Linda's review of Discovery 2

First of all,I shall say that, on the whole, I enjoyed my cruise on Discovery 2 and it is not my intention to worry anyone who is going later in the year. She is a very nice ship, but personally I prefer Discovery 1. I felt that Discovery 1 had had a better refurbishment. Some of the paintwork along the edges of the deck on Discovery 2 was very badly finished off and while our cabin was very nice (deck 2) the window frames were tarnished and had verdigris on them, much like some of the windows on the Dream! The toilet, while appearing clean, was actually quite dirty. I was brushing round the rim of the bowl (as you do 😊) and was quite amazed to see lots of dirt dropping down into the pan. Just as a test, I did the same in our late check out cabin on the last day and it was the same. I think that this is an issue to be addressed,bearing in mind the risk of noro etc on ships. I have mentioned it on my comments to Thomson. Another gripe was that all the windows were very dirty. Now I know that a ship at sea gets salty windows, but this was the first cruise and I thought perhaps they would have been clean. Also the carpet in the buffet was quite dirty and didn’t seem to be hoovered very often. I only saw someone walking round with one of those push along carpet sweepers, which quite frankly are useless!

The crew were very friendly as usual, but obviously it will take time for them all to settle into a routine and I felt there was not the happy atmosphere that we noticed on Disco 1 last year. The first day the buffet staff were very slow in clearing tables, but this definitely improved as the week went on 😊 We were given conflicting advice on shuttle buses by Reception and Destination Services and again I realise that these things will all click into place as time goes on.

Last gripe 😉 One evening we came back to our cabin to find the towels still in the shower and not changed. As it was late we just hung them up to dry and used them again next day. But the next morning when we got back from breakfast the room was made up, but again the bathroom had not been done. We could not find anyone in the corridor to ask, so I phoned housekeeping and someone came to do it, but she seemed very angry and slamming about and didn’t speak to us. She was not our cabin steward, he was lovely, but for some reason she seemed to be doing our cabin. She didn’t speak for the rest of the week, until the last day – ha ha. Not sure what was going on there.

Now the good bits😃

Entertainment was very good, lots of variety. We went to two shows, Magic of the Musicals and Steel City, both good although we had seen the first one before. The comedian was Phil Doyle. It was the first time we had seen him and he was very funny. On Thursday night we had “An Audience with Anton DuBeke” which was excellent. I had no idea he had such a sense of humour! The other nights we got chatting to people and stayed in the atrium. Loud music round the pool during the day,which is not my scene, but enjoyed by many, drove us of to find somewhere quieter. The adult only deck at the back was invariably full, but we found space in the Glasshouse or the promenade deck, but not usually until later in the afternoon.

Food is subjective. We ate in the buffet for all our meals. The breakfasts were fine with lots of variety, but for lunch and dinner,while the soups and sweets were delicious, the main courses were not as good as on Discovery 1 last year. Certainly not so much variety, but I am a fussy eater, so others might not agree. I heard someone say the meals in the MDR were a bit hit and miss, but as we didn’t use it, I cannot confirm that.

The itinerary was very good, but just a warning – all the ports except Cartagena require shuttle buses or tender, so not good for anyone with disabilities.

I will do a review of the ports later.

I wonder if they follow the same protocols etc as Discovery. As the ships are essentially identical and Discovery seems to work I would have thought they would just follow the lessons learnt last year. I was on discovery's second cruise and the buffet was somewhat disorganised. I was told that it could take several cruises before the crew settled in.

You say you had one cabin steward. I had two on Discovery this year and they did an excellent job. There is no excuse for sloppy cleaning or missing towels so maybe your angry steward was angry because she had been told off for not doing her job properly.

I thought the buffet food was fine on Discovery except the usual appalling sausages for breakfast and the cheapest cold meats you could find anywhere. There was a good choice of hot dishes including at least 5 one lunchtime. Discoveries executive chef came from Mein Schiff 1.

I won't be trying Discovery 2 until at least 2019 as next year I am on the north Cape run and trying Explorer.

Thanks for your initial thoughts. Looking forward to your port reviews.

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