Looking for a new way to take our holiday, we decided to try cruising. Using the many sites dedicated to providing all the information anyone could ever need about the subject, we found a suitable Itinerary on Thomson’s Majesty. The cruise is called the Colourful Coasts, and, as we wanted to revisit the site of our honeymoon, Madeira, whilst seeing more of the islands that go to make up the Canaries, another location we had long wanted to visit, fully met the bill.

With good weather forecast for the week in mid-march, we flew from Gatwick to Tenerife, a 5 hour flight due to the French air traffic control strike. On the way back, although we left almost an hour late, heavy tail wins meant we arrived on time at a very cold Gatwick, where we then had to wait for coaches to arrive to take us to the Terminal. We estimated that we spent an extra 2 – 3 hours travelling to and from Tenerife.

On first impressions, and forewarned from the many reviews we read, the ship looked slightly past it’s best, with at least 2 other previous names visible on its proud bows. Immediately, though, it was obvious that a) the ship was continually cleaned and painted, with cabin widows being washed dialy and b) hygiene was paramount. In fact the number of times we saw cabin staff cleaning the main stair rails almost matched the large number of alcohol hand dispensers that are placed at all the requisite locations to protect the guest from the dread norovirus. Read more