This was my first cruise so (and our pearl wedding aniversary) I did not know what to expect The ship was clean in some places ie:reception especally the cabin we had was kept clean by a hard working lady. The tiolet situation was disgusting I cannot believe that the captain was passing the blame onto the passengers we were told that there was a problem with the ship the previous week and the ship in fact should not have sailed as all good managers he passed the buck and said his job was to steer the ship and not deal with silly matters like toilet problems (in a roundabout way).As I mentioned this was my first cruise and was told by people who had cruised before that there should not be any problems with sea sickness I suffered all week seing as we were sailing through fairly calm seas it was not until I had spoken to other passengers who had sailed on this ship before they explained that the stabilizers were not working so I suppose this would be the answer to sickness problem.The ship staff especally the recepition staff and the thomson rep were very un-helpful it was quite hard to get your point over to some of the staff as there English was not that good. the Thomsopn Rep was english but all she was intrerested in was selling you trips and on board deals she could not be bothered to sort any problems out (as she leaving at the end of the week and was not interested)The ship security was non exsitecent there seemed to be lots of children running around doing what they wanted ,In the swimming pools the gym on decks and in the evening in the entertainment areas we witnessed on some evenings young children going to the bars and getting drinks (Alcohol) with a card surely this is not right.
Last moan the day of depature from the ship we were turned out of rooms at 9am and were not being picked up till 4-30pm so we thought we would relax on board ship. An announcement was made that the toilet system was being swithced off and somebody would make another announcent to where you could use the toilet.
Deck 2 was the place for toilets what they had forgot to say was that some of the cabins were in fact already being used as courtesy cabins which some passengers had already paid £30 for and had left their luggage and belongings in. My wife witnessed people pushing and shoving to use the toilets but people who had booked the rooms were standing outside them not letting people enter them.
The good points
The cabin maid who worked hard keeping the room spotless .
The severn seas good food and good service from waiters and aslo the singing waiters.

This was my first cruise and also our Pearl wedding anviversary so I was hoping for a special week it did not turn out like that and we were upset at spending so much money and having problems which were not of our doing.

October 27 - 3 Nov
Despite all the comments from previous weeks passengers, This was our first cruise and we could not fault anything the food entertainment the overall service from all concerned Sergiy our house keeper, Alan our table waiter, Lana our bar waitress, Sue the entertainment director, Gavin,all the thomson entertainment crew absoulutely brilliant and very proffessional, we have stayed in five star hotels with more problems than what was experienced! than some of the trivial ones stated, yes the toilets were blocked but which we were made aware of before boarding, but were sorted within a matter of hours. A holiday is what you make of it and we certaintly didnt let anything spoil our week away with the Thomson Destiny crew, and yes we will be back.

One thing I would say is the Morrocan trip was not worth the money, we paid forty euros for a taxi for the 5 of us, wont get off there again.

Of all the people we met on board the only remarks made were that of good ones not bad.

I sailed on the Thomson Destiny and had the most Fantastic time i have ever had, I have sailed with Disney, Cunard, Carnival and Silverseas and i cannot fault the ship and services for what i paid, yes, we had problems with our toilets, it certainly did not ruin my enjoyment, I have paid thousands of pounds on other ships and had just as many problems, and i will say that some of the comments posted are crazy, I refer to one which mentions the response of the on board management, they faced us at every possibble opportunity and one reference to the skill of the Hotel manager and Thomson representative i would guess is posted by the over powering Blond lady who tried to rally a lynching party in the reception area, she may know that this is not the way to resolve issues when obviously the ships management are working 24 hours to resolve the issue, My heart went out to those two gentlemen who had to stand and smile and explain a situation that they could not answer at that time, i know many of the people i spoke to that night agree that we were given as much information as was available. For those of you who doubt the ship, try it out and see for yourselves, we have booked for the Christmas cruise departing December 22nd and cant wait to get back to our 2nd Family on the Destiny.

This is the first time I have encountered this website so bear with me and here goes.

It was our first cruise of any description due to the fact that I have not inherited any sailing tendencies despite my father's 20 odd years as a merchant seaman!

Manchester to Tenerife was fine; although the booking onto the ship was a pain in the posterior a process which took approximately 2 hours. Once on the ship staff were helpful and the cabin (an outside one) was small but had a porthole so at least we could tell what time of day it was. My husband's bed was the fold up one, which once let down had a light that came on so it looked as though he was sleeping in the fridge but apart from that it was acceptable. The cabin steward, Hellen, was nothing if not efficient and always had the time to say hello.

The first night anchored in Tenerife was a bit of an eye opener. We found the Lido buffet and were faced with burgers and hot dogs, which was a bit off putting as we would not normally have them at home. Even more off putting was the entertainment. I'm sure they are all very nice people and you certainly would not find me getting up to sing in public but it struck me as being a bit Butlins at Sea. My husband thought it was rather 'Hi De Hi' and spent a happy half hour trying to work out which one was Ted Bovis! Snobs! I hear you cry, and yes I would give you that on this score. It was something of an indication as to how the Thomson brand has been dumbed down since it has been amalgamated with other brands.

Still it got better, no really that is with tongue firmly out of cheek!

The cabin was a bit small but as we were only ever there for sleeping and changing then it was not a huge problem. We opted for the second sitting for dinner which meant we had time for a pre - dinner drink as well as some after dinner ones. We didn't venture to the shows as they were all a bit crowded and smoky for two ardent anti smokers one of whom is asthmatic as well but we heard from people who did go that the shows were very good.

We liked Blake's Bar with Bill the pianist as it was quiet (apart from Bill tinkling away) and non smoking. I particularly liked Deck 7 with the steamer chairs (very elegant cruising darlings!)as it was away from the main pool area which got a bit noisy.

Which brings me to my main complaint. I know it's a family ship but shouldn't a lot of those children been in school? I know next year I have the choice to go adults only and I will. Don't get me wrong I like children, especially when I can give them back, I just don't want to be stuck with hundreds of them on holiday.

As for other problems reported on this site, we had no problems with the plumbing in the cabin. The only time I thought the loos were a bit iffy was when I nipped into the ones near the Lido bar which were a bit whiffy, well quite a lot whiffy if I'm honest but I put that down to the fact that it was only one loo that had been in more or less constant use all day by everyone using and/or passing the pool area. There were no rampaging children or if there were perhaps I was somewhere else.

The trips were a bit disappointing. I felt as though we were sitting ducks for all the potential tourist bits and bobs that were on offer. A word to the wise, if you have been to Tunisia before but not Morocco you could be in for a surprise. This is not the sanitised, Europeanised version of North Africa you get in Tunisia, this is North Africa as it is. So if you like your lamb chops on a tray, covered in clingfilm and marked 'Sainsbury's' this might not be for you as you will get to be eye to eye with the sheep from which your chops come and even more intimately with his entrails hanging close by. This didn't bother me as I accept that this is where meat comes from but I know some people don't like to get that intimate with their dinner! Essentially not for the squeamish (is that how you spell it?!) among you.

The truth of the matter is this cruise is what you make it. You can have endless entertainment or you can find a steamer chair or a bar where you can retreat behind your book/newspaper and shut out the rest of the world. Essentially we would have been better off on an adult only holiday, on a smaller ship and a bigger cabin. However, as a first time cruise it was good. I've marked only 1 point for the entertainment as not having seen any I couldn't comment.

Have sailed with QE2, Carnival Liberty, and Costa Mediterranea and have to say the Destiny staff matched or bettered all these, particularly the Liberty which wasn't very impressive at all. The food was good, the entertainers, from the Cruise Director down were excellent and very professional in fact best of the ships we have sailed on. The service in the bars and restaurants was first class and the cabin steward was a wizard, turning my grandsons disorder into immaculate tidyness, thank you Gabriel from Romania. The cabins are on the small side but you don't spend much time in them other than to sleep, I understand some of the other Thomson ships have larger cabins, this was only a small minus point and in general we had a great holiday and will definitely use Thomsons again.

It was our first cruise and we thouroghly enjoyed yourselves, Yes the cabins are small but as others have said you only sleep, wash & change in them.
The crew made our trip totally enjoyable, they joined in with the jokes, we looked forward to meals in the Seven seas resturant, what were our waiters going to do next? both at the table or at a combined floor show by the waiters.
The toilets work on a vaccum system now and again it ran out of suck, we left it for a while came back later and all was gone. If I had one complaint, it would be if a bar was open music would be playing, in one form or another, there was no where we could sit have a drink and chat without having to compeat with the music.
Whatever, these were all minor observations on a otherwise enjoyable curse.

We did the Colourful Coasts Cruise. It was our second cruise (the first being on MSC Armonia) and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We hardly had any problems with the toilets mentioned by earlier posters but our cruise was in the 1st week of October before all the trouble.

The ship was spotless and great care was taken with hygiene in that everyone had to use antiseptic hand cleaner on boarding the ship and entering the restaurants.

We thought the crew were excellent especially our cabin steward who made a special effort as it was my birthday one day and the waiters. Most of them are from the Phillipines and nothing was too much trouble for any of the crew although as I've said there weren't any major problems during the week. We had a de luxe cabin which was worth the extra.

The food was plentiful and very good although not quite as good as in the Armonia but we love Italian food so perhaps we're biased.

The entertainment was very professional and, as virtually all the passengers were British, everything was in English.

Bar prices were reasonable and iced water was served to everyone in the restaurant without having to ask for it although bottled water was available if wanted

We only went on two trips, the West Coast of Madeira which was excellent and well worth the money, and Taroudant in Morocco which definitely was not.

Taroudant is about an hour's drive by coach and was advertised as a trip to an 11th century walled city so we thought we'd be seeing something historical. Instead we spent all our time there in the Souk (market) and it was obvious that we'd been brought there to spend large sums on dubious quality goods. We had to stay in a group the whole time and felt quite conspicuous. We complained afterwards that if we'd wanted a shopping trip (it wasn't labelled as such) we could have stayed in Agadir and saved the travel.

Seasoned cruisers rarely if ever take the excursions and I can see why.

The Destiny (which incidentally is chartered from Louis Cruise Lines) is certainly not luxurious but for value for money it was 10 out of 10.

we travelled on the thomson destiny as part of a large group of 16 made up of family and friend's most of us first time cruise's & having various other different holidays in the same group i can say im speaking for most of us it was the best holiday of our lives. The group was of a mixed age from 25 to 6o year olds & there was somethin on board for every one the food was absoulte brillaint whever you decided to have the waiters service in the seven seas restraunt like we did most nights as we took the all inclusive option kennath our waiter was magic very friendly effecient in fact all the waiters were exellent.They even provide entertaiment when they sing to you & created a good all round atmosphere. the midnight buffet is not to be missed in the seven seas a exellent food & dispaly once again.The breakfast is either self serivce or waiter in the smae restraunt. Or if you prefer to have a lie in then the lido cafe is also a good choice all day round here you have all types of self service food or different types ie depending on what time of day you choose to eat food is avalibel 24/7 on the destiny.The entertainment staff i can say ile take my hat of to them the shows were fabulous and they had everythin rounded of to a T inc the music they chose for the sail away party the entertainment crew work very hard sue laruen gavin rachel & all the others seem to be on the go all the time to make sure you live the dream on your cruise> the cabin was spot on bigger than expected our cabin maid florin seemed to be always there for anythin we needed any time of day the ports of call were also very good apart from agadirwhich i didnt rate as we did the coloufull coasts cruise but however with 6 weeks of been back weve booked to go on the destiny again in may on the moorish deligts cruise from palma one again on the all incluisive option which is great value for money waitered bar service all day from 10 am till 2am which gives you plenty of time to try out all those cocktails. Thanks to all the crew on board that week & hope to see some of them maybe on our return in may our cruise on the destiny was wot dreams are made of

we've just come back from an 8 night cruise on thr destiny. what can i say except we will be going again and im looking already.Cabins are small but very compact and clean,our cabin steward nicole spoke good english and nothing was to munch trouble. we found this with all the staff,they were all friendly and very approachable and informative.the food was 1st class. we ate in the seven seas and the lido along with the pool bar.we enjoyed the sing song in the seven seas restaurant along with the excellant choice of food.the entertaiment on board was again 1st class and we have never clapped or laughed as much.we usually have a relaxing holdays and you can if this if this is what you want. there is so much going on that we wer't getting to bed until 2am which is not us at all.drinks are the same as home and the cocktails are great.sue & gavin do a great job along with all the entertaiment team and the dancers are so professional.we done our own thing when we got to port and found it all very easy.we did't have any kids with us,but the kids on board seemed very well cantered for,they used to bring them in the show and in for breakfast and one night they done karokee with Lee-Anne and it was her night off.so if you are thinking of going on a cruise it's what you want it to be.

one word fabulous...........times thousand



if you get a chance to go on a cruise on this ship dont hesitate..........




hope this will not be our last