An Experience - but never again (Sun Cruises Line)

Member Name: percy_perkins

Product:	Sun Cruises Line
Date:	18/06/03 (842 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Ports of call

Disadvantages: Prices on board, Dirty/Falling apart, 7 days is too long!!

Before sailing for 7 nights aboard the Airtours (Sun Cruises) "Sundream", I had only ever experienced a 2 night mini-cruise. Cruising itself has never been anything that has appealed to me an immense amount, so when I found out that I'd be going on the Panama Pleasures trip for a week, I didn't know what to think.

We cruised from 17th to 24th March 2002.

Cruising sounds a real luxurious holiday. I guess it can be good fun if you choose the right company and the right shop. However, my case may be an isolated one. We happened to choose the wrong company and the wrong ship. Both were dreadful.

Being a last minute booking, we booked up to fly out to Montego Bay, Jamaica and then join the Sundream for a 7 night cruise calling at Costa Rica, Panama, San Blas and Colombia. It was £860 for each passenger, but this included flights, the full boarc cruise and 7 nights a great Jamaican hotel afterwards.

My initial impression of the ship was a good one, it looked nice, quite big and very clean. It was a shame that the same couldn't be said for the inside - I found the accommodation, entertainment lounges/bar areas and the sun decks quite shabby and in desperate need of some refurbishment.

The rooms were extremely bare, although we had one of the cheapest rooms available, it was still quite dreadful. Our room was literally next door to the engine room, too. All night we would heard loud bangs, thuds and other quite concerning noises. I think it is safe to say that we didn't get a good night's sleep.

Mornings were nice. You could have breakfast in the restaurant and have it brought to you by the smart waiters and waitresses. Fruit juics, yoghurts and fruit were always available too. However, if you wanted to have a more informal approach to breakfast, the sun deck was a good place to top up your tan in the early morning sun whilst eating a choice of breakfasts from the buffet. Being full board, w
e paid nothing extra for meals.

Lunch was the same as breakfast, you could eat formally in the main restaurant or help yourself to burgers and chips, fish, salads and desserts from the walk-up buffet. The food was cooked perfectly, not swimming in grease and fresh, being swapped for freshly cooked food every so often.

All during the day, entertainment staff would try so hard to brighten up the atmosphere by playing games and music all day long. This was good at times, but after a while became slightly tedious and boring.

Evening meals were not something I liked. Tables were set up for eight persons and you are assigned a table number at the start of the trip. It was just our luck that we were sat with an eccentric old granny, who bragged about how much her and her husband loved to cruise and how they do it year after year. We needed a change, the meals were far too formal with trendy meals such as a random piece of meat presented on a lettuce leaf with a suspicious white sauce all over - I wanted a little bit of junk food now and again. And when tuxedo night came along and you could chat up the captain, that was the final straw, we just didn't go to evening meals anymore. We starved as there was no other alternative available.

The ports of call were not bad, some were in the middle of nowhere and in order to get anywhere you had to fork out several pounds in order to get anywhere - this was simply a local bus company which tooks passengers a few miles and then dumped them off somewhere. I can guarantee that Airtours were making plenty of profit out of this. We done everything our own way, wanting to cut costs after forking out 90p a time for a 33cl/330ml can of Coca Cola! Once again, there were no cheaper alternatives available.

The Sundream said in the brochure something along the lines of it being a comfortable cruise where you don't need to get dressed up in the evenings. What a load of babble that was, it was
quite the opposite.

Overall, very expensive once on board, too upmarket for my liking (especially when the ship was so tatty), desperately needs some of the fixtures ripped out and replacing and a lick of paint and boring. After day 2 or 3, I just couldn't wait to check into the 4* hotel in Jamaica and put my feet up in all-inclusive luxury.

I don't think I'll be cruising again and the Sundream is not a ship I'd even wish upon my worst enemy.

Summary: