12 Island Caribbean Cruise

Thomson Celebration Cruise Review to Caribbean

AgentGeorge

Contributor Level: Purser

45 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 3

Overall rating:

3.6 out of 5

Caribbean Dreams followed by A Taste of Paradise

Sail date: December 13, 2017

Ship: Thomson Celebration

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 0202

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

You get to sample 12 Islands, from small to large; the smaller ones are undeveloped and have small roads but the people are the friendliest of the lot. Dominican Republic is unlike any of the other islands, avoid it if you want relaxing beaches, jungle adventures and a slow pace of life The ship was tired and shabby, it was due to be sold last year but an extra 5 years is being squeezed out of it. Cabins had poor AC and outdated fittings in the shower

Embarkation

4 out of 5

You hand your luggage in at Birmingham airport and next see it outside your cabin. The processing at the port was fast but pay extra for priority.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Main dinning was good, buffet was average. The upcharge restaurants used the same kitchen as the main, the reports of mediocre food put us off and we cancelled our reservation

Mezzanine Bar

5 out of 5

The bar on deck 9, Horizons was out of the way, you could relax there. The waiter soon recognized us and had drinks waiting for us. Music was topical for older generations:-)

Hemingway's Bar

3 out of 5

Got crowded very early, was close to the gambling tables, not a relaxing place

Onboard Activities

2 out of 5

This ship lacks alot, being and older ship it has 2 paddling pools, neither were swimable. No rock wall, outside TV etc. we went to an auction and a wine tasting and 5 people turned up.

Laundry

2 out of 5

Machines were Miele, but the operating instructions on the wall were miss leading and wrong. One machine was in german until it got reported as unusable

Pool

2 out of 5

There are 2 pools only suited to paddling for kids, the hot tub was cosy for 3 adults

Entertainment

5 out of 5

The 10 performers were well rehearsed and had 14 routines. The quality was superb and even the neil diamond impressionist was good

Horizons

5 out of 5

Relaxing out of the way and decent live music

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Most of the restaurant staff were enthusiastic. We quickly spotted Kumar as being outstanding. He got the food served right and had our table ready for us. The greatest challenge was ordering the upcharge wine. Standard wine was week and unpalatable

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Its an old design, hardly any balconies Windows were dirty, faded, missing screws. The toilets were always in good condition

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

Not as spacious as was expecting. Im 6’ and my head hit the roof in the shower! AC in cabin was dire, we recorded 23.8C one night. Complaining got no result The cabin staff were exemplary, clean towels always available Water was an upcharge for every cabin class! For the price charged for the all inclusive drinks package, why exclude water!

Ship tip

Buy water in the ports Get the all inclusive package

Thumbs up

Ports of call

La Romana, Dominican Republic

1 out of 5

Tortola, British Virgin Islands

2 out of 5

Basseterre, St. Kitts

3 out of 5

Bridgetown, Barbados

5 out of 5

Fort-De-France, Martinique

3 out of 5

Castries, St. Lucia

4 out of 5

St. John's, Antigua

5 out of 5

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

3 out of 5

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

Apart from leaving cabin at 8 and coach to airport was at 2:30. It all went smoothly

2 Comments

cruisellama 5 years ago

Nice review

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Martinchambers 6 years ago

Went on this ship last March, although it is old it is spotless and the crew work very hard, the food was fantastic. I don’t know what some people expect, there always seem to be the moaners

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