The cleanliness was very good with a least 2 visits by the steward each day. The cabin (deck 4 outside) was an acceptable sized twin bed room with 2 wardrobes and plenty of draws. Compact bathroom but with adequate
surface area around sink and cabinets. Average sized shower. The only signifcant problem was the air conditioning which was either cold or cool. It resulted in minor chest irritation. The forward cabin also suffer from significant noise if the ship docks when you are asleep - it will wake you.

Ships food in the Meridan was good to very good with a reasonable choice of main courses. Ask for the wine list if you don't fancy the suggested bottles. Service was good to too good - you sometimes had your plate whisked away before you had finished. You can elect to eat as a couple (you might need to wait for 2 minutes) or join a table with another couple on it. The Mistral/zilli restaurant offered more upmarket choice for an additional £16pp - we had a good (though not exceptional) Lobster Thermidor.

The crewman appeared to be principally Philippinoes and Indonesian and were always good humoured and cheerful whatever they were asked to do. The officers were principally British/North European - very helpful and courteous. The Thomson reps were occassionally unitentionally brusque as they attempted to organize activities and trips - it needed a senior manager on the ground to ensure the front line reps were not overwhelmed when dealing with a large volume of passengers.

We only saw one show (there was a different one each night I think).It was an entertaining and enthusiastic.

Yes I would sail again with this ship. It was cheerful, well run and well maintained. Forward areas of the ship tended to be slightly more formal, areas around the pool less so. You could move from one to the other according to your mood.

Minor complaints.
Some of the excursions were hard work. Read up before you go on them and then decide whether you stay with the guide or wander of.

The does vibrate more or less noticeably depending where you are. You filter it out after a while. The A/C is not maintained for the outside temperature, it does get too cold too often.

The ship docks in the industial areas of ports, so it can be a little daunting if you leave the ship on your own. Aquaba is worth a JD5 taxi ride into. Have an arabic coffee in a street cafe in the Arab part of the town(wonderful chaos) - ignore the tourist bit.

This was our 4th trip on the celebration 5th already booked. The only downside for us was that the entertainment staff where not as good as previous years in our opinion. We used the meridian restuarant for most meals and the quality of food and service was excellent, thanks cesar medina (maitre'd),Richard Hill(head waiter), Danny, Marven, Peter,Jeff, Micheal Knight(waiters) Vener & Leanor (wine waiters)
The entertainment late at night with waiters in the lido restuarant Ian & Leo & Jeffrey was something else how they work and make your cuise so enjoyable is something else.
Our cabin was always immaculate thanks to the effort of our cabin steward Ceno. His towel folding making swans , elephants and monkeys meant there was always a surprise when you returned to your cabin.
The captain did not entertain as much with his tannoy speeches as captain Alan Leech but he did get round the cruise with no massive dramas so we cant moan about him.
All in all a wonderful cruise cant wait until March.

We had a great time on our cruise and would recommend this ship for a graet time and great crew. The onboard entertainment was great and the staff couldnt be more helpful and helped us if ever we needed. One thing we must say is that the Captain was a horrible arrogant who we witnessed bullying his staff and this was upsetting to see as he was I think Polish and was bullying members of the Asian crew which r`esulted in my husband wanting to knock his block off , but I had to stop him.

In all a great cruise ship with great staff.

The ship was extremely well maintained through out our cruise, the crew worked non stop cleaning and ensured that the everything was spotless.We ate in the Meridean restaraunt where we were well looked after by Chris,Michael and John John, these 3 waiters were excellent, the food was of a very high standard and well presented.The staff were extremely pleasant and helpful, nothing was too much trouble and this is appreciated as they work long hours.Our cabin was kept spotless by Edy our cabin attendant and he was very polite and helpful.The enternaiment team worked very hard to cater for all tastes and this they did. The shows were of a high stanard, the Rocky Horror Show was brilliant and Curtis was the star act in this.Kane Davies Cruise Director does a brilliant job and ensures that he talks to everyone ensuring that they are all having a good time.Last but not least the Lancashire double act ofDave Beattie and Paul Evans, these two lads were fantastic entertaining all throughout the cruise, they could turn their hand to anything and made sure we really enjoyed ourselves.

Adriatic Explorer Cruise – Thomson Celebration, 17 July 2009

This was our 9th cruise (8th with Thomsons), and as always it did not disappoint.

We sailed out of Corfu on 17th July, and visited ports Koper (Slovenia), Venice (Italy), Split (Croatia), Dubrovnik (Croatia) and Kotor (Montenegro). As far as itineraries go, this has been the best by far and highlights included the sailing out from Venice (past St. Marks Square), the old town at Dubrovnik and the Fjords at Montenegro.

We have sailed on Thomson Celebration before, and the ship lived up to its high standards in food, drink and service. As usual however, the highlight of the cruise was the entertainment team; Dave, Josh, Paul and Jenny, led by Cruise director Kane, and ACD Jayne – they we all fantastic, and more than contributed to making our holiday a memorable one. Keep up the good work!

All in all, another brilliant cruise with Thomsons, and we are looking forward to booking our next!

This was our fifth cruise with Thomsons and our third on the Celebration so we had a good idea what to expect. What we didn't expect was the eight hour delay at Luton Airport on our outward flight. Virtually no information was provided by the Information Desk – they were clueless and couldn't even tell us if the plane would be flying at all. Whatever the problem was eventually sorted and we got to the ship around 22:30 local time, having already missed half a day from our holiday. Not a good start! Fortunately, that was the only problem. Here's the full review:

Ship Cleanliness.

The cabin was small but functional. It was also kept spotlessly clean by our cabin boy, Made. Some of the ship's public areas had been refitted over the winter and new carpets were evident on the stairwells and corridors. There was always somebody cleaning or polishing some area of the ship to keep it "ship shape".

Crew

As ever, no complaints here. There were a few Greeks in amongst the usual Indonesian and Filipino crew members but they still offered the same level of excellent and friendly service. A few of the waiters recognised us from last year which was nice.

Ship Food

We ate our breakfast and lunch at the Lido buffet and dinner at the Meridian restaurant. You could "help yourself" to the buffer which was different to last year and many people were taking far more than they could eat, resulting in rather a lot of waste.. The Meridian food was as good as it's always been – the steaks were the juiciest I have ever eaten! There was a midnight "chocaholics" buffet one night where, unsurprisingly, everything was made or covered in chocolate.

Onboard Entertainment

Fewer people seemed to take part in the sporting activities than previous cruises. My lad and I were the only ones who turned up to a shuffleboard game. As for, the evening entertainment, most people know what to expect. The games were rather tacky in my view but my kids and the majority of the passengers seemed to enjoy them. The Broadway shows were as good as ever but the guest comedian was poor; most of his jokes I remember hearing when I was at school!
Now, let's deal with the ports of call:

Koper

Very pretty Slovenian town and easy to walk to from the ship. We paid to go on a speedboat trip along the coast which was very good, albeit a little expensive. The town itself is very pretty and a pleasure to explore. Well worth climbing the clock tower for the views.

Venice

First time in Venice and I was stunned – a lovely city but very crowded. We shared a gondola ride with another couple and then spent a couple of hours trying to get lost around the narrow city streets. St Mark's Square was heaving and it would have been pointless trying to queue to get in anywhere – people were waiting for hours. The cruise out of Venice was spectacular. Can't wait to return.

Split

As this was a tender point we decided to wait until the afternoon until going ashore and thus avoid the crowds. The town is very nice and we walked around the castle and indoor market for a couple of hours. Not sure as you could fill a day here although there was a selection of good, but pricey, excursions available.

Dubrovnik

We had heard the old town was a must see and decided to follow the advice given out at the port exit and take the half an hour walk into town. After three quarters of an hour's walking in 30 degree heat and no sign of an old town anywhere, we gave up and decided to walk around the harbour instead. The moral? Take a map!

Kotor

The captain had recommended an early rise for this port to witness the journey through what he described as the "mini fjords". Quite a lot of passengers had taken his advice as there was little room on deck at a quarter to six. The journey was indeed impressive – perhaps not quite as good as the trip through the archipelago to Stockholm but well worth being up for as the captain gave us a running commentary. Kotor itself is another small town with lots of nooks and crannies that are easy to walk around in a couple of hours.

Corfu Town

Foolishly we booked a trip on a glass bottomed boat for the morning, costing £20 each. Had we taken the twenty minutes walk from the ship to the quay, we could have booked it ourselves for around half this price. Tut tut, Thomsons! The boat trip was pretty good, though, and the divers encouraged fish and other sea life to approach the boat. The boat also stopped to allow us to see some performing sea lions that are held in a netted off area off-shore. I've never liked watching performing animals and thought they looked rather sad.

All in all it was a very good cruise, notwithstanding the delay on the flight out. With daytime temperatures never dropping below 30 degrees, we could hardly complain about the weather. Time to plan next year's cruise!

We sailed on the Celebration at the end of June-July, Pearls of the Aegean/Adriatic Explorer. The Itinerary on both the weeks were excellent having been on this ship and the Spirit in the western med over many years. The ports of call are excellent as most are in the centre of the resorts and sight seeing and beaches with in minutes of getting off the ship, not like some in the west.
Aghious Nikolasos is the first stop with a number of beaches 5-10mins walk from the ship, as is Kusadasi. Santorini is a lovely stop with tenders to shore, don’t be put of by the cues for the cable cars (4eur) they soon shift a lot of people. Piraeus is an industrial port and if you want to go to Athens do the ship trip as the ship sails at 3pm.
Katakolon is a one street stop and not much there.
The second week was more cultural; Kopor was ok with a beach and sight seeing more or less as you get off the ship. Venice is about 15mins on the waterbus, which you catch; just 5mins form the ship (12eur) return to St Marks Square. Split is a tender port and will need some Kunas here and in Dubrovnik to. Dubrovnik is a short bus ride from the bus stop out side the quayside, they do get full but just go for it as the bus pulls up (every 20 mins) 10kunas each way. Kotor is set is a fjord and it’s a lovely sight if you get up early (we didn’t), if not wait until you sail out it takes about 1.1/2hrs to sail out; beautiful.
The ship is kept in lovely condition by the hard working Filipino staff. They have to have some Greek staff on board with sailing out of Greece who do very little to help.
The food is of high standard 24hrs a day; I think it’s better than that with P&O who we have also sailed with. We always prebook our cabin to ensure a quiet a peaceful cabin, which takes the anxiousness out of not knowing where you will be put.
There is a lack of sun beds but if you are up on deck for 9am on sea days there are plenty, if you leave it until 10am you may struggle. The day we were in Venice 600 new sun beds arrived, this should help with this problem. They have started to put (Parking) tickets on unoccupied beds, and after about 1hr your stuff will be removed and someone else will have the bed.
We ate mainly in the Meridian Restaurant for breakfast and dinner using the Lido for lunch and tea. The Filipino staff always made us feel welcome and are fantastic.
The entertainment was very good but the staff show was a sell out. With chairs being brought in from the restaurant to accommodate the amount of people wanting to see the show. There are fewer staff on board this year and they do struggle to serve you at times especially in the bars and lounges (The Greeks don’t help). All in all Thomson are just about clinging to a 9 out of 10 score.

Just returned from another great Thomsons cruise. We treated ourselves to a suite (having previously always been in a 4 berth inside) - what a difference - don't think we will ever do the standard inside again, though may not stretch to the suite - the deluxe cabins also looked good.

The suite was like a very modern hotel room - nicely decorated, a lovely seating area - only let down is the bathroom - it was clean but VERY basic - though nice toiletries included. Suite also included towelling robes, breakfast in bed if wanted, free pressing service on arrival, hand made chocs delivered every day, bowl of fresh fruit and flowers also placed in room - we absolutely loved it.

The staff and crew as always are attentive and friendly. Paul and Dave made good impressions on the entertainment team, Kane was a friendly Cruise Director and the shows were of the usual high standard.

Special mention to our waitors Alexis, Jefferson and John John - Alexis is one of the stars on the crew show.

Also loved the itinerary - most reviews below have covered this so will just add a few comments.

Corfu changeover day - did the boat trip - it was ok and enjoyed seeing the divers at close hand, but it was a bit of a 'set-up' - did enjoy the walk round the old town afterwards.

Crete - if you have read 'The Island' by Victoria Hislop (or even if not) then go on the Spinalonga Island trip - fascinating - also included an excellent greek mezze afterwards.

Santorini - cancelled due to high winds

Kusa Dasi - awful! Didnt do a trip as had already been to Ephesus, but got pestered to death walking round the town - completely put us off going in the shops.

Katakolon - trip to Olympia, busy, hot but interesting.

Athens - a quiet day on board.

Week 2 - Koper - a quiet little town (especially on a Sunday) - quite nice for a little wander.

Venice - did the ships half day DIY - this meant only 3 hours in Venice, so next time will use the water buses a short walk from the port - more flexibility.

Split - loved it - a really pretty old town

Dubrovnik - loved it even more!!! Shared a taxi into the old town - walked around the walls - took an hour and we were hot * knackered but the views were to die for.

Kotor - got up for the 6 o clock sail in - spectacular but just as good at the more civilised time at sail away - again a very quaint little town.

We have booked for next year to take our sons - am glad to see Kusa Dasi has been dropped and a couple of other port changes have been made.

Returned from our holiday (29th May to 12th June 2009). Celebration a great ship. As per previous reviews the ports of call are excellent-: AG NIK, Kotor and Croatia all great. Slovenia also very lovely once you come out of the port, however I feel 14 hours in Koper is too long (come on Thomson's put Ronvinj back on the itinery). Staff all loverly, small niggle when you get to port. On th Emerald you got off the bus to check on the boat & the luggage was taken by the coach to the put. Now you have to get off take your luggage off the coach and then take inside where a porter puts this on smallest van I think they could have found for transfer to the ship. It did mean quite a wait for your luggage and in most cases a drip feed of your cases. All said Celebration is great, Gavin Carroll was on baord as cruise director (but only for 3 weeks). Not sure ship some of the previous reveiws had been on but found most of the entertainment in all venues good. This included the bands who are almost certainly in tune, we even enjoyed the trio in Horizon's. When you are leaving Kotor head for Horizon's what a veiw. Captain Roy also did a tour of the fjord heading into Kotor (you do have to be up at 6am though, but worth it. We were on deck 6, room lovely only comment would be they have spent money on doing the room why didn't they change the bathroom's at the same time. At the question session the captain advised that the Celebration will go in for a refit in winter 2011, he had been checking out dry docks in Montenegro for the work a few weeks previous. Special mention to mairi housekeeping deck six he is a star, Angel (Angelo) bar, Jonathan Lido resteraunt and too many others to mention. All the best to Dave and Jenny entertainment.

We have just arrived home after one week.(PEARLS OF THE AEGEAN}
Well lets start with the positives.The cruise was really good.Could not stop in Santorini as there was very harsh winds and no tenders would operate.However this could not be helped and was nobodys fault.The other stops were fine and in all of them except Pireaus we did our own thing.
We took the Athens trip for the less active and they take you to see the Acropolis and some of the sights from down below so there is no climbing involved.
However the trip was supposed to be 4 hours and we were back in three and half hours and they had taken us to some shops and left us for one hour.So it would have been easier to hopped into a taxi and probably saw everything for about £10 rather than the £56 it cost us for 2.
You can never fault the philipino and indonesian crew aboard these ships but towards the end of the week it appears if the ship was to dock in Greece during the summer then the trade off was that the ship had to employ some greek staff.This happended during the week and a lot opf the philipino staff were sent off the ship.Well the first 2 days after this it was mayhem It was difficult to get a drink and the greeks really didnt know what you were talking about and quite frankly failed to understand anything we said.
The food on board was good as was the entertainment in the main Broadway lounge.
There was a group on deck every day to play at lunchtime called night moods and quite frankly the people in charge of hiring were probably tone deaf when they hired this band.The male singer couldnt sing in tune and the female singer just couldnt sing full stop.We renamed these cant sing and dont sing because they were so cruelly out of tune.No noise on deck at lunchtime would have been preferable to them.
There was a problem when we all arrived in as much as probably 20 of us had paid and prebooked cabins.When we arrived none of us had the cabin we booked and were subsequently given refunds of our booking fees
The reception staff were all philipino and headed by SHEILA.
Quite frankly none of the staff had any powers to do anything and just constantly fobbed you off with a time to come back to see Sheila.When you got there she was never there.Trying to get an audience with the pope would be less stressful.
All she could utter was that it was a bank holiday weekend and she could not get through to head office.But dont worry all matters would be settled on ship before you left.Of course it wasnt and at the end of the cruise you were given the head office address to write to.
I would say to anyone with a problem that needs to be solved that can wait until you get home then do so, because she will skirt all round the problem and waste everyones time but not solve anything.
Finally the cruise director KANE DAVIS What a card superb.
All in all a very good cruise once again and if you go with the above knowledge then you will not be disappointed.

PS Also a mention to the lovely captain CAPTAIN BOB such a nice human man.