Island Cruises, Island Escape Review

Overall Rating

Show team and Cruise Director in his capacity as performer and show leader excellent. Talented, enthusiastic and very professional. The Company will be very lucky to keep this group together. Our waiters in the Island Restaurant were superb.

Shore Excursions too expensive and badly presented. Lack of information about Ports visited. Team not passenger friendly.

Any review is by nature a subjective one but I will try and be objective as well. I have just returned from a cruise in the Med. It was fantastic value for money. Service on board could not have been bettered had you paid vast prices for a fancy cruise. From talking to our fellow travellers this seemed to be the consensus of opinion. Inevitably there were those who found fault we were after all nearly 100% pensioners on board and there were the small number of born again moaners. The catering was of a very acceptable standard with a mixture of self serve waiter assisted to the a la carte restaurant where you pay a small supplement. Do not expect to see the ships officers walking the decks as stated in the promotional video. I was somewhat taken aback when I saw this very smart very young looking man walking towards me in the vicinity of the ship's bridge, wearing the insignia of Admiral of the Fleet who turned out to be the ship's captain. It was the only time I saw him but he did get us into port on time and was only half an hour late at the end of the voyage when we had to weather a storm. Our cabin was kept immaculately clean by our cabin steward who entertained us nightly with a different towel sculpture. The waiters were first class throughout the ship but especially in the Island Restaurant. The entertainment provided by the ships own show team was superb whether the same team can be kept together is another thing altogether they had so much talent. The Cruise Director was a talented performer leading from the front. We only really found fault with the Shore Excursion Team who were not passenger friendly particularly if you were not going on one of their excursions. There were small irritations such as when we visited Venice to find that other cruise ships had laid on shuttle buses to the bus station we had to walk. There again it was a cheap cruise but even if a pay bus had been available it would have been appreciated particularly as the heavens opened and stayed that way during our stay. Would I recommend this cruise? certainly. Bear in mind the cost. The Island Escape is by cruise standards an old ship it does not have the moderr facilities. For example the theatre is really a lounge with a stage. It could do with a makeover. Don't expect five star luxury for a two star price. One fellow passenger who had cruised four times on the Escape was of the opinion that there had been a reduction in the overall service. This was not obvious to me.