That's Not Entertainment

Good bits = food in 'smash and grab'.  Very palatable house wines

Poor bits = slow service and poor menu selection in Meridan Restaurant

Worse bit = Entertainment.  Usually on Thomson there is a variety of musical entertainment but there was no classical duo on this cruise and the show team could dance but the boys' singing was poor.  We had a repeat of previous shows eg Queen, Michael Jackson (poor singing) and a Brit Awards type show which was just shouty singing of modern pop songs.  They did try with the Cameron Macintosh songs (which was more to the audience's taste) were better but you need good singers to pull it off.

Entertainment on day at sea- included talks on water retention and frozen shoulder, yes really!

Why are public rooms on ships always blasting out cold air.  A vest under your nice evening dress is most unbecoming!

Smokers on board were allocated the nicest part of deck 6 with bar and view of poolside entertainment.  They also had on side of deck 6 so if you chose to gain access to the outside you had to fight your way through the smokers who were blocking the doorway

Cabin 672 was clean with plenty of storage but tired and dated

Organisation - what was written in cruise news wasn't exactly accurate with changes of venues/meeting points for excursions etc

Excursions - overpriced

Ports of call - good, apart from Bahrain.  Why go there?  There isn't even a wi-fi spot in the cruise terminal.

General  pre cruise information very poor.  For example I prefer to know before I book the accessibility of the town from the port and if a free shuttle bus is included.

Flights - For some reason I thought we would be on the new 787 Dreamliner.  No, the night flight (with insufficient blankets, you had to share with your neighbour) was on a 767.  The seats seemed very narrow for a long haul.  The aircraft was freezing.

Food was ok and they were generous with the alcohol.  As a cost cutting exercise Thomson are using the new Al Maktoum Dubai airport which is a 60 minute drive from the ship