Having done several cruises with various companies including TUI Celebration (a great little ship full of fun and with great service), last April we booked with friends to spend Christmas on the Discovery. Back in October we did a late booking on the same ship, the last Med cruise before it headed off to the Caribbean. Expectations for the Christmas cruise were high and we just hoped that there wouldn't be as many negatives as there had been on the October cruise. How wrong we were. This time we had a deluxe balcony cabin. I have had standard cabins in the past that have been more deluxe than this one. The towels and bed linen were thin and had seen better days. On the surface the cabin was kept quite clean but I did find an old pair of men's pants with a hole in the crotch stuffed in the corner of the wardrobe. Yuk!!!

Food on board was pretty good with plenty of choice. Didn't try Kora La or Surf & Turf after friends who had been said it wasn't worth the extra. The Island Grill (or canteen as I called it) was a free for all dining experience with people in a feeding frenzy trying to find somewhere to sit and eat. In October there was a wine waiter service which has now been replaced by a help yourself bar. The Asian waiters were as ever a smiling, charming bunch. Not so the sour faced Eastern European restaurant and bar staff who generally appeared to have a lack of training and courtesy.

Unlike other cruise companies TUI did not change the itinerary post hurricane Irma. The Discovery was the only one to call into St Martin and Tortola even though both islands had been destroyed and there was nothing to see but devastation. When the excursions desk explained that we were calling there because the islands needed tourism and our money I told him that I felt we had paid quite a lot of money for a scenic cruise not a charitable one. Read more