Calypso

by **fern** on Mon May 07, 2007 6:20 pm

Pasco.

Yes we have always counted "one for his nob".

Question for anyone who has already been on Calypso we will be sailing on her for 2 weeks and wonder if there is a laundry"full bag service" at the end of a week?

by **Hephaestos** on Mon May 07, 2007 7:50 pm

Well I kow there is a laundry service, but don't know if they do a 'full bag' service or only on an 'item by item' basis. There is certainly a large plastic bag in the cabin, but we didn't use the service.

by **Hephaestos** on Wed May 09, 2007 8:30 am

Great to see that Calypso is now achieving consistent 10/10 scores from the last two cruises. Testament to the hard work of her crew I think. And well deserved too.

by **Nick_C** on Thu May 10, 2007 12:29 pm

I am astonished that The Calypso is now getting 10/10 ratings. This implies the ship is perfect! OK, maybe the quality of the food has improved, and excellent food is now being delivered piping hot to the tables - but have they also refitted the ship in the last month? Put windows in the dining room? Created a proper self service restaurant? Enlarged the cabins? Has the hotel manager splashed out on quality towels and toiletries? Has the chef started buying proper OJ and instructed his people how to make coffee that tastes like coffee? Have Thomsons got rid of the awful guest lecturer and replaced him with someone who can talk about the history and culture of the area?

If The Calypso is worth 10/10, then perhaps Holiday Watchdog need to change their website so Thomson Celebration can be rated 12/10, Aurora can be rated 15/10, and Summit can be rated 16/10. I would be 110% behind that idea!

Either people are not thinking very seriously about the ratings they are giving, or Thomsons are posting their own reviews on this site to try to talk the ship up!

by **HW tenpin** on Thu May 10, 2007 2:51 pm

Nick_C

Although your points may be sound, surely a site like this is for everyone to express their views, what maybe the ship from �hell' to you and I, is to others the prefect holiday, which they mark according to their standards.
I certainly never thought that I would give Thomson or Ocean Village high marks before sailing on them, but indeed I found them worthy of the praise. This does not mean they are better than, P&O, Princess, Costa or any other ship we have sailed on, just that on that particular cruise we enjoyed what was on offer.

I think the mark should reflect what is thought of the ship and itinerary and whether those people's review was worth the score, surely we can make up our own mind, based on the more reviews we read.

Can we really truthfully compare, say Cunard, or Windstar, with Thomson or Island Cruises? Yet to mark them with less, after a fantastic time would be unfair.

by **Hephaestos** on Thu May 10, 2007 4:48 pm

The rating reflects the holiday experience. There is no other yardstick that I am aware of. For my own part the Calypso deserves a 10/10 rating because the actual holiday experience exceeded my expectations. I have no time for over-zealous nitpickers who are irked by the fact that another traveller may have had a better time than they did. Let them steep themselves in their personal vat of whine. The Calypso is a nice little ship with a crew that tries really hard. I couldn't care less about the quality of the bog paper or the fact that I can't see outside when I'm dining. Nothing much to see anyway. I normally cruise with P&O or Royal Caribbean. That doesn't mean to say that I mark Calypso down as compared to those particular cruise lines. I will expect a different experience when I travel to the Caribbean with RCI later in the year. You get what you pay for and in my view Calypso delivered that and more. I doubt if I'd have given the ship 10/10 had I been on it during that first week. I was told that members of the crew were referring to it as the Collapso during that troublesome first outing. With only 18 out of 32 galley crew onboard and weather more befitting the Bay of Biscay in November, it's a wonder there wasn't a passenger mutiny. I accept somebody else may have had a 3/10 experience. I am old enough to make up my own mind and say it like I see it.

by **Hephaestos** on Thu May 10, 2007 4:59 pm

And just for the sake of clarity, and lest anybody's sensibilities be jostled, my comment about over-zealous nitpickers was not aimed at anyone in particular. Just that I have no time for that sort of person in general. I heartily accept that everyone has a different viewpoint.

by **Nick_C** on Fri May 11, 2007 1:03 pm

Hi Tenpin,

Totally agree everyone should express their views and I enjoy reading them. Sites like this can be enormously helpful in deciding whether or not to book for a particular ship. However, I dont agree that its unfair to compare Thomson with Cunard etc. Its surely like comparing Travelodge with Hilton? Its done all the time - star ratings. And this web site uses user's ratings to create a "top ten" - which shows P&Os flagship as being only slightly better than Thomsons!

You can have a fantastic holiday staying in a cheap hotel - doesn't mean the hotel merits five stars though!

I suppose the moral is to treat with scepticism everything you read on the internet, as you never know who is commenting, what their motives are, or what yardstick they are using to judge things by!

Nick

by **nanabo** on Fri May 11, 2007 4:23 pm

I will see on Monday

3 sleeps to go!!!

by **catkinx** on Fri May 11, 2007 10:16 pm

So will we Bo, almost didn't make it. My husband developed septic arthritis in his knee last week, and we had to wait till 5.30 tonight, before the doctor decided if we could go on holiday on Monday. Hope it's worth it after all this, especially having to leave at 3.00 a.m. still we will be there by lunchtime which will be nice. Hope you have a good time.

Catkin