Airtours

MS Sundream

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Operator: Airtours Cruise Line
Year Built / Last Refurbished: 1971 / 2000
Length / Tonnage: 637 / 23,200
Number of Cabins / Passengers: 535 / 1,038
Officers / Crew: British / International
Operating Area: Caribbean, transatlantic, Mediterranean

Today, My Travel plc (formerly Airtours plc) is a major player for air-inclusive holidays and other leisure travel services in the UK, Northern Europe, Germany and North America. In the year of writing (02), My Travel's fleet of four ships takes more than 84,000 people on cruises to 43 ports around the world.

The Airtours story began in 1972, when entrepreneur, David Crossland purchased Pendle Travel Services, a travel agency business comprising of just two stores in Lancashire. A second travel agency business was acquired shortly after from Albert and Ivy Roberts who had registered it using their initials, A.I.R. Tours. The Airtours name was born.

The business expanded and in 1980 they developed their first package holidays. These offered value for money, encouraging people to holiday abroad - often for the first time. However, the story really begins when Airtours floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1987 with a market capitalisation of £28m. In March 1991 Airtours' own airline began commercial flying.

By 1992 Airtours had created a chain of 712 'Going Places' Travel Agent shops, which quickly gained a presence in most of the UK's main shopping centres.

In April 1994 the cruises division of Airtours was founded to provide British holidaymakers with air and sea vacation packages at affordable rates. The cruise liner, MS Seawing was acquired, shortly to be followed by MS Carousel, for a sell-out programme of fly-cruises, which started operating from summer 1995. The Going Places Travel Agencies played a key role in promoting the cruises.

In 1996, Airtours announced an agreement with Carnival Corporation where Carnival would acquire 29 per cent of Airtour shares. The Group also acquired a third cruise ship, MS Sundream. In 1997, Airtours acquired a stake in Costa Crociere, the world's fourth largest cruise business specialising in Mediterranean cruising. In 1999, they acquired their fourth ship named MS Sunbird.

In February 2002 the new name of 'My Travel plc' was adopted by all the former Airtours brands, with a change of livery.

You cannot compare chalk and cheese, but the critics often try. My Travel is a budget cruise line, not a premium one. In fact in their brochure, My Travel describes themselves "as the number one in affordable cruising". If you pay $1,000 for a MY Travel cruise, it is unfair to draw direct comparisons with the standards on a cruise line charging $2,000!

The My Travel brochure is very family friendly, with some good child discounts and deals for singles. There are lots of 'cruise and stay' options to bolt on to the many cruise itineraries. My Travel gives you a number of options when choosing your holiday, but they all come at an extra cost. The Ship: If you want to reserve a specific cabin number on the ship, rather than just a grade, you will be charged £50 for the privilege. The Flight: If you want the extra leg room offered by an emergency exit, you will be charged up to £40 ($60).

My Travel offer an 'all inclusive' alcoholic drinks package for around £160 ($233) per week. However, this applies to selected brands only. You will obviously need to be pretty serious about your drinking to get your monies worth. There is also a kid's Ice cream and soft drink package at a cost of about £50 ($73) per week.

My Travel will also add the insurance premium to your holiday and charge you for it, unless you tell them otherwise. You may well be able to buy cheaper insurance elsewhere? My travel has a no tipping policy, although many passengers still give a little extra to those staff who provide exceptional service.

My Travel's operation is a little reminiscent of Carnival Cruise Line, in the early years. Three of My Travel's fleet of four ships are over 30 years old. They are all small by modern standards with a high passenger density. In other words they pack the passengers in - that's how they keep the fares low. Don't expect an intimate atmosphere, because you will experience a party one.

The cabins of the MY Travel fleet in general are a little small, and the choice of public rooms can be limited on some of the ships. This can make them feel crowded at peak times. It is probably fair to say that the food, service and entertainment reflect the low fare that is paid. However, despite these negative observations, My Travel has many very satisfied customers.

The MS Sundream entered service in 1970 as Royal Caribbean Cruise Line's 'Song of Norway'. Airtours began operating her in May 1997, in the name of Sun Cruises. Sundream is a modest 22,945 gross tons and has a maximum passenger capacity of 1257, divided between the 538 cabins. There are seven passenger decks, but no single cabins, wheelchair accessible cabins or balcony cabins. There are four elevators.

Sundream is a very attractive ship, with a beautiful profile and a single funnel. She has a reasonable amount of deck space with a wrap around wooden promenade, but the deck loungers are small. Due to the high passenger capacity the deck can get crowded in fine weather. Sundream has a virtually identical sister, Carousel, which is also operated by My Travel. (Purists might like to note that Sundream one year older, and is 796 gross tons larger, accommodating 99 more passengers than Carousel.)

The onboard currency is Sterling, but the usual cashless system operates.

The ship has a bright décor and there is lots of artwork onboard. The public rooms have a Broadway theme. There are three entertainment lounges and six bars. Most of the action takes place on the Restaurant deck. There are no cabins on this deck, but two main lounges, 'My Fair Lady' forward, and 'South Pacific' aft, with the main dining room occupying the space in between.

The lounges are very big in order to accommodate all the passengers. Some critics have suggested that they lack charm, for this reason. All three have circular dance floor. The 'my Fair Lady' Show Lounge is the main entertainment venue. It is often used for dancing lessons as well as production shows. It does not have any tiered seating and there are some annoying pillars that can obstruct your view of the stage. However, these old type of show lounges have more atmosphere that many of today's giant floating theatres.

Located at the aft of the promenade deck, is a third lounge called, rather exotically, the 'Lounge of the Midnight Sun'. It also has an adjacent children's club. There is also the 'Casino Royal' on the Restaurant deck and, which is of a reasonable size and a gym on the sun deck. However the latter is no bigger than two cabins, and has very limited equipment. However, many of us Brits do not tend to be too fanatical about gambling or fitness!

The Photo gallery, Pursers desk, Beauty salon and gift shop are located on the main deck. There is one salt water outdoor pool, beauty salon, spa room and a library. There are no whirlpools, indoor pools, or Cinema.

Due to the high passenger capacity of this ship, the public rooms can be prone to overcrowding at peak times. You will have to leave the restaurant promptly to guarantee yourself a seat in the 'My Fair Lady' show lounge.

The Entertainment offered is perhaps one of the most subjective aspects of the MY Travel operation. Some passengers regard it as excellent, while others regard it as amateurish and 'holiday camp' style, relying too heavily on the multi-skilled social staff. The entertainment staff certainly do work very hard.

The Sundream pre-dates freestyle dining. The main dining room is called 'The King & I' and is located amidships, which is a very stable part of the ship. It is very large, spanning the entire beam of the ship. It is an attractive room, with windows running along the port and starboard sides, offering sea views while dining. It accommodates some 600 passengers, at each of its two sittings, but the low ceiling can make it noisy. Seating is allocated by the cruise line, so you have little real choice. The food is not the finest afloat, but it is considered to be very good by most the passengers. It is certainly plentiful, with six meals per day on offer. Healthy and vegetarian options are available, as well as kids meals.

There is breakfast and lunch buffets are served on the Lido deck, as well as 24 hour hot drinks, but there can be long lines. The midnight buffet is served indoors. Twenty four hour room service is available at an extra charge.

Passengers have described the service as "slick" with "nothing being too much trouble" for the waiters.

The cabins are divided into five grades: Inside, Standard outside, Superior outside, Promenade and Deluxe. Apart from the Deluxe grade, most of the cabins are of a similar size, which is small by today's standards. The fittings are past their best and they are starting to show their age, however they are adequate.

There are no balcony cabins. Doubles have two rather small single beds arranged in an L-shape or parallel. Couples will find that the basic Parallel variation has two single beds close enough together to make walking between them difficult, but far enough apart to suppress any romantic notions. In addition, passengers often report that the sound insulation between them is poor. The closet and storage space is limited. The bathrooms are also often described as 'tight', so don't drop the soap you might not have the room to bend down and pick it up again? If space is really important to you book the deluxe variety, but hurry there are only fourteen of them available on the Promenade deck! It is wise to avoid the aft cabins directly over the propellers!

The My Travel brochure offers some tempting half price cabin upgrades, but it is important to remember that many of the cabins are the same size, with just the deck location varying. As you might expect, the price rockets for the deluxe cabins. If you want to book a specific cabin number in advance, not just the grade, My Travel makes a charge!

The voltage is 110v so the Brits may need adaptors to power their shavers etc. Suspiciously, cabin TV's are not mentioned in the brochure! However, if the onboard entertainment and ports of call are to your liking, you will not need one.

My Travel mainly aim their product at the British market, which is a small but growing one. However, various other nationalities are often represented onboard. Their cruises are extremely popular with first-time cruisers. They appeal to a wide age range of budget conscious travellers, including families. They do not have too much local competition, because the other UK cruise lines charge higher fares and seem to particularly attract the 'grey pound'.

Sundream cruises Europe and the Mediterranean, in spring and summer. In the winter she cruises the Caribbean.

From May to October: 14 night round trips from Southampton to Western Europe and Africa. Round-trips from Harwich to the Baltic States, the Norwegian Fjords/North Cape and the Mediterranean from Southampton.

From October to April: 7/14 night Caribbean, 16 nights Amazon, and 7-night West Indies, cruises.

From April to October: Sundream returns to Southampton and Harwich, cruising round-trips to the ports of Western Europe, the Baltic, Norwegian Fjords/North Cape and Mediterranean.

Cruise and stay options are available for many of Sundream's cruises.

'My Travel' is a relative newcomer to the world of cruising. They do not have the biggest or newest ships and they do not offer the highest quality food, service or entertainment. It is very easy to criticise them. However, they do not charge the highest fares either - in fact they offer some of the cheapest deals available in the United Kingdom.

Thousands of first time UK cruisers choose to cut their maritime teeth with My Travel. They usually return home completely satisfied with the experience, invariably feeling that they have had very good value for money. Travelpage has dozens of 'readers review' from satisfied customers to prove it! They often rave about the food, service and entertainment. In fact many of them return home to immediately book another cruise with My Travel.

It is at this point we meet the great divide. The 'experts' tend to regard My Travel's standards as pretty low, in comparison to the major American cruise lines. However, the people that really matter, the passengers, usually regard them as very good, if not excellent! Of course the critics would respond by saying that as many of My Travel's passengers are virgin cruisers, so they don't know any better! In support of this hypothesis, it does appear that seasoned cruise passengers are rarely as impressed with the product as the first-timers are.

So is a 'My Travel' cruise for you? If you are an experience cruiser or expect the highest standards of pampering and luxury, you should definitely choose another cruise line. They will only be too happy to charge you accordingly. If you are British, a first-timer and/or your main criterion is value for money, you are unlikely to be disappointed with My Travel and Sundream.