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A very pleasant holiday |
| Reviewed By: John, Cheshire on 1st Dec 2008 |
| Cruise Line: Ocean Village Cruises |
Times cruised before: 1-2 |
| Cruise Ship: Ocean Village Two |
Sailed:
November,
2008 |
| Destination: Transatlantic |
Age: 56-65 |
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We sailed transatlantic/">transatlantic from Palma to the Caribbean on a three week cruise taking in Gibraltar,Cartagena,Madeira,then over to Antigua,and then a number of Caribbean island-cruises-summer-holidays/">islands. The flights from Manchester and the boarding of the ship went very smoothly,with no problems at all.
Within the first couple of days my wife and I had been pursuaded to take up the offer of a three visit offer to the James Martin restaurant,"THE BISTRO", quite frankly the food was awful,on our first visit the fillet stake was stone cold on a stone cold plate,the second visit was passable,on the third visit my wife had John Dory and I had Cod,both fish dishes were uneatable in that the fish was as chewy as rubber,reasonable to assume that the chef was clueless. I have to say although the food was of a poor standard the presentation was of a high standard and the service was also very good,with the waitress Anne not only good to look at but good at her job,in fact had it not been for her charm we probably would have walked out the food was that bad. My advice here is leave well alone,and in fact most people did as it was always empty.
With the bad news out of the way I have to say I enjoyed the cruise very much,the only other draw back really was some of the staff,Franky of the entertainment staff who was out of his depth and vert rude when approached on a one to one.On the first night in the "Players" bar I asked him why the music was so loud,he was the DJ I found him reading a book behind the DJ booth.he told me that "this cruise was not for the likes of me,and that this was a very young ship,that it was full of discos,had no caberet and that I had chosen the wrong cruise" that was my first night, charming,apparantly I was not the only one this charmless individual had upset,poor "Franky" was only happy when he was shouting down a microphone. Im afraid that Franky is as out of date as his hairstyle.Considering the average age on board was about 50 adjustments should have been made.
The ship itself is a fine ship very clean and well run although I did hear many people complaining that they never saw the captain,I only assume he was on board and that his public announcements were not all prerecorded,either way we got into each port on time and without fuss. With regard to the entertainment on board I found all of this very satisfactory,although the casino was more like an amusement arcade than a casino,and far too noisy to be anything else,it was far too close to noisy Franky to work properly.The shows in the theatre were great and the resident dancers and singers were excellent and the production and dancing (and singing) were a credit to them.I read that some people say that these shows are not west end standard,I would like to point out that I have seen some hopeless west end shows and further point out that west end shows go on for months and that they are bound to improve,the shows on board change nightly and that the dancers do extremely well to get it as good as they do,so well done to them. With regard to the tribute acts Annie Lennox great,Freddie Mercury great entertainment,Also the waiter service for drinks at the show excellent.
The food in the Plantation and the Waterfront was the same as each other,I could not see a difference in these two restaurants,as was the ambience. Just one small point about these two restaurants,I found the waiters (not the waitresses) intimidating,in that if you were walking towards them,even if you had a trayfull of food,there was no way that they would move out of the way you had to move,on two occasions I had soup sent all over the place,and no apology,they just did not seem to understand that it was normal manners. Oh and another small point if you choose this cruise and use these restaurants sit at a table where there are adjoining tables where you can pile up your used crockery between courses,because the same waiters dont collect it.
The cabins were very good we had an outside on deck 9 a DD,plenty of room and loads of draw space even for a three weeker,we had a maid calles May, I prefer a femail to a male so much prettier,and plenty of smiles,she did a good job,everything about the cabin was very good.
I felt that the photographic department was a let down, I like to buy these pictures but it is very difficult to do,the one taken as you board,it took us three days and nights to purchase this after we found it,nobody wanted to know,we could have walkes off with it and nobody would have known. WE had pictures taken in the Bistro,on the quayside,on deck you name it,we were desperate to buy them, no luck,we couldnt find them,we even went down to the studio on deck 2 during advertised opening times,never anybody there,the photo team seemed ok at taking the pictures but after that, hopeless.
But we did enjoy the experience,we saw lots of things we had never seen before,like the waiters for example,we swam with stingrays,saw how nutmeg was made,(what an experience),and saw and swam from many beautiful beaches,and met many very nice West Indians,who have mastered he art of doing nothing. All in all my wife and I had a very nice holiday and even the 9 hour flight back from Aruba wasnt so bad.
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