Little Nell

I voted "No" cos I don't want Stevie to stop posting silly things. Hope I got that right :confused:

Where to start Yes Thomson do need to pull their finger out . First I think they need to have people at the top that care about their regular customers As for the ships yes they are getting on but are kept spotlessly clean Their staff on ship are a credit to them. So they are looking to RCL .Does that mean very large ships . That would turn me off to start with. Grats will that mean they will not be included I believe in tipping those that look after me and not the waiter that is the other side of the bar. Prices on the ship I was talking to people a while back that were on RCL and they told me the cheapest bootle of wine in the dinning room was 32.5 $ + service ( do not know how true that is)

I do think it will cost us a lot more to cruise

It isn't costing the Germans much more if anything at all.

Fantastic information, Kruzseeka. Thank you so much.

It is printed and added to the ever expanding folder :)

Bang slap in the middle! :D

The ship docks parallel to the train station - turn right after disembarking past the ferry, turn left, left again so you've doubled back on yourself and there is the train station. Carry on once turning left at the ferry over the bridge and you're in the town! Cafes down the waterfront, walk past them to the lighthouse - beach on the left. Small, compact, pretty and a great stop for wandering and relaxing!

Great info. Thanks Kruzseeka. Duly noted :D

Hope people can help with advice on our remaining poc on our Baltic cruise.

They are Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen. Copenhagen is a late sailing.

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions. They have been very helpful.

We have decided on:

Zeebrugge. A quietish day as it is a short day in port. Think we will take the tram along the coast and a wander about Zeebrugge.

Warnemunde. Train to Rostock in the morning and time in Warnemunde in the afternoon.

Tallinn. The old town but might do the hoho and see the Estonian museum. We like the commentary on the Hoho. A friend did a taxi tour and said it was brilliant, that they saw lots that others hadn't managed to see. I will ask him for more info on that.

St P. We decided on the private tour which includes more of the things we want to see than the ship's tours.

Does anyone know where we are likely to dock in Warnemunde?

Is it far from the town itself?

in other words, back to where it was up until 2/3 years ago.

On the money with that one, Rookery.

We would never have left if they hadn't changed the product to such an extent.

I wouldn't disagree with any of the comments so far.

My list would be pretty much the same.

Better quality of food, drinks and improved service. A drinks package that you can upgrade if you want a better choice of drinks.

Better ships.

Keep Peel entertainment and have decent groups like Muzzik Unlimited playing somewhere that you can dance.

Keep the friendly ambience and Britishness.

Keep the fantastic itineraries.

Don't charge way over the odds for newer ships.

Radically improved website, booking procedures

Listen to what your loyal customers tell you.

Radically improve booking procedures and the website. Streamline the process so that cabins can be chosen at time of booking and are free.

Stop charging for safes. Include the money in the cost of the holiday if you need it and stop irritating people with it. No-one else charges for safes.

Stop the cuts to regional airports for certain cruises eg the Caribbean. Lower the cost of booking seats, extra legroom seats, extra luggage. Restore the 23 kgs for cruises and scrap the additional hand luggage allowance for cruises that causes so many issues at the airport.

Start the customer service department from scratch! This has been Thomson's biggest own goal so far. People are losing trust in Thomson as a company. Honesty and transparency should be the byword.

Wow. Didn't realise I had all of that in me :D

Wow, Geo. :). Brilliant. :). I think we've all experienced much of that. I'm afraid I do not like the guitar playing and singing at the table. I would rather they served me my food so that I too, could get to the theatre before all the seats are taken.

I agree completely, Jakanne. I want good service, not to be sung to by waiters in a restaurant.

On Celebrity there are many different nationalities, but apart from the Muster Drill everything is just in English. Its is nice to meet people from other nationalities.

That's interesting Presto2.

We had our first Celebrity cruise last year and all announcements were in English and Spanish but it wasn't intrusive like saying it in 5 languages. There was a large number of S. Americans onboard.

You cheer me up on a dreich day, Geo :D

That is exciting news!

We must wait to see what is in the detail.

canadian rockies train journey ...... luv the sound of that..... right up my street

 

then a cruise to the galapagos islands

 

and then a quick overnight in tokyo for some sushi

That would be quite a trip, Geo :D

It's definitely all to do with itinerary. ;)

 

I usually drip feed the negatives to husband over a few weeks, but on this one nothing is a problem. He sees a positive in everything..........so odd.;):D:D

Haha. I do too, happy.

Then things are never as bad as he expects. Forewarned is forearmed ;)

Oh that's given me food for thought!

There are some Med ports we've either missed or not been to on the itineraries we've done which I fancy - Sete (for Carcassonne), Messina (for Taormina), Alayna, Mahon, whichever port gives access to Seville plus any number of new ports down the Eastern Adriatic ports we haven't done in Croatia etc.

But further afield I'd like to do the Rockies land tour and Alaska cruise (although I wonder if the cruise bit can usurp the spiritual lift I get from Norway)

Sydney appeals also a taste of something in the Far East (Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia etc - not all of them but just a sample of the Orient to absorb the atmosphere and get a flavour of the culture) but the length of the flights puts me off a bit. Hawaii sounds good too.

A world cruise would solve it I guess! If only........... :D

 

But in the meantime I'm only too grateful to have been to the places we've already visited and would happily go to most all of them again! ;)

 

What about you?

Well, we seem to have a lot in common, Kruzseeka.

Messina and Sete are also on my radar as well as other ports in the Adriatic and Aegean.

We already have plans for Alaska and the Rocky Mountaineer in 2 years but I

would also like to cruise the Eastern and Western seaboards of the USA and return to the Caribbean.

Something in the Far East, including Thailand, would be lovely.

The North Cape and Iceland too.

That seems to be enough to be getting on with!!

Excellent Nell.

 

I'm having a think and starting a list.:)

Good happy v :D

Most people that use this forum have been to a lot of places over the years.

What is still on your bucket list of places to see? Where would you still like to cruise to?

Update on this one. Well they offered £150 cash at the pre arbitration stage. Together with a note to say they know how arbitration works, have lots of experience, can defend themselves and we don't have a chance of winning. Charming.

 

That doesn't scare me, however I'm sick of it dragging on and we are accepting. So just waiting for a cheque. Looking forward to putting this behind us and determined that TUI and co will not get another penny out if me so long as I shall live.

 

Absolutely disgraceful treatment. But thanks to everyone on here who has helped us out!

All in all this has been an unsavoury episode and has shown Thomson in a very bad light. I am glad you have got to the end of it and can put it behind you.

Having to go to the brink of arbitration and be threatened by them at that stage is disgusting.

Why they allowed things to go this far is beyond me. Other people on the same cruise were compensated. It is this inconsistency which is so wrong and shows the company up for their unfairness and downright bad practice.

In similar circumstances (which I doubt other companies would have inflicted on their customers in the first place) there would have been an across the board award for inconvenience without even having to ask.

To be honest, there are too many problems with Thomson these days for us to even contemplate booking with them. There are plenty better cruise companies out there that are charging less money.

I hope you have many happy holidays and cruises to come.

Dont wory.. I come over here to escape the celebrity thread now. Phew. . :-D

:D Made me think twice about going with them last year. Thankfully they are much nicer onboard ;)

I am enjoying reading about your trip, Gill :)

Is this the one Eleanor?

 

Looks like it, Linda :)

I can't remember the battleship, but that doesn't mean it wasn't there just something that wouldn't attract my attention. However if you are interested, on the way out of St. P. there is a ship graveyard. Apparently all the ships sank in the war are left as a memorial.

The trip we are looking at stops for photographs. It is an iconic symbol of the Russain revolution. It fired it's gun to signal the start of the Russian Revolution in 1917. As a history buff I would like to see it.

We've just returned from 2 weeks on Celebration today. Had a brilliant time, the food was great with plenty of choice. Drinks were unpredictable sometimes the cocktails were lovely other times they were watered down and not made properly. The staff mostly were lovely especially Miko and Wally in Mistrals who always took time to chat with us.

Cabin was a deluxe cabin on the promenade deck which was great very clean and roomy.

Found like the last review that the entertainment was very repetitive the shows in the Broadway show lounge were repeated in the second week quite a few times.

Enjoyed the ports of call especially Dominica ( did Trafalgar Falls and spa trip) Barbados (Carlisle beach), Antigua (runaway beach) found the Thomsons excursions enjoyable and fairly good value for money

Main downside was getting a really bad cough - lots of people seemed to be coughing a lot on ship too and on the plane returning to manchester. The said plane was an old banger it was an old first choice 767 with water from air conditioning dripping everywhere, my tv was broken, hard seats, smelly toilets yuk! Understand from cabin steward this plane is going out of service in 3 weeks time!

All in all fairly good value

 

 

 

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Glad you had a really good time. I actually don't mind them repeating some shows as we sometimes miss them spending so long over dinner and can always catch them second time around.

Your plane sounds like the one we had returning to Glasgow in 2013. I joked with our English friends who were on dreamliner that our plane would be the one with the sticky tape on the windows. A slight exaggeration (for the laughs) but not so wide of the mark ;)

Zeebrugge has got some very good beaches, we were they last December, we had a walk around the shops the chocolate is a lot cheaper than Brugge. Also you can take the tram along the coast or go to Ostend on the tram or go to Antwerp.

Thanks for that, Sennen. I remember taking the tram along the coast before. Where can you catch it in Zeebrugge?

And the Dream also missed the stop in San Blas again this week.

 

Have to agree with Nancy Neptune. Standards have changed a lot on the Thomson ships since we have been sailing with them, as has the standard of passengers (sorry but it's true!) and we get fed up with the 'sell, sell, sell' too now.

Can't argue with that.