Thomson Travel - Mediterranean Cruise

...- Mediterranean Renaissance on the Thomson Spirit. It was a 50th birthday surprise for my mum. Booked it online through the Thomson website and got a free all inclusive upgrade. We had an outside cabin on deck one and flights from Glasgow - came in at around £1500. We were both quite excited but a little nervous about it. We had been on a mini cruise previously and had heard good things about Thomson cruises.

You get your tickets around ...
...foyer by a member of Thomson staff with a Thomson Cruises clipboard. She directed us to a particular door of the airport where another member of staff gave us some papers with information about travel to the ship. We were then directed to a particular coach. A member of staff came on the coach with us for the short trip to where the ship was berthed.

Once we arrived at the ship, a member of the Spirit staff came on the bus and explained ... more

I was away on my first ever cruise in the first week in May - Mediterranean Renaissance on the Thomson Spirit. It was a 50th birthday surprise for my mum. Booked it online through the Thomson website and got a free all inclusive upgrade. We had an outside cabin on deck one and flights from Glasgow - came in at around £1500. We were both quite excited but a little nervous about it. We had been on a mini cruise previously and had heard good things about Thomson cruises.

You get your tickets around two weeks before travel as part of an information booklet which gives you examples of excursions and tells you a bit about life on board. You can opt for requesting a particular cabin, or champagne on arrival as well as other things. You get luggage labels also.

Itinerary
Palma, Villefranche (Nice and Monte Carlo), Livorno (Florence and Pisa), Civitavecchia (Rome), Alghero, Palamos (Barcelona), Palma

Day two was a full day at sea but each other day you arrived at a new place first thing. The Med was rather choppy on day two and on the evening heading into Alghero – some people were seasick and the lifts were put off. It makes for great amusement trying to walk around when you are getting moved about with the waves! Luckily, we felt alright although a bit nervous when an engineer came to our cabin at 1am on the bad weather night to lock our porthole! Luckily, the weather during the days was lovely. It can get very windy on deck though.

Travel to and boarding the Ship
Unfortunately, the flight times to Palma from Glasgow are pretty early (6.25am, which doesn't sound too bad until you factor in check in time and travel to airport). Our flight landed in Palma at 10.20am local time. Having collected our luggage, we were greeted in the foyer by a member of Thomson staff with a Thomson Cruises clipboard. She directed us to a particular door of the airport where another member of staff gave us some papers with information about travel to the ship. We were then directed to a particular coach. A member of staff came on the coach with us for the short trip to where the ship was berthed.

Once we arrived at the ship, a member of the Spirit staff came on the bus and explained that we had to get off the bus, collect an envelope from the staff which contained stickers to put on our luggage so that it would be delivered to our cabin later on. The Spirit staff got everyone’s suitcase from the coach and put it through a security scanner before we put our stickers on it (we would next see it brought to our cabin). We then proceeded up some stairs into a building where we registered a card for the cabin account, had our photographs taken for our swipe cards and showed our passports for checking. We then proceeded to a photo opportunity (there are many of these on the cruise) with a picture of the Spirit behind us and some boat paraphernalia round about us. (We did not buy this photo as the early start did us no good whatsoever!) We then were greeted by a member of staff who instructed us to sanitise our hands before going onto the ship. We presented our swipe cards to be scanned onto the boat and then a member of staff showed us to our cabin.

The Cabin
As I said, our cabin was a deck one outside cabin. It was fairly roomy and could have slept four. There was plenty of wardrobe and drawer space (with hairdryer), a good sized dressing table with a mirror, a TV and a full length mirror on the back of the cabin door. The bathroom was compact with shower, toilet and sink area. There was a decent amount of storage space in the bathroom in the form of a cabinet. It was very clean and stayed this way for the entire week due to the hard work of our maid, Naty. The room was serviced in the morning and in the evening. The evening service involved turning back the beds, putting a chocolate on the pillows, and making the bath towels into shapes (sandcastles and dogs!). Towels were changed as often as you wanted. My only gripe about the cabin was that the only plug socket in the room was right on the level with the dressing table and so I couldn’t get my phone charger in when fitted to my European adaptor. Luckily, reception staff were happy to charge your phone for you and you signed it in and out with them as you needed to. The TV in the room had questionable picture, but had news channels, a couple of film channels, a ‘view from the front of the boat’ channel and a channel which showed the trip DVD.

Food and drink on board
There were several bars on board:

Horizons – relaxed, coffee-style bar on deck nine with views out over the front of the ship.
Raffles – piano bar with casino table and fruit machines at one end
Explorers lounge – quiet lounge with live music
Broadway Show Lounge – where the shows were in the evening
High Sprits – the smokers bar where there was daily bingo and quizzes
The Lido Bar – outdoor bar at the back of the ship

Drinks are also served out on deck when you are lying out in the sun.

As I mentioned, we had All Inclusive package which entitled us to pretty much unlimited drink throughout the trip. A few items were excluded such as Baileys, Jack Daniels, Liqueur Coffees and bottled water. Everything was well known brands and soft drinks were served as cans. There was a decent cocktail menu and a good range of coffees and lovely hot chocolate. Glasses of wine were included, but not a full bottle so the drink servers at dinner just topped you up as you went. When you ordered something, you showed your swipe card and then signed a slip. Everything came in an itemised bill at the end of the week (price £0 showed for items which were included). We bought bottled water on the boat to take with us out on excursions, 60p for a standard bottle. There was an ice bucket in the cabin which the maid filled if you had juice in your room.

There were three restaurants on board: Compass Rose which had waiter service, the Lido, which was a self service buffet, and Sirocco’s which was an a la carte with a service charge payable (Around £18). There is sanitizer at the entrance to each restaurant which a member of staff reminds you to use.

We didn’t feel the need to use Sirocco’s as the food otherwise was so good. The Compass Rose was our most frequented restaurant on board. The food was absolutely great. There was a choice of six courses at dinner and similar at lunch, including a sandwich of the day. You could have one or all of the courses if you liked. The service was really friendly and you were made to feel very welcome. Iced water was served with lunch and dinner and you could order a drink served to your table. The breakfast was very comprehensive with a range of breads, pastries, juices, cereals and hot dishes. Would thoroughly recommend the Spanish omelette!

The Lido restaurant is opened pretty much 24hrs. Breakfast consisted of the usual breads, pastries, juices and hot dishes and my favourite – hot pancakes and waffles with maple syrup. Lunch was varied, you could always get a burger or chips, pizza, baked potato in the outside section and a range of hot and cold foods inside. The most exciting part of this restaurant for me was afternoon tea where there were nice filled sandwiches and croissants and hot fruit scones with jam and cream. A lovely treat. This restaurant was open until the early hours, serving chips, hot dogs and even cheese on toast to those heading back from the bars.

On the second night (at the end of the day at sea) there was the Captain’s Dinner and Cocktail Party. This is the only dressy occasion onboard. You get introduced to the Captain individually and your photograph taken with him. Once everyone is seated in the Broadway Show Lounge, he introduces his crew and welcomes you onboard. Following this, you go through to the Compass Rose for your dinner.

Later in the week there is a Buffet Magnifique where the Compass Rose is decked out with an array of artistic cooking and baking. Pineapples designed into penguins, ice carvings, chocolate handbags and so on form this amazing display. Everyone gets a chance to go in and take pictures and then to go back in and dig in. It was such a shame to break it all to eat it, but it was delicious – especially the chocolate cakes and pastries.

You would not go hungry or thirsty on this ship. The service was excellent, the food lovely – no complaints whatsoever (apart from putting on 5lbs!)

Entertainment
Late each evening, a copy of Cruise News was delivered to the cabin which gave details about the port we would be visiting the next day and what would be going on onboard in the way of entertainment and events. You could put an announcement in the Cruise News for a small fee.

There was loads going on throughout the day and evening. There was a cinema on board, a casino, a gym, two pools, a sports area, a library and an internet café. During the day there was live music and quizzes on the Lido Deck. There were three shops on board – perfume, jewellery and a general shop selling clothes, chocolate, handbags and Thomson branded things. They were only open when the ship was at sea.

My favourite part of the entertainment was the shows in the Broadway Show Lounge at night. Headed up by cruise director Richard Sykes and his great team there were remakes of Singin’ in the Rain and a Queen musical. One night there was a show which took in a variety of West End shows, from Cabaret to Wicked. There was a guest act of two comedians (a man and his son) who were incredibly funny. All shows were on twice so that no one missed out although it becomes hard to get a seat with a good view if you aren’t in there early.

There was bingo every night in high spirits, followed by games and each night ended with a Disco. This was the only bar on deck that allowed smoking so I didn’t spend a great deal of time in it. It seemed to always be busy.

Horizons and Raffles Bar also had live music in the evenings – more chilled out than the other bars.

Ports and Excursions
There is a destinations service onboard where you can book organised excursions or get information about the ports of call. A leaflet on each port and an excursions brochure is in your cabin on arrival. On the second day (day at sea), there are Port Showcases, where the staff go through the excursions on offer. Excursions are quite pricey for what you get – around £50 for a full day, apart from Rome which is £75/89 for a full day (Inc, lunch). We did a few excursions but found that others made their own way for much less and enjoyed it so it is a learning point for next time. All the places we stopped were lovely, we didn’t go to Barcelona as we had been there before but went to other places. Rome and Pisa are terribly tourist oriented and people are trying to sell you things constantly.

All ports had a means of transport nearby which you could use to travel independently. At Villefranche and Alghero, tender boats were used to get to shore. You had a full day in each place (7am to 7pm generally, Alghero was the shortest at 9am to 5pm) so you could do a half day trip and spend the afternoon on the boat or whatever. The excursions can be tiring with all the walking (especially Rome, not for the faint hearted) and you need to be ready to go around 8am, so they can mean an early start. It is nice to wander yourself so that you aren’t marching to someone else’s tune although the local guides used were very informative.

Other things
When you join the ship you have to register a card to your cabin or leave a deposit as it is a cashless ship. Everything is then charged to your cabin (including excursions) and billed at the end of the week. They put an account under your door on the second last night and then a final bill on the last night. Your registered card is billed automatically both times and comes on your statement ‘Thomson Spirit, London’.

There is a leaving party at the back of the boat when it sails from Palma at 11pm on the first night. The entertainment team count down to leaving and then there is lots of singing and dancing well into the night. It is a dead exciting feeling to know that it is all starting and I wouldn’t miss this part of it.

There is a photography service on board who will catch you at every opportunity and a DVD of the week is made and sold at the end. The photo’s are displayed each evening but are £12 each which is quite pricey. I am not sure of the cost of the DVD because I wasn’t that interested in buying it. (Although I did wonder who was filming us in Pisa!)

Smoking is only allowed in the High Spirits bar inside and in outside areas. As a non smoker, I avoided this bar which was a shame as it had entertainment going on. There was a letter in the welcome pack about how they had to take this step to come in line with law and customer feedback.

You have to have your suitcase outside your cabin for 1am on the final night for sorting by the staff when putting it ashore for you on arrival. This is a bit of a nuisance as you still need jammies, toiletries etc but you can put these things back in your case at the airport when queuing to check in. When you get off the boat, you locate your case (from rows and rows of them) and take it to the coach for travel back to the airport. Each flight back has a different coloured tag for identification and you get a security seal for your zips.

Conclusion
I realise this is a bit of an essay, am sure I could write a book on how great the trip was. I had an amazing time and I would recommend this holiday to anyone. I am looking into booking another one already (although need to do a bit of saving first).

Nothing is too much trouble for the staff on board. They are really helpful and cheery despite working really long hours and although it says tips are included, we tipped some of the people who served us regularly as they really made the trip even better.

If you haven’t tried it, try it – I am 26 and didn’t feel particularly out of place with the older crowd. Met some really nice people and had an amazing time. Seven days just isn’t long enough – it’s so sad when you have to leave the boat! 

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