Artemis Cruise Review by Bollinger_Babe

We flew out to Montego Bay to join the ship and I must admit I was not looking forward to a 10-hour charter flight. However, Thomson Fly was very good indeed and we couldn't fault the staff, the service and the in-flight entertainment.

Now the ship. We particularly chose Artemis for two reasons (a) she is a smaller ship at 45,000 tons and actually LOOKS like a ship, instead of a floating block of flats like some of those massive American monstrosities and, (b) she is a child-free ship so we were looking forward to some peace and quiet without other people's badly-behaved brats running around.

We were on deck 7 (Arcadia deck) in a twin-bedded cabin with a balcony. The cabin was fairly large and very well equipped with a bathroom with shower and bathtub, plenty of storage space and a sliding patio door. Our cabin steward, Avadhoot, was very attentive and kept the cabin spotless.

The Artemis has a lot of pools! There is one larger swimming pool and lots of plunge pools, paddling pools and jacuzzis. There was no problem with getting a sun lounger on the sea days as there were plenty of places to sit or lie. Bar staff scurry around offering alcoholic and soft drinks.

We dined in the Coral dining room each night and the food was nothing short of excellent; beautifully presented and quickly served by our smiling waiter. If you want less formal dining you can go into the self-service Conservatory where there is a large selection of hot and cold food.

The evening entertainment on board Artemis is superb. The Headliners Theatre Company are among the best I have ever seen at sea. They did a lot of themed cabaret shows and all were excellent. We also had a couple of comedians (one excellent and one not-so-good) as well as cabaret guest pianist Bobby Crush of "Opportunity Knocks" fame. He was really entertaining and we enjoyed his two shows a lot.

There was also lots of other activities during the day and evening. Craft classes, guest lecturers, a cinema, quizzes, port talks and the usual on-board deck games such as quoites and shuffleboard.

Now the ports of call. We visited Grand Cayman, Santo Thomas de Castillo (Guatemala), Roatan (Honduras), Belize, Cozumel (Mexico), Grand Turk, Princess Cays (a private island) and Nassau, Bahamas. We had five sea days and four formal nights. Each port of call was lovely - azure seas, palm trees and balmy weather. Embarkation and disembarkation at each port was very efficient.

All in all, we had a superb holiday and would not hesitate to go on the Artemis again. I cannot understand the negative reviews here; we have no complaints at all.