Colbrit

Just checked and is available to book online - both the Celebration's repositioning cruises in May and September 2017.

I forgot about St Lucia so true Thomson have started land holidays there so that could be an option. Can't wait for the brochure to be launched.

The cruise flights tie in with land holidays - I know that Thomson recently announced a world wide cities break programme however I wouldn't think that 3rd party flying would deliver the margins that in house flying would. They fly into Dom Rep already - can they be linked to La Romana? What about Cuba, can any ports be a suitable home port?

Any idea on the ex-Dubai cruises - got my eye on them for next winter, which ship would likely do them?

Launched on the website today enter CRUISE100 - couldn't find the t&cs though so there may be a minimum spend requirement?

Colbrit

Celebration is on the website sailing 21st May on a 14 night holiday Baltic Discovery. This now the first sailing from Newcastle instead of the planned Fjords & Glaciers. The repositioning from Malaga - Newcastle which is called Hidden Treasures of Europe must be approx on the 7th May now as its down as a 14night cruise.

It's not sale online due to the one way flights involved - however not sure why Thomson couldn't find it on their systems.

Agree - very strong prices at the moment. I'm flexible enough to wait for a late deal as I don't really drink so I can sacrifice the drinks package. Looking at the Baltic ones as have done Fjords and going to Iceland in Jan but not at those prices.

Title says it all - the repositioning cruises don't seem to be yet. But yes at the bottom of the flights section you can now select Newcastle and carry on to make a booking.

I really do hope they get this sorted soon - their previous website coped with ex- UK sailings ok and I'm sure the repositioning cruises were on sale too on this site.

Hi all,

I'm new to this but I wanted to share my thoughts on this great cruise. Great start with a quick and smooth flight into Malaga from Gatwick on a newish aircraft, 3 flights coming into Malaga all mostly for the cruise.

There was an issue here at LGW in that we were told by those giving us the baggage labels to identify our luggage as cruise luggage, that the luggage would be taken directly to our cabins. I did Croatian Classics in May through Dubrovnik and this happened so didn't think anything of it. In Malaga we walked to find the cruise rep and were led around the houses when the reps realised no one had any luggage! So back we had to go to get our bags for the short transfer to the port.

The issue with embarkation from what I understand is that the ship was in "wet dock"? and there were delays in the authorities giving clearance. So a lot of buses were parked in front looking at a closed ship, until finally all the workmen came off and the Thomson staff were rushing off to set up their check-in desks in the terminal. In total we waited about 40mins on the bus then we joined a queue to pick up our envelopes and then another queue to to the check-in registration. That was annoying as it was very hot inside. Then many were told their cards hadn't registered and to fix it later but ours was ok, only to be told later by reception that they hadn't so that required a trip to reception where we encountered a lot of unhappy customers.

Apart from that my friend and I had the best time, everyone was so happy and positive, the crossing was wonderful, sunny every single day, glorious temperatures, some movement/shakes but we've travelled on Celebration and Spirit before so we know that, did the Trio Package for the A La Carte packages, attended some of the lectures, the Captain's Q&A, the shopping lecture, other than that we just like to sit in a lounge have a drink or sunbathe.

The ports were varied, we pre-booked excursions in Gibraltar and Funchal with Thomson which were very good but did our own thing in the Caribbean. I even did 2 bike rides in St Lucia and Grenada which was exhausting but rewarding.

As usual, the crew were really friendly, saw some crew I had seen in May, we visited Antigua, St Maarten, Dominica, St Kitts, St Lucia, Bequia, Grenada, Barbados.

We were told at the beginning of the cruise that the order of visiting Dominica and St Kitts had to be swapped as there were too many ships in port.

I was apprehensive about the many days at sea, but I would do another one in a flash, it was one of the best holidays I've ever done.

Colbrit