Just arrieved back after 2 weeks on board the ship Destiny.
Cabins are small but adaquate, this was our first taste of cruising and enjoyed ourselves very much.
The entertainment staff are first class as are the waiters and Cabin Stewards can not fault there commitment to making your holiday a holiday of a lifetime.
But on a sour note the Management on board let the rest of the team down
We had a day at Villefrance where we could not dock so this meat that we had to have tenders to take you ashore, no problem taking you ashore but getting back is a different storey. First the weather changed and because of this the captain had to move the ship to another port for safety reasons. OK looking after the safety of the ship is very important, but where they let them selve down was they forgot about the passengers on land which was about 800 in total,no communiation to the passengers about the situation was given as they where only some entertainment staff on land.We wher told that they would be buses available to take us to the next port in about 1 hour which turned out to be 5 hrs,what you have to remember people was dressed for warm weather but the weather droped from 80 f to about 50 f so people was freezing. Thompson management made no attemt to get drinks or even to move people out of these conditions.
A lot of elderly people did have to queue for 5 hrs. I could not understand why the Captain on board did not say a word about the incedent.
Even though the Management let the team down on that day I would go on another cruise but maybe not with Thompsons.

me and my family have just come bk from thomson destiny ship we spent only 1 week aboard the ship and would have stayed on it forever. it was brilliant from cleaners to bar staff to other guests it was friendley and polite. All inclusive was worth it cocktails was best 3.00 a go and tryed em all lol . the boat was clean comfortable. alot have complained about the french port on the tender , they should have given them better service for thoose who went out on there own. we went on organised trip and was informed to the full. there was an appolgy by the ship's cruise entertainment directer at night. boat was cleaned every day from cabin to decks floors polished at night at the sides and looked amazin. we got off the plane and went st8 into the holiday shop to look for prices to go on the destiny again. the lido cafe was brilliant ok the food was covered and hard to see what was there but if you asked staff they told you instantley. the pools were cleaned every night. shows were good , just need the night club to play more commerical recent music for the younger ones as no elderley ppl used the nightclub for the 70's msuic anyway so it would be better. to round this ship up its faultless better service second to none. will never go on lane holiday again. andy

Just returned from a fab 2 weeks on the Destiny, find it very dificult to fault anything, our only minor problems were :

The cabin was very small , but spent little time in there.
The main supervisor of the casino royale is an arrogant pig (several people complained about him)

part from the above we enjoyed every minute and will be booking up again next year, well done Thomsons !!

We used 'Destiny' as our friends had sailed on 'Sunbird' last year.
It would appear that early problems with staff etc have been addressed as we did not experience any problems with cleanliness, helpfullness or enthusiasm.

Lido cafe had a good choice of food served on plastic plates. Having sailed on other ships with outdoor eating, I agree with covering the hot food to keep it warm. Previous ships which presented food as self service suffered from cold food.

There are plenty of deck loungers on plenty of decks although everyone tends to congregate around the pool area. Just as well there are 2 pools!

Embarkation/disembarkation went without a hitch.

My only minor gripes are that some carpets, especially on the Chartroom stairway, were becoming visibly worn. The other was the standard on wine available on the AI package. It was mediocre at best & the white was only available as 'medium'.

Overall, compares favourably with other ex airtours ships.

This was our 3rd cruise, having cruised on the Thomson Spirit for the last two years.

The Spirit is far superior to the Destiny in our opinion, and whilst we would go on the Spirit again, we definately would not go on the Destiny.

Our family room on the Spirit was a good size, on the Destiny it was tiny. We had nowhere to store our cases and had to manouvre round them all week. There were no electric sockets that were useable. People were stood in corridors using their hair curlers, charging their mobiles etc.

The Lido restaurant on the Spirit was excellent and we used it for almost all of our meals.
The Lido "restaurant" (if thats what you would call it)on the Destiny is little more than a poolside cafe. You can't see the food, you basically have to look at the menu, order, and hope for the best.

On the plus side if you are a sun worshipper there are a lot more sunbeds than the Spirit and the pool area is also far superior on the Destiny.

The main restaurant was actually very pleasaant and the food was good, the waiters excellent, thanks for that then Teo and Charlie (waiters).

We couldn't fault the staff at all.
The entertainment team worked their socks off every night, we enjoyed it but as half of the team were from the Spirit it was a bit same-ish for us, but we remember being very impressed on our first cruise so I expect its probably just us, having seen it all before.

It wasn't until we did the emergency drill that we realised the ship is actually the old Airtours Sunbird. Their name was on the lifebelts, now covered with a sticker saying Destiny. Somehow I always thought Airtours were a lower standard company and I certainly don't recall Thomson saying its an old Airtours ship so we felt a bit "cheated".

The all inclusive was very nice but to be honest I had a few drinks and couldn't tell I'd had any, which didn't matter when its free, but I would feel aggrieved if I'd been paying £2.40 a pint, as it seems it must have been watered down to me.

As is normal, Thomson trips are overpriced. We went our own way in Barcelona and caught a hydrofoil to Capri from Naples, but I will say we have had some good Thomson excursions, Rome was superb last year,this year Sardinia was excellent. The worst excursion I have ever been on in my life was on this cruise, a complete rip off as we went to Aix Le Provence in France. A 5 hour excursion in total, approximately 3 hours of that going down a graffiti covered motorway with a female tour guide with an extremely strong french accent, we didn't have a clue what she was on about.

Overall the Spirit is definately a better ship for us, as we are not sunworshippers, if you are, maybe the Destiny would be better for you.

Don't want to diss the Destiny too much, but we feel maybe its time to try a different cruise line next year.
Crusing for us is still the best holiday by miles.

I have just got home from a week on the thomson destiny sailing around the med. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think things have improved dramatically since its maiden voyage in May this year. I was very apprehensive about this trip as there has been some dreadful reports about the destiny, but they seem to have pulled their finger out and got it sorted.

The ship has a great layout and feels more spacious than the Emerald or the Spirit. The cabins are very small but we found there was ample storage space for 2 people. The inside of the ship is great but the outside does look quite tired and tatty. I heard that Thomson did not get as long as they would have liked to refurb it when they took it over this year but it is having a faclift in october... dont know how true that is.

The food was generally good but the Lido restaurant is not completely self service as stated. the hot food is served by the staff and they tended to be quite tight on the portions! Still you could go up as many times as you liked.

The staff overall were wonderful with a few exceptions. We had a very stroppy waiter in the restaurant who we were stuck with all week! I think they had huge staff problems during the maiden voyage and they did seem extremely busy. However the majority of the staff were superb.

The entertainment was good and there was a bit of something for everyones tastes.

Marvellous!

We have just arrived back from our cruise & stay holiday "16th June".This was our third time on the cruise ship , formally the Sunbird. We were a little apprehensive after reading the reports in May. But we needn,t have worried, the Destiny was as brilliant as ever.Even though it did show a few signs of ageing, the deck boards, which were being re-varnished and some carpets which had started to fade, but still not bad considering the age of the ship.From our first day every thing was great, we had our evening meal in the Seven sea,s restuarant, excellent as usual, a really good choice every night.The sail away on deck was superb,we thought an early night was instore but how wrong can you be , the night was still young, there was plenty to do.
The staff in the restuarant were brilliant, we had "Arnel, Bernard , & Ariel" in the Magellan restuarant who could,nt do enough for us ,we were on first names from then on.We had the all inclusive package which proved exellent value .The cocktails were great.
Entertainment was fantastic, the team worked their socks off every day, brilliant shows, and they found time to speak to us .The cabins are a little small , but who cares , your on holiday to enjoy the cruise ,not sit in the cabin all day, but!, if you were to stay in your cabin there was a good choice on the tv. Some have said there was nowhere to put your cases, but we found plenty of room, our cases were large ,but stood upright in the fitted wardrobes, & others commented about no electric sockets ,that there were people standing in the passages! why !!, we found out before we left England, that in the cabins there were only flat pin sockets ,so we took our america plugs, simple!.Our mobile phones charged & my hot brush all worked ok in our cabin. We found the Lido cafe great , where else could you go on any holiday & get food 24/7 , we enjoyed being able to eat late at night or into the early hours after a few drinks and a good show.As we expected the trips which thompson provided were a bit expensive, but for those who wanted them ,there was a good selection. We opted to do it ourselves, which did prove successful,we wasn,t over impressed with Alicante, Gibrater was great, a short walk from the ship brought us to the cable cars, and barbery apes, for 8 euro. Really good value.
Next stop Lisbon, we did an open top bus which took an 1hr & 40mins for 14 euro, again excellent value , although we were warned to watch out for pick pockets,as one of our fellow passengers had found out, luckily he kept his wallet, and the offender received a swift kick up the backside.
Almeria was also good ,we walked to the castle which was well worth it, we even got in free when we said we were british & from the cruise ship.
Overall the cruise was, in our eyes excellent in all area,s. We were celebrating our 31st wedding anniversary on the 22nd June, Chris had arranged with "Ton Ton Pheonix "to play a special song, Kenny Gee,s "going home", we danced to it and i felt great. These little extras made it special . We will be cruising again with tompsons on the Destiny.Well done to all the staff and a big thankyou to the bar staff for remembering what drinks we had each evening, and remembering our names, for taking the time to talk to us ,to the restuarant staff for waiting on us and entertaining us and the cabin staff for cleaning up after us "thanx Adrien".
I even managed to win in the casino on the roulette table.There is plenty to do and enjoy on the Destiny for those who want it.So our advise to any one reading this is , go for it, enjoy it & if you want something greater, then go ahead ,spend a fortune for a bigger ship, but for value and service you wont better this.Thats our opinion.THANKYOU "DESTINY"
Chris & Gill .x

We sailed on Thompson Destiny on 23rd June 2005 for my 40th birthday on Mediterranean Renaissance cruise.

This was our first cruise and were unsure what to expect. It more than lived up to any expectations we did have and the whole holiday experience was fabulous from start to finish. I cannot fault anything.

The cabin was spotless, our cabin stewardess must have been in at least six times a day cleaning and tidying and "folding the loo paper". The little chocolates in your pillow every night were a lovely touch. A big thank you to our cabin stewardess for looking after us so well and making our stay comfortable.

All the communal areas aboard the ship were also spotless.

The food in both the Lido and Seven Seas restaurant was superb and could not be faulted, the choice was amazing. A big thank you to Valentine and Joseph our waiters in the Seven Seas restaurant who looked after us so well and kept us entertained thoughout the week.

The shows in the evening were very good and the entertainment staff worked extremely hard (I just wonder when they had time to sleep as they always seemed to be around and about the ship).

We especially enjoyed the Sailaway party on the top deck and the midnight buffet which was amazing, it looked so wonderful it was ashame to eat it.

We went on three trips organised by the ship: the Florence and Pisa tour which was good value but extremely tiring, mainly due to the heat, it was 41 degrees, and also the Rome trip was well worth it. We also went on the Corsica Nature tour which we thought was quite expensive at £25 just be sat on a bus for 2 1/2 hours.

All in all our first cruise was a wonderful experience and will have some happy memories for a long time to come.

We are definitely hooked on cruising now and would not hesitate to go on the Destiny again and would recommend the Destiny to anyone.

We had our first cruise on the Sunbird with Airtours before Thomson's chartered it and it became Destiny. It was fabulous as Sunbird, and was just as excellent as Destiny.

Cleanliness

Very good. Always staff going around the ship cleaning, dusting, emptying ashtrays etc. The public loos were excellent - always kept clean and replenished.

Food

You cannot fault the food, whether it be in the main dining area or in the lido, although the lido is buffet style and sometimes did get a bit "samey".

Staff

Our waiter, Valentin, was excellent. Always very busy, almost running to get your food to you, but very efficient and always had the time to talk to you and always asking if there was anything more he could do for you. Our head waiter, Angel, (I called him a devil in disguise) was very friendly, and escorted me to and from the dining area. A very lovely person and cannot wait to see him again. Don't be afraid to talk to the staff, whatever your needs. The staff at the pursers desk were also very friendly and shared jokes with them. Our cabin steward, Cami, was indeed the best we have ever experienced. Almost every night there was a bath towel "sculpture" on our beds. On the night of our wedding anniversary, Cami surprised us with a "sculpture" of 2 swans, which when facing one another formed a heart; and lots of balloons too, and the waiters serenaded us with a romantic song.

The only thing that we found a little annoying was the cruise director's "what's on" blasting over the radio in our cabin, even though the radio was turned off, and when we were having our siesta.

Entertainment

I can honestly say that we only had time to see one show, as we were on a late sitting for dinner, and we were tired from the excursions, but the show was marvellous. Very colourful with some stunning costumes. There was lots of entertainment, comedians, dancing etc. We went to the casino a couple of nights (and I won the jackpot). If you want a quiet drink then go to the Chart Room, dimmed lights and very atmospheric, but get there early as it can get quite full. The paino bar is a pleasure to enjoy a drink in. The Internet cafe is a bit expensive. By the time you get to your e-mail page you've "clocked" up about £3 or £4. It's much cheaper to wait until you get ashore, usually £1.50 per hour.

Overall, I found the Destiny very friendly and clean. It hasn't changed much from when it was Airtours Sunbird. We're going again for our 4th Sunbird/Destiny cruise in September.

This was our first cruise and I can honestly say it won't be our last aboard the Destiny.
We can't fault anything on the ship the staff and I will name a few Angel w/o wings what a gentleman our waiters Ehad and Jerrad what a pair of stars nothing too much trouble for them. Our cabin boy Mukkofi ( I had to practice his name a couple of days before I spoke to him ).Carmen who I wanted to bring home with me but my wife renegaded. Roger I won't forget his attentiveness he even called me Sir Mick after the first few days.
The entertainment staff were unbelievable special thanks to Gavin,Stuart and Danny formaking our holiday special.
We had our Silver Wedding blessed on board what a fabulous experience (thanks Roxy ) best £170 I have ever spent Champers,Flowers,Choccies etc.can't fault anything.