rookery

That would be a shame. Spirit is my favourite by a distance. Others too judging by the reviews.

She'll be the Thomson Velcro.

I had the same sort of 'tough luck' response to a very valid complaint. I consulted a solicitor who advised that even if I won my claim, it was not certain that I would be awarded costs so reluctantly had to draw a line under the whole sorry episode. It left a very bitter taste and despite having cruised with Thomson a few times since, I am more inclined to look to another line for future holidays.

Correct.

It is the Doctor *ON* thomson, *NOT* the Thomson doctor.

 

,

 

 

Most are reteired Doctors from the Eastern European Countries, renting out their homes/appartments back home, whilst spending 6 month contracts at sea.

 

 

It pays ok and they are on board officer status, so have nice cabins, and privilages etc.

Was seated at the Doctors Table once, we had a blast.

His cabin was lovely, and room service for breakfast was a pure delight.

 

 

 

.

Oooh you're such a tease ;)

I would like to see better food, more staff, fewer PoC changes, ex UK sailings, adherence to dress code & other standards and value for money.......in other words, back to where it was up until 2/3 years ago.

I wouldn't like to see larger ships, a non-british ambience, gimmicks & higher prices.

Anyone know what Paul Evans is doing?

We've been on quite a few Thomson cruises and enjoyed them all, bar one. We decided to give P & O a try and found the overall experience very similar. We much prefer the smaller Thomson ships, finding them more characterful. Of late, the big issue is one of value for money. Thomson seem to think that a poxy kettle in your cabin and a lick of paint here and there justifies a higher price tag along with the 'platinum' tag.

I saw that one jigsaw was marked 5 to 10 years. I managed to complete it in a day :D

We caught the bus into town and had a wander. We also did a boat trip. We preferred Dubrovnik to Venice.

Some people have got £200, some £100 and me - nothing! Never setting foot in or on anything associated with TUI in my life again so vouchers worthless but still it would have been nice to have been offered something.

I can well understand your anger and frustration. We suffered at the hands of Thomson a few years ago and were treated abysmally.

Spirit wins hands down for me. Hard to put a finger on exactly why, I just think its better all round.

If you know what district they're from you could try the local paper. Mr Google is also a good source for finding things out too.

:D:D:D kalos Big argument the other day on fb about ship v boat!

I remember Roy Dearman saying that you can put a boat on a ship but not the other way round. That's how to tell.

One little thing, when we were in Dominica, which is mostly rain forest. It rained and rained on and off. One lady said why is it always raining here.........

Perhaps she lied when she was 17 ;)

Lets face it most of us would consider any of the ships if we got a cheap deal. Although in my case if it was Majesty I would be going on my own as hubby says hes never going on it again. Doesnt like it and knowing how stubborn he is I could be going with someone else

True. The Dream is my least favourite by distance but I'd still go on her if the price was right.

Spirit for me too. Followed by Celebration, Majesty and finally Destiny.

Time to send her back to Costa methinks ;)

I don't think that's fair.........on Costa. I'd just scuttle the damned thing and have done with it.

We've flown to & from Sharm and Hurghada several times with Thomson and as far as I can recall, they were always cramped. I've got no idea what planes they were but you could tell they were old, they had outside toilets.

We left the Dream on 8th Dec last year after the TA and the Christmas decorations including tree were up then. They'd been doing them during the cruise so I would expect them to be up on Majesty by the 5th.

We did the Dream TA crossing 2 or 3 years ago and were disappointed that they didn't put them up until the day we disembarked.

.......On another note, what a bargain for someone wanting to go last minute next week.

In checking when they were in Lanzarote, iI spotted the 7nt cruise on at £360 :eek: Good luck to anyone who can pick that one up!

Here you go Kruzseeka, on Thomsons website this evening, Colourful Coasts 5/12/14 from Bournemouth - - - - - - £333 inside cabin.

Go on, you know you want to :)

Having booked a very late deal on Ventura recently, we were on freedom dining and were happy to share a table with fellow cruisers. We usually went to the restaurant at around 7.00 - 7.30 and only once did we need a pager, a 15 minute wait, every other time we went straight in. The food was good too, by the way.

I'm also looking at a land based holiday as a possible alternative to a cruise. Agadir is not everyone's cup of tea but we like it. The weather is always good, wonderful beach and the locals are nice. Marrakesh is great too and even warmer.

I can only remember missing two ports due to weather conditions , Agadir once due to very rough seas and a tender port somewhere in the med again due to rough seas. We did miss a couple more on one ill-fated Dream cruise but I'm trying not to think about that one :mad:

We didn't find the other pax unfriendly but it's fair to say that as the ship carries over 3000, we rarely saw anyone twice. I would imagine that the snooty ones might be those who used the separate, paid-for outside deck & bar area. It's a good job we went in term time because apparently it typically has 700 children/teens on board during school holidays. Re the sanitation, there were plenty of hand sanitizers around the ship including on embarkation. We were particularly impressed that the public loos had them with signs asking you to use a paper towel when using the door handle on the way out. I was a little surprised when arriving at one port to hear the entertainment manager publicly boasting that Ventura hadn't had noro but the already docked Azura had.

Far from being 'up market', I felt the ambiance the same as on Thomson except for one occasion when they has some sort of British flag waving arrival - very Butlins in my view.

Having asked the question, I thought I'd better answer it. On the whole, a week on Ventura was much the same as on Thomson. Plusses were the obviously more modern ship (although much too big/far too many pax), better cabin and the food in MDR was excellent. Minuses were the impersonal service, anonymous entertainment staff and, the extremely poor cleanliness in the public areas. The outside buffet and bar tables were filthy and we never once saw any cleaning going on inside or out, cabins excepted. The constant attempts to sell us something was an irritation too but Thomson seem to have caught that bug too.

So yes we would continue to cruise with Thomson but only if the price is competitive.