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Travelscope Tours

MV Van Gogh

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Reviewed by: Patrick Wetter
# previous cruises: 10+
Date of Trip: December 7, 2002
Itinerary: Europe

VAN GOGH is currently operated by Travelscope, a British tour-operator, offering small cruises (7-9 days). The ship is owned by an ukrainian company working with Dutch capital. It can be considered to be middle-class, offering a leisure style for fair rates. Do not expect luxury. Officers are mainly from Ukraine, the cruise-staff is from United Kingdom as well as the main part of the hotel-management.

As to my surprise, the refurbishment in 1998 have not included all interior areas. As few lounges have been completely reconstructed and fitted with new furniture, others have only been partially refurbished. Some lounges, such as the Sky Bar still feature lots of their original furnitures from the 70ies. There is only one main dining-room (2 seatings), the rather spacious show-lounge, a shopping-promenade, the Captain's Club Bar, a casino and the Nautilus Bar (has the function of a TV-room and Karaoke-lounge) at the aft. On the lower deck (Portunus Deck) you'll find as well a balcony-cinema and a nightclub / disco.

All in all the ships presents itself quite light, has an inviting lobby and is well maintained and kept clean in all areas. The mix of different styles in the lounges is a matter of taste and might not please everybody but the funny and relaxed atmosphere between passengers and crew makes you feel at home anyway.

The ship provides good open-deck-space (including a sport-deck) and two exterior pools (1 of them is for kids). The pool deck can be covered with a sort of tent-awning - an idea which was successfully imported from sister ship DELPHIN - to provide shadow on very sunny days.

The service is provided by a mainly ukrainian service-crew (parts of the crew behind the scenes is now occupied by Indonesians too which bring a sort of international flair into the cruise). The service is adequate, friendly and tries well. However some attention should be needed to details. The dining-room looks somewhat uninviting (the floor should get a new carpet because the current mix of carpets and tiles does not fit into a dining-room unless you want it to be a buffet-restaurant maybe.

Food is prepared to attract British passengers. The quality is ok. Some more creativeness could be welcomed.

The cabins were all in all refurbished in 1998. They are light, have enough space, and it's more than ok for the duration of your cruise.

Show consist of international presentations such as dancing and orchestra as well as spectacular crew-shows performed by the ukrainian crew.

Itineraries consist for the moment of 7 to 9 day cruises, departing from Falmouth or Harwich. Excursions are provided at every port. For those who want to stay on board, there are facilities such as a gymnasium, games like volleyball or basketball can be played on the sport-deck or the sun-deck with the pool is available while the Lido-Bar is open too (depending on the weather of course. Unfortunately there are no children's facilities.

Fellow passengers are mainly from United Kingdom but you'll find as well a few passengers from the Netherlands or Belgium on board as the ship is offered via one cruise-representative there too. Depending on the mix of passengers, there is usually a funny atmosphere on board which easily lets you feel being at home.