be men working there, it put us women off having a treatment.

10. English staff a bit rude and not very helpful...gave up asking them, ask locals or foreign staff..they are more helpful and friendly.

11. Wifi expensive and rarely worked.

12. Room bottles of water expensive..bring your own in from ports.

13. cocktails although cheap..tasted awful, cheap like pre-mixed solution. rather pay more and get a nice one.

14. Port bus fares not cheap...check out taxis if there is a few of you.

15. We had a delay at the airport on Thomson flight waiting ages to take off, then over an hour sitting on coach in Malaga airport waiting for another flight to arrive to fill the coach..not good after early morning flight.

16. Although a good size bathroom with a bath which is nice to have..shower didn't work. no face cloths. bathrobes holed, torn.

17. ship had dated tired decor..nothing nice to look at. dark, drab and depressing.

18. no balconies

19. 2 very small windows in cabin covered with a life boat. so room very dark

20. Didn't really feel like dressing up for dinner as everyone was very casual.

Myself and family have cruised for years..with mostly excellent ships and service, I took Thomson cruise as i thought it would be good for grand daughter she enjoyed being on holiday and meeting other kids, but we have had much better experiences with other cruise lines. This is not luxury although i paid same price as other cruise lines..I know you pay more for kids holidays but this was too expensive for the type of ship/cruise that we had. It has put me off trying other Thomson ships as i'm scared the food quality will be the same, even if the ship is newer and up to date. I would need some persuading. Sorry