Island Cruises, Island Escape Review

Overall Rating

The professionalism of the crew of the Island Escape who provided comfort, entertainment and delicious food.

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"They know how to cook sprouts!" remarked my husband. Yes and they display lots of other culinary skills too. Our lasting impressions of our week cruising the Mediterranean on the Island Escape are the plentiful, delicious food and the professionalism of the 490 strong crew.

Passengers are kept informed each day by announcements from Captain Horne and by leaflets and newsletters delivered to the cabins. Leaflets outlined the history of the day's port of call, a sightseeing checklist and tips regarding the use of local transport, best buys, food and facilities. The daily issue of the "Island Chat" newsletter detailed events on board ship. The range of events encompassed everything from napkin folding to super shows worthy of the London stage.

All ten decks are meticulously cleaned and polished. Waiters in all three restaurants are quick to ensure that guests are welcomed and served with their every need. Passengers choose from the 24 hour Beachcomber Restaurant, The Island Restaurant or full silver service Oasis Restaurant. In all the food is exquisite. In a full week all we heard was praise from fellow passengers for the quality and choice of food on offer.

Cabins are serviced twice a day with attention to detail. Fresh towels, ice and toiletries are replaced, bunks made up in the morning, duvets turned down in the evening and the ends of the toilet paper ends folded to a point!. Our cabin girl amused us by making our fresh towels into a new creature each evening - slightly unnerving when we entered our cabin the first time but we soon looked forward to seeing the latest creation!

We have never been on a cruise before. We imagined that we might feel trapped on board ship and be anxious to disembark at each port. Quite the reverse - although each port was interesting Valletta, Naples, Livorno, Toulon, Barcelona - the best part of the holiday was the time spent on the "Island Escape".

Members' Comments onPatricia Owen.'s Review

• Amanda Coates on 21st Sep 2003

  Absolutely, couldn't agree more...terrific cruising experience, especially if it's your first. Would thoroughly recommend it to anyone. All walks of life catered for on this ship! I went on a cruise on the Island Escape in early July - have just booked another for October, yes it's that good!

• vsam on 30th Dec 2003

  I too have travelled onboard the Island Escape. I agree with all points raised re the staff - they couldn't have been more helpful, and nothing was too much trouble for them. We took our two yound children along, and they had a 'wow' of a time. Our only bad marks go for the cabin accommodation - we were unlucky and got one of the few 'non' refurbished ones (which we were pretty hacked off with, after paying a large upgrade fee for a 'Premier' cabin on Flamingo deck). My advice is, that if you can't afford the cabins on the top deck (Golden), stick to the standard cabins on Diamond and Emerald deck!
  With the cabin sorted, you'll have a fabulous holiday.

• alderman on 26th Sep 2004

  Does an "Expert Review" mean by a member of the crew because we heard many passengers complaining about lots of things! An the expert reviewer certainly wasn't on the ship we were on from the description!