Topic: Island Escape - case for the defence!

We were on Island Escape a few years ago, we did a Atlantic crossing, had a great time. I would like to quote you about the two ships, the Celebration and the Spirit, they weren't rebuilds they use to belong to Holland & America they were called Noordam and Nieuw Amsterdam.The two ships you are talking about are called Costa Allegra & Costa Marina. Hope this is helpful, happy cruising.

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We were on Island Escape a few years ago, we did a Atlantic crossing, had a great time. I would like to quote you about the two ships, the Celebration and the Spirit, they weren't rebuilds they use to belong to Holland & America they were called Noordam and Nieuw Amsterdam.The two ships you are talking about are called Costa Allegra & Costa Marina. Hope this is helpful, happy cruising.

Yes, HAL bought 2 hulls of container ships which were built for Atlantic crossings, and added an engine, which is the reason for the vibration. The Captain on Celebration is proud that he has one of the toughest ships afloat, and one of the few built for rough seas.
Jo.

Thanks, Milly Doodles for your spirited defence of Island Escape. Having cruised with Fred Olsen, Brittany Ferries and Hurtigruten, we sailed the Med on Island Escape two years running and much was as you describe. However, we did have a 'beef' about the state of our cabin: it was roomy and clean enough, but the cabin steward - always helpful and willing - simply could not keep up with the periodic collapse of the interior furniture. On return we took this up with the company on the basis that their brochure had offered refurbished accommodation and in the event this clearly was not the case. We actually got a written apology and a promise to do better - we will see.

I have just had a look at the pictures and it reminds me of the supposedly superior deluxe balcony suite we had on Holland America Zuiderdam. We paid a lot of money for what was described as a 5 star cruise. Our cabin was filthy. The furniture was shabby with stains on the sofa and chairs. The bathroom floor looked like it had never been cleaned and dirt on the wall around the toilet was disgusting. The shower curtain had mould all around the bottom and we didnt fancy using the whirlpool bath. Goodness knows what diseases would have been lurking in there. So you dont always get what you pat for even if you pay a lot. It is certainly the worst cruise ship we have been on. Looking forward to sailing the brand new Azura in May.

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Milly Doodles - I admire your stiff upper lip attitude and I'm amazed that anyone could possibly enjoy the Island Escape, but since you only paid £410 p p - it would appear that one does get what one pays for. I wonder how you would had felt if you had paid £1400 p p for the same cruise at Xmas only to discover appaling leaks, filthy linen, no Xmas celerations nor anywhere to sit to eat Xmas Dinner (if you could even get into the restaurants) etc . Coupled with the stinking swamps onboard, there was uncontrolled illness and even more... take a look at the Island Escape Action Group webpage at The Island Escape Action Group - Home where I believe you will see that pictures do paint thousands of words. To say 'that we are not all a nation of complainers!!!!!' is quite a generalisation - then how would you explain that the Xmas Carousal cruise has generated over 400 complaints - quite a conicidence that so many of the nation's cruise complainers were on one trip?


I rest my case with respect

The photos certainly do look grim and obviously your cruise on IE was not good - my review and opinion, however, is just about my cruise in February 2010 which I and my husband enjoyed.
We didn't encounter filth anywhere on board the boat, we were impressed with how seriously the matter of hand sanitisation was being treated on board with sanitising hand gel available all over the boat, access to the restaurant was monitored by staff who manned the sanitiser at all times to ensure everyone used it.
While you and those on your cruise may well be justified in complaining, I do think that the vast majority of people on our cruise certainly seemed to be having a lovely time both on board and in the countries we visited.
I wouldn't have paid £1400 pp for this cruise without expecting a great deal more than we got, but since we only paid £410 pp we felt we got value for money.
We had a no frills cruise, at a no frills price - and yes, we would happily go on IE again.

My first ever cruise was on the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the seas, we paid good money and fair play it was blimmin amazing!

Now i have the island escape cruise booked for 19th December, and I'm still looking forward to it although i know its not got anything on royal Caribbean and who cares... what i liked the most was the people who i sailed with... visiting the places and having fun and a laugh... tbh i didn't see much of my room because i was exploring out all day or was so tired that i just crashed second i got in... food i didn't eat much of because i didn't have time lmao....

I just think everyone who has a bad comment on the island cruise are either a tiny bit stuck up expecting everything to be perfect and nothing wrong.... or just never have nice things to say... so basically just saying that they were more worried about a bit of sea sickness, (its a friggin boat, i threw up on Royal Caribbean and that's a ship) typical British food.... well we are all typical British people.... Lots of Complaints... everyone has something to complain about but i can guarantee everyone who has complained probably has a good memory on the holiday as well

I'm really looking forward to my cruise on the island escape in December and I'm paying £3000 for 3 people so i didn't get it cheap either.... and i will probably will throw up at least once and have 1 or 2 things to complain about but don't we all....

and i will be posting my comments on the trip when i have been as well

Hope you have a really lovely time !!!! I'm jealous!!!
Have ust returned from a week aboar the Thomson Dream (as featured on Watchdog recently!!) and had a lovely time ........... might well start a defensive thread on that shop too!!! Perhaps I'm just easily pleased!