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Aegean and Adriatic review

joeholiday2

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joeholiday2

joeholiday2

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Posted

Will post on the review pages too:

 

Thomson Majesty.

5th July – 19th July 13

Pearls of the Aegean- Adriatic Explorer

 

 

This will be our eighth Thomson Cruise, and having been on the Dream (Feb 13) and the Celebration (May 13) both post and pre Platinum upgrade we have something to compare to.

 

 

We picked this cruise for the itinerary, many cruisers had told us in the past that Adriatic Explorer is the best one Thomson do, and we would not disagree with this. It’s one of the most expensive (probably because of the port changes in Venice) but is one of the most spectacular and well worth the extra over a usual Med cruise if you have never seen these ports before. We had some trepidation when booking the Majesty as there have been some reports where people said they didn’t like the ship.

We found the ship fine, yes there are the usual sundeck issues, particularly the very narrow areas between above the pools, but we find these minor issues.

We had an inside plus Deck 3 (3055) and found it was plenty big enough, the standard cabins look small (quite a bit narrower than the plus) but we would be happy with one of those for a week if a plus was not available. It is worth paying the extra £35 each per week if they are available, especially if you are doing a fortnight. The cabin was well appointed with a good fridge and our lovely cabin stewards Irene and Andreea kept the ice bucket full for us. The grouting at the bottom of the shower was a little grubby, but nothing that caused us any problems. Most days the shower had to be run for 10 minutes to get some hot water, but there was plenty of force.

The TV remote was faulty so we reported it straight away to Irene, when we returned that evening it had been replaced, the following day the old CRT TV had been replaced with a new flat screen which had a much better picture.

 

 

The most noticeable problems with the ship are the queuing for both MDR’s if you arrive any later than 7:45pm, before that you will be fine. There is a lack of seating in the main buffet and occasionally at breakfast we had to go downstairs to the Royal Observatory. We found the food at breakfast better at the buffet than the MDR’s, the pre-made fried eggs were undercooked wherever you ate, so having the egg station at the buffet meant you could get a fresh one cooked to your liking.

We also found the Orange juice and breakfast coffee in the MDR watered down, the buffet was much nicer. A noticeable improvement over the Celebration and Dream was that the mushrooms were fresh and not tinned. The lunchtime food in the MDR was good, we had a lovely Ciabatta sandwich with fried fish, cheese and tomato one day, (nicer than it sounds, honestly) but the service was rather slow for lunchtime, and we would be in there an hour some days.

We mostly ate in the Four Seasons in the evening, we found the atmosphere better and the waiters seemed friendlier, aiming for Leo’s section whenever we could, he gave excellent service. We did notice that the portions are huge compared to the Celebration and Dream, the mains were around double the size, and we always skipped the salad course because of this. We would say the food quality was comparable with the other ships, and did not have a bad meal at all.

There was no midnight buffet, just a chocolate fountain, and we noticed the baked Alaska parade was a little tame, we think it was rushed as people tend to eat later on this ship and they wanted to get back to giving service.

 

 

NOROVIRUS, no problems on this ship, we didn’t hear of anyone going down with it, or see any signs such as doormats:)

 

 

As the ship is around 10 years younger than the other two it doesn’t shake and rattle the same, our cabin was midships towards the aft and there was very little noise, much less than you would get on the Celebration or Dream in a similar position, we always have booked the cabin on these ships to get a midships, but would not hesitate in taking pot luck again on the Majesty.

 

The staff seem more of a mix of nationalities than Celebration or Dream, with many wait staff being from Eastern Europe, rather than the mix of Philipino, Balinese, and Indonesian that are on the other ships. Most of the Eastern Europeans are great fun (Anne-Marie for instance is lovely) but occasionally you come across a surly one. They all get along together and that comes across, Grace and Diana are absolute stars, always laughing and jolly. We sat at the bar in Rendezvous, and always had a good laugh with Eko, Ida, and Angel behind the bar; they are constantly busy yet always have time for you.

The quality of the drinks was also fine, we didn’t notice any difference to the way cocktails were made whether you were on the drinks package or not, and our G&T’s got stronger as we got to know the boys better:D

 

 

The entertainment….. well what can we say… it’s the best showteam we have seen on any ship!

 

 

All of them have so much talent, and as Paul Evans the CD says, they make his job easy. Half of them are new to cruising and others like Gareth the ACD and Kerry we have met before. The singers Brandi (USA), Max (Holland), Rob, Brian, Beth, and Alice have excellent voices. They sometime give Alice a song that stretches her range, but nevertheless she has a good voice.

The dancers (sorry can’t remember all of their names, I know one of the girls is from New Caledonia) are good singers too, occasionally doing a song individually as well as the excellent harmonies they provide to the main singers.

The sailaway from Venice is something special, Brandi, Max and Rob sing as you sail out finishing with O Sole Mio, it is really is amazing. The team are on until next April, so catch them whilst you can.

 

 

 

One thing that would be great if is transferred over to the other ships is putting the house band on for half an hour before the shows start, this is a brilliant idea, as the lounge starts to fill up you have some proper entertainment rather than the musak they play waiting for the show to start.

We never saw the classical Duo, but Summerland and Musik Unlimited are great bands, with Musik Unlimited performing every bit as good as Top Men, they are truly professional musicians.

Mark Smith who played Piano every night in Rendezvous was also excellent; we spent hours in there listening to him, he has gone home now, but may return later in the season.

 

 

In all we had a great cruise and would sail both itineraries and the Majesty again without hesitation.

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geomagot

geomagot

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thanks for this joe

 

I must say this has given me food for thought now that i am planning our next family holiday (with kids and mil in tow)

 

majesty is getting some good reviews

 

was looking at a week in sharm again, but now considering a week on majesty holy land itinerary???

 

what to do?? what to do??

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Julessmiles

Julessmiles

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Thanks for this review :)

 

Not sure If it's the same Gareth but there was a lovely Gareth on the Celebration last year in the Entertainment team - he was fairly young but had very short hair (trying to be subtle here!), a little bit 'cuddly' and he was a great guy & a great singer - I do hope it's the same Gareth & he's been promoted ;)

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CRUISIN LINDA

CRUISIN LINDA

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Hi Joe, thanks for the great review.

 

One little niggle though ;) You say it is a good idea to have the band playing before the show in the show in the show lounge. Before the first show maybe, but we like to go to the second show and we sometimes found it difficult to get seats as some people stayed on to watch the band and then presumably stayed for the second show. We felt it would have been better to empty the theatre between shows.

 

Otherwise completely agree with all you say. Great ship, great entertainment and great food :)

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macren

macren

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I agree a good review the entertainment team are just the best also Musik Unlimited very good with a massive repertoire ,the sail out of Venice was just spine tingling with Rob,Max,and Brandi singing ,we have been back now nearly 5weeks and still miss it :)

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joeholiday2

joeholiday2

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The Mushrooms were fresh last year on the Dream and Celebration, it's this years cruises they have gone to tinned, yuck, they are horrible.

 

Gareth is called Gareth Rockwell, he is engaged to Kerry one of the dancers, he admits to being the oldest of the team at 35, he did a late night cabaret and has a good voice. I am not subtle.... he is as bald as me:D, and is a nice bloke.

 

Linda, I know what you mean, the seats facing the front were always full, we normally got one down the side and to be honest always had a good view due to the way they moved in the show to face the sides from time to time.

 

To watch the sail into Venice you have to get up around 6am, it's worth it.

On the way out they sing on the stage by the pool so if you are on the top deck near there you can watch the sailaway and listen. As Macren says it is spine tingling, quite emotional really as you realise that you may never have this experience again.

 

Something else that has come back to me:

The wine packages on offer didn't appeal to us, they seem expensive and include bottled water that we would not have used. The package on Celebration was far better. We just stuck to the house red when we had some wine.

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Julessmiles

Julessmiles

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Posted

[quote name=joeholiday2;39262038

 

Gareth is called Gareth Rockwell' date=' he is engaged to Kerry one of the dancers, he admits to being the oldest of the team at 35, he did a late night cabaret and has a good voice. I am not subtle.... he is as bald as me:D, and is a nice bloke.

.[/quote]

 

Yes, it is the same Gareth - great news - he was a lovely bloke :)

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Jim The Scot Holiday Sharing Rare

Jim The Scot

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Thanks Joe,great review.A long way off but after reading your review and after 4 cruises on The Dream (or is it 5 Linda?;))were really looking forward to our cruise on the Majesty( same itinerary) next May .Noticed you said the entertainment team are only on till next April so heres hoping the new entertainment team are equally as good if not better for our cruise.

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Dreamgirl1957

Dreamgirl1957

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Hi Joe, we were also onboard but just for a week from 5th July doing the Aegean, we had a hotel stay the week before as we did Adriatic 2 years ago.

 

Agree with everything you have said, we loved the ship and thought food great and show team fantastic! :D

 

We really liked music unlimited too, they really are fantastic and should be given a pay rise in my opinion, so much energy and fab voices.

 

We used the bistro twice and really liked that, fab fillet steak !!

 

Have also posted a review and we would def not hesitate to book the Majesty again.:cool:

 

Hope with both of our positive reviews it will encourage lots of bookings, i know when the ship joined the fleet there were a few moans ( and some recently) but i think at first it was the upset of the Destiny going :( so suddenly as was so well loved and i know like all ships there will be some passengers who do not have a good experience but we loved it and couldnt really fault a thing ! :)

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wiganwarrior

wiganwarrior

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Sounds like a super holiday and thank you for this review. We also have little gripes concerning the watered down orange juice and tinned mushrooms at breakfast served on the Dream. May well consider this for the future.

 

i met up with joe on board the same cruise, it was our first cruise and really enjoyedit, we only did the first week, pearls of the aegean, it was that good we have just booked today , 25th july, for adriatic explorer for may.

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CRUISIN LINDA

CRUISIN LINDA

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i met up with joe on board the same cruise, it was our first cruise and really enjoyedit, we only did the first week, pearls of the aegean, it was that good we have just booked today , 25th july, for adriatic explorer for may.

Ah - addicted already :D Better start saving the pennies :D

 

Adriatic Explorer is great - good choice :)

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happy v

happy v

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i met up with joe on board the same cruise, it was our first cruise and really enjoyedit, we only did the first week, pearls of the aegean, it was that good we have just booked today , 25th july, for adriatic explorer for may.

 

Good for you.:D:D

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joeholiday2

joeholiday2

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Hi Paul.

 

Hope you enjoyed your week in the hotel. How did it compare with the cruise?

I see you have got the bug now.... you will love the Adriatic itinerary.

 

The first weeks shows were better than the second week, but we probably think that because we have seen most of the ones on the second week on previous cruises.

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CRUISIN LINDA

CRUISIN LINDA

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how do i add a new countdown

 

1) Click on "Countdown clock"

 

2) Enter your user name, ship, date of cruise and any message you want to put on.

 

3) Click on "Create your countdown"

 

4) Highlight text and copy it

 

5) Now go to "User CP" and scroll down to "Edit Signature" click on that.

 

6) Paste the message into your signature

 

7) Save (you can preview it first if you like)

 

Hope this makes sense :)

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CRUISIN LINDA

CRUISIN LINDA

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Fabulous pictures as usual Joe :) Loved the Adriatic, haven't done the Aegian - YET :D We didn't go to Sibenik, but it looks similar to Koper.

 

BTW, I found the camera on the Argos website and it was sold out, in all the shops and online :(:( Amazon have it, but more expensive :rolleyes:

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