Friends had told us never to go with Thompsons, but how wrong they were. We enjoyed a brilliant cruise - Pharoahs and Holy Land. Honestly I don't know how they do it for such reasonable charge. The food and entertainment were second to none. And the crew were the best ever. They manage everything to a high standard yet without the feeling of being "posh". The cabin sizes are great. This was a cruise to mark my retirement and it more than fulfilled our expectations.

I have never enjoyed a Holiday as much as this one ever, the whole thing from start to finish was amazing, the staff were absolutely fantastic,Lana and Ida our cabin ladies were absolutely fabulous,JR and Angel our staff in the Lido restaurant were absolutely fantastic, they were very attentive and we never wanted for anything, the minute your plate was empty they were there, constantly looking after you,Henry in raffles bar never stopped smiling, the whole trip to the north cape was amazing, made super special by choosing the Thomson spirit, cant wait to return

Baltic Explorer - May 2012

After an uncomfortable 6 hour leger coach journey to Newcastle, and VERY long embarkation queues at the terminal, we were feeling a bit tired and tetchy by the time we got on board! This mood was very quickly dispelled by our favourable first impressions of the Spirit. We had an outside cabin on deck 7, much larger than we have experienced on Thomson's other ships, complete with bath and minibar. The whole ship was very nicely furnished and decorated, no feeling of "cheapness" about the decor. The buffet area is thickly carpeted with upholstered chairs (no vinyl here) and "proper" crockery.

We had breakfast and lunch here each day, and dinner on one occasion. The food in the evening was better in the main restaurant. The buffet food was ok, but very repetitive, and no nice starters or desserts.

We chose the cruise purely for the itinerary and the brand- as usual Thomson excursions were reasonably priced compared to other lines and we went on 3 in St Petersburg and a Copenhagen-on-your-own trip from Kalundburg. Quite satisfied with all 3, though the traffic in St P was really bad and played havoc with timings.

Although Thomson have never offered all-inclusive on ex- UK sailings, there was a letter in the cabin on arrival offering the AI for £375 pp for 12 days. Drinks prices were average pub prices, £3.50 a pint, £14.50 a bottle house wine. Compared to the prices we were charged ashore they actually seemed quite cheap!

Entertainment was fine- lots of daytime activities from zumba to lectures on Churchill, and enjoyed the daily quiz. Usual singing and dancing in the evening, game shows, trio upstairs in Horizons, pianist in Raffles bar. All a bit old hat, but always something to do. The two daytime plays they put on in the theatre were entertaining and very well attended.

Outside areas got a bit crowded on sea days (and there were 4 of them) but there was always somewhere to sit. It was a bit of a bonus to be sitting out sunbathing at that time of year, although the first few days were very cold.
Found all the ports really interesting, and was pleased to learn there were free shuttle buses in Helsinki and Stockholm, so all that research about bus routes wasn't needed after all! We took a small amount of Krona and Roubles with us, along with some euros. The exchange rates we noticed ashore were very poor to what you get at home- 86 cents for £1 seemed about average. This was in the kiosks, I don't know about the ATM rates.

A very good cruise with very little to complain about!

The ship was clean although knocking on a bit now.

All of the staff were very friendly, some of the staff however were TOO over friendly, to the point of being obtrusive and annoying. I refer to the cleaning lady boss on deck 3 who always seemed to be outside our door to greet us throughout the day and also greet other passengers while we were trying to sleep at 6am in the morning at the top of her annoying Spanish voice! The final straw with her was her asking us to give her team excellent marks on the questionnaire, a bit of liberty I feel.

On the whole I would recommend this cruise, but don't pay more than £500 for it.

I will start at the end rather than the beginning, we left the ship yesterday 27/8/11 and normally on our previous Thomson cruise embarkations you wait in the theatre till your flight are called and you go ashore collect your case and get on your coach.

This time you were instructed a few days earlier by a letter to your cabin to be on the dock side 15min before your departure time.
When we arrived it was pandemonium every ones cases for the whole boat was on the dock side and it wasn't just our flight that was leaving there was four, people were pulling cases out of the line to get to there’s knocking them over with no supervision.

Getting on to a bus was worse as it did not matter what flight you were on you just got on any bus this time there was a couple of the ships dancers there to help i heard on at least saying SUPER and another "If your case is on a bus you must try and be on it", everyone was trying to get on to one bus at time it was very hot and most had on their British summer clothes.
Twice we got nearly to the front of the queue when it was full and then became nearly last at the next bus.

It was the old and the special needs people I felt sorry for as they just couldn't keep up.

The rest of the cruse was on the whole good this is our 4th Thomson and our 2nd on the spirit in the last three years and whither our expansions were higher than a lot of our fellow cruisers we were a bit disappointed..

The Africa show that was supposed to be there top show was a hand me down from another boat among with most of the rest.
The food was not as good as the other trips but it has been going down the last two trips.
The service has went downhill as well I think it might be down to not being allocated a seat /seating as we sat at a different area of the dining room most nights and never managed to build any repartee with the waiters.
The bar service and deck service was just as bad and they only came to life on the last day wonder why...

As it’s been said on lots of other threads the ship is old and most of the trims and finishing are worn out, looking at some of the officer’s uniforms there the same,
tread bare in some cases... but the worse thing is they have changed the lager from Stella to a cheaper one...

Would I go back "maybe” we will try the dream (not been on it) as the staff told us they took the best from all the other boats.

OUR SECOND TRIP ON THE SPIRIT, AS USUAL ALL EXCELLENT, SHOWS 100% TOP CLASS. STAFF ARE THE ABSOLUTE BEST, ADRIAN IN RAFFLES, SI IN HIGH SPIRITS, MORGAN IN BROADWAY ALSO AYU,SRI,GRAVE AND SHINE. SPECIAL MENTION TO THE TEAM IN THE LIDO AHMED,PEDRO, THOMAS AND HARLY. ALSO MR PARIS FOR HIS ATTENTION TO DETAIL.

I have just come back of a two weeks cruise on the thomson spirit, it was brilliant i cannot say anything bad about the holiday at all. The staff worked none stop the cabines were kept immaculate the food was excellent the staff just couldnt do enough to help and the shows and the entertainment staff were fantastic i would definatley go on the thomson spirit again. It is such a friendly ship and it was as formal or informal as you wanted it to be i highly recommend this ship

The Spirits crew are always cleaning,polishing,hoovering,dusting and painting even repairing the stair carpet.
Food is as always of a very high standard,with plenty of choice,even had 2 BBQ's on the lido deck.This time we even had Lamb Shanks on the menu,in the Compass Rose,where or waiters John and Sam were terrific.
The staff from the captain down are all friendly,courteous,happy and effecient in what they do,our 2 cabin stewards were very good.We say they are the friendliest crew afloat.
Ray Baur and his team are super bunch,we got to know them quite well,they put on marvellous shows and entertainment throughout the cruise,cannot praise them enough.
I had the good fortune to arrange a Blessing at sea,and it was done very professionally,we both enjoyed the experience and have some wonderful memories of it,well done to all those concerned, too many to mention.This was our 6th cruise with thomsons and we have booked up already for next year.

We have just returned from a week's cruise around the red sea .The flight out from Bristol to Sharm was fine, however on landing both the pilot and steward told us the time difference was 2 hrs ,it was infact 1 hr .I would like to know how they work out the ETA.
The transfer to the spirit only took about 25 minutes, check in was fast and easy.
After booking the cruise I phones thomsons to ask if I could book a double ,this option normally costs £39 ,however because our holiday was in 2 weeks time this couldn't be confirmed but a note was added to the booking ,we got the double and had nothing to pay ,good service.
we cruised on the spirit 7 years ago and nothing much has changed onboard.
The compass Rose however was not as good .On one occasion we were seated at a table with four other people who had already ordered ,they got starters before we were given a menu ,all six of us felt uneasy and thought this was very poor service .
We would rate the food and choice as okay ,on our last trip it was excellent.
We also ate in Siroccos this wasn't as good as last time either, I asked for a Baileys coffee and was told this couldn't be made even though you could get one in any bar onboard.
We took the AI drinks option , several drinks that were included last time now have a charge.
The onboard shows and musical entertainment were excellent.
Apart from the problems I have mentioned we enjoyed the week ,got the holiday at a very fair price and had great weather .

Being cruise virgins, and on the Ancient Discovery cruise,we were unsure as to how formal this ship would be. We didnt need to worry though as it was as formal/informal as you want!. We ate mainly in the Lido buffet restaurant and the food was perfectly cooked and of a very good standard and choice. It caters mainly for the English palate though there are some dishes local to the ports of call. Suits or 'posh frocks' were certainly not required as smart casual was fine. The entertainment staff were amazing!. The night-time shows were so good and the the entertainers were absolute professionals. The hours they were worked were long and hard as they also kept us entertained thru the day on the sun deck. Yes the ship is not the newest or the largest, but it was spotlessly clean and our cabin on deck 6 was extremely comfortable. I would certainly have no hesitation in using this ship again.