Thomson Spirit

each day, and dinner on one occasion. The food in the evening was better in the main restaurant. The buffet food was ok, but very repetitive, and no nice starters or desserts.

We chose the cruise purely for the itinerary and the brand- as usual Thomson excursions were reasonably priced compared to other lines and we went on 3 in St Petersburg and a Copenhagen-on-your-own trip from Kalundburg. Quite satisfied with all 3, though the traffic in St P was really bad and played havoc with timings.

Although Thomson have never offered all-inclusive on ex- UK sailings, there was a letter in the cabin on arrival offering the AI for £375 pp for 12 days. Drinks prices were average pub prices, £3.50 a pint, £14.50 a bottle house wine. Compared to the prices we were charged ashore they actually seemed quite cheap!

Entertainment was fine- lots of daytime activities from zumba to lectures on Churchill, and enjoyed the daily quiz. Usual singing and dancing in the evening, game shows, trio upstairs in Horizons, pianist in Raffles bar. All a bit old hat, but always something to do. The two daytime plays they put on in the theatre were entertaining and very well attended.

Outside areas got a bit crowded on sea days (and there were 4 of them) but there was always somewhere to sit. It was a bit of a bonus to be sitting out sunbathing at that time of year, although the first few days were very cold.
Found all the ports really interesting, and was pleased to learn there were free shuttle buses in Helsinki and Stockholm, so all that research about bus routes wasn't needed after all! We took a small amount of Krona and Roubles with us, along with some euros. The exchange rates we noticed ashore were very poor to what you get at home- 86 cents for £1 seemed about average. This was in the kiosks, I don't know about the ATM rates.

A very good cruise with very little to complain about!

to there’s knocking them over with no supervision.

Getting on to a bus was worse as it did not matter what flight you were on you just got on any bus this time there was a couple of the ships dancers there to help i heard on at least saying SUPER and another \"If your case is on a bus you must try and be on it\", everyone was trying to get on to one bus at time it was very hot and most had on their British summer clothes.
Twice we got nearly to the front of the queue when it was full and then became nearly last at the next bus.

It was the old and the special needs people I felt sorry for as they just couldn\'t keep up.

The rest of the cruse was on the whole good this is our 4th Thomson and our 2nd on the spirit in the last three years and whither our expansions were higher than a lot of our fellow cruisers we were a bit disappointed..

The Africa show that was supposed to be there top show was a hand me down from another boat among with most of the rest.
The food was not as good as the other trips but it has been going down the last two trips.
The service has went downhill as well I think it might be down to not being allocated a seat /seating as we sat at a different area of the dining room most nights and never managed to build any repartee with the waiters.
The bar service and deck service was just as bad and they only came to life on the last day wonder why...

As it’s been said on lots of other threads the ship is old and most of the trims and finishing are worn out, looking at some of the officer’s uniforms there the same,
tread bare in some cases... but the worse thing is they have changed the lager from Stella to a cheaper one...

Would I go back \"maybe” we will try the dream (not been on it) as the staff told us they took the best from all the other boats.

the double and had nothing to pay ,good service.
we cruised on the spirit 7 years ago and nothing much has changed onboard.
The compass Rose however was not as good .On one occasion we were seated at a table with four other people who had already ordered ,they got starters before we were given a menu ,all six of us felt uneasy and thought this was very poor service .
We would rate the food and choice as okay ,on our last trip it was excellent.
We also ate in Siroccos this wasn\'t as good as last time either, I asked for a Baileys coffee and was told this couldn\'t be made even though you could get one in any bar onboard.
We took the AI drinks option , several drinks that were included last time now have a charge.
The onboard shows and musical entertainment were excellent.
Apart from the problems I have mentioned we enjoyed the week ,got the holiday at a very fair price and had great weather .

who like to look on the whole package and not be fooled by superficial dazzles you should come away from this cruise ship having had an excellent holiday.

The name \'Spirit\' is very apt for this lovely ship because, the crew and staff are absolutely fantastic and give this ship the heart and soul that out does all the fancy ships we have sailed on so far. In fact, my wife and I cannot think of how these crew/staff members could improve! They are all very friendly and go more than the \'extra mile\' to make the cruising experience a wonderful one. Whether it be the restaurant, bar, house keeping, reception, entertainment team or crew, each and every one has a big smile and nothing is too much trouble.

On the subject of Entertainment, we were very impressed by the Spirit\'s team. They performed every night in some capacity with 6 out of 7 nights of shows. We have seen a lot of shows in our time; In the last 10 years plus most shows use a lot of pre-recorded backing music and vocals giving the audience an impression that what they hear being sung is all being performed by the stage performers, when all the \'live parts\' are just one person (sometimes two). The Spirit\'s singers and dancers ALL sung live, all 10 of them on occasions. The harmonies when in full chorus was excellent and to sing and dance at the same time is very hard to do. Yes, there were moments that a few individuals got the note wrong, but it is LIVE music not pre-recorded and mimed (NOTE the backing instruments were all recorded, which is understandable because of the budget of having an orchestra would be huge). The shows were generally different from the usual middle of the road \'Saturday Night Fever\' and \'Cabaret\' type presentations that you get on other cruise ships. Be prepared for something different and have an open mind. I did not recognize some of the songs but it was great to hear something unusual.

Other entertainment by the team was also good and a notch or two above the Thomson hotel entertainers. There were also professional live acts with a band called \'The Prime Men\' who were excellent and 100% live playing hits from 50\'s to Lady Gaga of today.

The food in the restaurant was very good, but NOT excellent and some cruisers who are used to top quality may be disappointed, we were very happy with the food. The only complaints were heard were from a few people who ate at every meal in the buffet restaurant and complained about the same food all week. They should have used the main restaurant, it does not cost anymore!

We did the Red Sea Cruise taking in Egypt with excursions to Cairo (pyramids etc) and Luxor (temples) along with Jordan visiting Petra. With all the \'un-rest\' problems we were concerned for safety. We had no problem at all, in fact because there are so many Countries not visiting, it made it quieter seeing the sites. I have a photo of my wife sitting at the bottom of one of the Great Pyramids, on a her own!

Our cabin was an outside deluxe on the 7th deck. It was bigger than I imagined it would be and was lovely for us. We had very little noise. There was some vibration whether in port or sailing. The only complaint we have is that the windows were dirty on the outside.

IN SUMMARY: If you are considering a cruise on the Thomson Spirit and are not put off by superficial looks, you should be very pleased with the whole package. To us, it was the whole Thomson team and crew that made a very enjoyable holiday

settle by cash at the end that was fine too - you just had to tell them at this point.

First on board - you were greeted by the meet and greet start that were very friendly and one of their staff took you to your cabin so that you knew the way. For me after 5 days I still kept using the wrong staircase to get to my cabin as everything looked the same - maybe that\'s just me.

Cabin - I was travelling alone so the only single cabins available were on b/c deck unless you wanted to pay lots more to have a better standard, and to be honest I did not think the standard of the cabin for comfort warranted the money. For me it was the bed that was so uncomfortable that let it down for me, after two rotten nights sleep I asked if Reception could do anything, they got housekeeping to put a blanket over the mattress to soften it up! - not good enough in my opinion. The cabin itself was definitely \'tired\' looking and the sink basin for example was as clean as it was going to get, but stained from several years I can imagine, the same in the shower unit.

Restaurant - Compass
The food here was very good, the one thing that put me off here is that you had to queue outside the restuarant to get in, was herded in in whatever group you were in solo travellers were almost forgotten and larger groups got served quicker. Once inside as I say I cannot complain about the food or the staff, the tables were so close to each other you could almost shake hands with the next table and the table cloths werer clean but stained.

Restaurant - Lido
This was the buffet 24/7 restaurant, they served a very good brekkie, English bacon and hash browns with fried eggs, toast was there albeit as bit soft by the time you good to it as cooked on mass. Again same problem with the table cloths - sounds like I\'m being picky but for me if you are going to use tablecloths make sure that they are clean or use mats.

Lido Sun deck
The pool was adequate in size and the sun bed round the pool was fine, there was unbeds on higher decks so there was not an issue for space. This area was regularly serviced by the bar staff who were all lovely.

The Lido during the day had various activities including the band/cooking demos quizzes all sorts.

Entertainment
This was spread over various places, and the nightly shows were very good, although I did not go to all of the them, as hated finding a seat an hour and a half in advance of the show commencing sitting staring at an empty stage, which is what you needed to do - nevertheless they were excellent. There was also other items going in other bars Quizzes during the evening Mr & Mrs which was highly entertaining and music from pop to Jazz to Classical.

Bars
I loved Raffles the bar staff there Kostas and Sam looked after me, and were absolutely wonderful and make sure that I had a constant stream of Pink Cocktails in front of me.

Overall Comments
For me the staff on board the Spirit made my holiday so enjoyable not the ship itself, they were lovely and I don\'t honesly think it was just because they were hoping for a tip at the end, they were just being brilliant. I think as a solo traveller, I did not get my money\'s worth, I paid almost the same price as what a couple paid even though they were higher up than me and had a better standard of cabin - so If Thomson were do alter their pricing for solo travellers or accommodation then maybe

money and the food was excellent. All stops good although Koper is a disapointment and we hope that Thomsons move back to Rovinj at some point. Ship was continuously cleaned and nothing was to much trouble. look forward to next year.