just stepped out of a dream......NOT

[perthorchid]

evening folks , i am just back after a long wait in london formy connection.

 

I will try to give you a rough outline of how i saw it. Not all of the bad things happened to me and i do beleive you make of it what you will. if you are a complainer there was plenty to moan about.

 

I will disregard the delay in getting to palma, the aftershock of the ash delays i think. However the check-in was abysmall. Yes several coaches arrived at once Yes there was queueing. Some folk were moaning then, The fact that it was pouring and you had to run along the quayside to the shed where the cases were didint help. However, the boarding cards were not all there, If fact most of the east midland lot were missing. My own card seemed to have disappeard till one wee lass (who looked totally lost) found an envelope with no name on , and there it was.

Almost immediately the cry went up that the air conditioning was wrong, and it was stifling in the cabin, I turned mine right down and it was still 70 deg. My water was ok but some had no hot or no cold. Some had toilets backing up. There was a definate whiff of sewage around some areas of he ship . My cabin was average i would say, the shower-room was poor. In need of retiling and the pipework as rough and not sparkly clean. The central plug in the sink wouldnt pop out , so i took it out and put it in the soap dish, It was foul, black, greasy. What you would find down a drain, but no one sckooshed it with bleach in the 4 days it sat there.

 

Restaurants were not fully opened. No grill. Only 1 side of the buffet open so huge queues. The coffee machine wasnt working at the start. Only toward s the last day did we have ice cream and some cooked breakfast out side on the decks.

Orian restaurant was ok, in my opinion, but maybe others had diff experience. Bars slow. last night should have been 'baked alasca nigt' well i know they were made cause i saw them in the galley , but unless i missed it there was no baked alasca singing.

The shows were good.

Lisa, social hostess (yes she's the wee lass, pregnant nd leaving july) was fantastic and held great events for us solos.

Check out this morning was a fiasco.

Everybody left within half and hour, so almost the whole ship was milling about trying to find cases in the port building and great long queues for buses.

There was no-one to tell you what was happening, then the destination maneger, older woman with long grey ponytail. would should 'light-green stickers' and another lot would move forward.

 

I spent the first few days telling the moaners that they had to make allowances, teething probs, no staff because of ash probs etc and urging folks just to enjoy, but i have been re thinking and now have decided to complain.

I did know it was not a brand new ship (lots didnt) but she was sold as a 5 star flagship and she is most def not. 3 star at best. Maybe after here refit in nov, before going carribean she will be 5 but not now. But we paid for that. We paid for more dining places than we had and for better services.

They charged premium rates up front. I paid £760 for my single deck 5 cabin. I met folk who paid £1000 for a double and one couple who paid £650 for a double (last min)

I think we should get a voucher toward another trip after the refit.

[davecttr]

Sounds like a bit of a shambles!

 

It sounds reasonable to me that compensation should be offered if all the facilities were not available.

 

Questions

 

Who was the captain?

What was your cabin number?

Was there any noise/vibration during the night?

Were any explanations given for the problems?

Was the ship full?

How was the main dining room for Solos? Where did you sit etc

Was the casino open?

[bethyboo]

I am really sorry to hear that your cruise was not all that it should have been. booked 18th of may (thought it was a new ship) thomson really done a job on me wil contact ta tomorrow and voice my concerns. first time cruiser worried.:mad::mad: ps should i cancel.:confused:

[jivebunny]

I emailed thomson tonight with concerns so will see reply soon I hope. See ya soon O:p:p

[alliballi]

:( oh dear I am gutted I do hope they sort this out although I presume they dont have any breaks in itineries now for any big jobs I tell you I am so sad this was and is ment to be very special for me and hubby. i KNOW AND REALISE THERE WILL BE TEETHING PROBS BUT i THINK IT IS AWFUL THAT tHOMPSON COULD LET ANY PASSENGERS CRUISE WHEN ALL THE ADVERTISED FEATURES WHERE NOT AVAILABLE AND AS FOR SEWAGE SMELL AND SLIMMY PLUGS oops sorry for caps I cant type :o I would not be amused at all gosh I will wait nervously on reviews from next few cruses on dream thankfully we dont pay up in full until June so wont be too hasty but it isnt looking good thanks for review and being honest on how it was :confused:

[Huddersfieldtourist]

evening folks , i am just back after a long wait in london formy connection.

 

I will try to give you a rough outline of how i saw it. Not all of the bad things happened to me and i do beleive you make of it what you will. if you are a complainer there was plenty to moan about.

 

I will disregard the delay in getting to palma, the aftershock of the ash delays i think. However the check-in was abysmall. Yes several coaches arrived at once Yes there was queueing. Some folk were moaning then, The fact that it was pouring and you had to run along the quayside to the shed where the cases were didint help. However, the boarding cards were not all there, If fact most of the east midland lot were missing. My own card seemed to have disappeard till one wee lass (who looked totally lost) found an envelope with no name on , and there it was.

Almost immediately the cry went up that the air conditioning was wrong, and it was stifling in the cabin, I turned mine right down and it was still 70 deg. My water was ok but some had no hot or no cold. Some had toilets backing up. There was a definate whiff of sewage around some areas of he ship . My cabin was average i would say, the shower-room was poor. In need of retiling and the pipework as rough and not sparkly clean. The central plug in the sink wouldnt pop out , so i took it out and put it in the soap dish, It was foul, black, greasy. What you would find down a drain, but no one sckooshed it with bleach in the 4 days it sat there.

 

Restaurants were not fully opened. No grill. Only 1 side of the buffet open so huge queues. The coffee machine wasnt working at the start. Only toward s the last day did we have ice cream and some cooked breakfast out side on the decks.

Orian restaurant was ok, in my opinion, but maybe others had diff experience. Bars slow. last night should have been 'baked alasca nigt' well i know they were made cause i saw them in the galley , but unless i missed it there was no baked alasca singing.

The shows were good.

Lisa, social hostess (yes she's the wee lass, pregnant nd leaving july) was fantastic and held great events for us solos.

Check out this morning was a fiasco.

Everybody left within half and hour, so almost the whole ship was milling about trying to find cases in the port building and great long queues for buses.

There was no-one to tell you what was happening, then the destination maneger, older woman with long grey ponytail. would should 'light-green stickers' and another lot would move forward.

 

I spent the first few days telling the moaners that they had to make allowances, teething probs, no staff because of ash probs etc and urging folks just to enjoy, but i have been re thinking and now have decided to complain.

I did know it was not a brand new ship (lots didnt) but she was sold as a 5 star flagship and she is most def not. 3 star at best. Maybe after here refit in nov, before going carribean she will be 5 but not now. But we paid for that. We paid for more dining places than we had and for better services.

They charged premium rates up front. I paid £760 for my single deck 5 cabin. I met folk who paid £1000 for a double and one couple who paid £650 for a double (last min)

I think we should get a voucher toward another trip after the refit.

 

Sorry to read this - did you or anyone you know of or hear of make any detailed representations about the various issues whilst on the ship ? If so , to whom ? Verbally or in writing ?

 

Issues that the ship has not been given the opportunity to remedy will be responded to as such - what reasons were given for the restaurants not being open for example.With whom did you raise the state of your cabin basin ? I sympathise that you should not really have to be in the position to be doing so but I would be interested to hear of what was actually said whilst on board etc

 

As for the Destinations Manager - it sounds like a lady called Paula who has worked on all the Thomson ships I have been on.

 

Hope you can answer my questions and those posted by the others - I am sorry your cruise was a let down particularly after the exciting build up on this website - if you have any photos that would interest us all those too would be great to see. Thanks.

[perthorchid]

Sounds like a bit of a shambles!

 

It sounds reasonable to me that compensation should be offered if all the facilities were not available.

 

Questions

 

Who was the captain?

captain roy dearman, from celebration, in fact lots of staff seemed to have come from there

What was your cabin number?

5007 foward starboard.

 

Was there any noise/vibration during the night?

not that i noticed. except when docking

Were any explanations given for the problems?

I didnt formally complain , but heard from others that it was 'teething probs' and staff just arrived

Was the ship full?

No not full, we were offered to see the grand suites which were empty and there was a party arrived for 2 days (travel agents, thomson staff, journalists etc) at end so those rooms would be empty at least 3 nights

How was the main dining room for Solos? Where did you sit etc

Cant fault solo hosting, Big table for 10 in main dining room

Was the casino open?

Yes, tho not busy. carol and laura from on here, wanted to play roulette but it was closed , but i saw it open later. I won £45 on the slots on my last night. Yeh.

[MrsP1981]

i agree with everything Isabel has said. You spend the first few days making excuses and thinking well, it's all new to them too. But then as one thing leads to another you realise that we were Guinea Pigs really and yet paid full price. in total for our cabin we paid £1250 and remember this was only 5 nights.

 

Not all bad though by any means - The Entertainment team were fantastic in my view and i really enjoyed all the shows and even enjoyed some of the quizes even though it's really not my sort of thing. The ships main areas were clean and comfortable. We enjoyed the food in the main dining room too and wouldn't complain about that.

 

i feel it should have been sold as a trial cruise for a much lower price, inviting us to go along, try things out and report back.

 

i will be writing to complain which is somthing i have NEVER done before.

 

By the time we left yesterday so much had improved such as the air conditioning, smell and food outside so i think people booked on from now will have a much better experiance than we did.

[davecttr]

Captain Dearham would not be happy with the situation as he seems to be hot on getting things right.

 

Glad to hear you got a good night sleep. It looks like that for solo travellers the cabins forward would be first choice.

 

I knew some crew came from Celebration but there are none from other Thomson ships so it really is a new crew learning to work together in a new environment. Not having the pre cruise would not have helped at all.

 

Interesting that they seated all the solo travellers together, this was not true on Spirit where we had to form ad hoc groups to go to dinner. On Clebration it was worse as only 2 people turned up at the first meet but no one from the crew!!

[perthorchid]

the sitting the solos together was only on the orgainised lunch and dinner. at all other times it was up to you.

first night i went down to orion rest and waited to be seated. Lucked out witha big table with 1 couple and 2 ladies. just chatted , very pleasant. 2nd night captains dinner, again lucky as lisa had arranged that i and 1 other single lady were at hosted staff captains table with 3 couples , great. 3rd night , not so good. waiter said , only you? and looked dismayed. then he trailed me up and down the dining room looking around for somewhere to put me. (he should have left me at the door till he found it) then he approached a table for 4 , where a young couple were sitting face to face and asked it they minded if i joined them (with me standing there they could hardly say no) so i sat , next to the lady . They had been reading their menus and discussing what to eat. I was given mine and as i sat listening to their conversation it was uncomfortable . I felt like a gooseberry. So i did the only thing poss and launched into ....are you enjoying the trip. have you been on any excursions? etc Make them talk. it turned out ok. 4th night hosted single dinner.

5th night i was on my own again. as i entered the d/r i saw one of the other ladies , so i joined her. she had eaten but sat with me.

You have to be forward. Sometimes pushy , or you could have a lonely time. Most of the women (mostly widows) had learned that before , like me, in normal life. But i did see 1 who struggled to be chatty with strangers and i dont think she really enjoyed it.

[Huddersfieldtourist]

the sitting the solos together was only on the orgainised lunch and dinner. at all other times it was up to you.

first night i went down to orion rest and waited to be seated. Lucked out witha big table with 1 couple and 2 ladies. just chatted , very pleasant. 2nd night captains dinner, again lucky as lisa had arranged that i and 1 other single lady were at hosted staff captains table with 3 couples , great. 3rd night , not so good. waiter said , only you? and looked dismayed. then he trailed me up and down the dining room looking around for somewhere to put me. (he should have left me at the door till he found it) then he approached a table for 4 , where a young couple were sitting face to face and asked it they minded if i joined them (with me standing there they could hardly say no) so i sat , next to the lady . They had been reading their menus and discussing what to eat. I was given mine and as i sat listening to their conversation it was uncomfortable . I felt like a gooseberry. So i did the only thing poss and launched into ....are you enjoying the trip. have you been on any excursions? etc Make them talk. it turned out ok. 4th night hosted single dinner.

5th night i was on my own again. as i entered the d/r i saw one of the other ladies , so i joined her. she had eaten but sat with me.

You have to be forward. Sometimes pushy , or you could have a lonely time. Most of the women (mostly widows) had learned that before , like me, in normal life. But i did see 1 who struggled to be chatty with strangers and i dont think she really enjoyed it.

 

With open dining this is an issue for single travellers unless they make arrangements with others in advance who they may have met up with earlier in the cruise. On fixed dining ( Destiny only ) they aim to put all the singles together and you all turn up at the same time which is preallocated - the disadvantage is that you are fixed to what time you eat and who you eat with which for some singles and many couples can be a disadvantage - particularly the fixed time though some enjoy meeting up withth esame people every night - however if you meet people on board you can not then arrange to sit with them which you could do on the Dream, Spirit, Celebration....

[Jim The Scot]

i agree with everything Isabel has said. You spend the first few days making excuses and thinking well, it's all new to them too. But then as one thing leads to another you realise that we were Guinea Pigs really and yet paid full price. in total for our cabin we paid £1250 and remember this was only 5 nights.

 

 

"Guinea Pigs"

 

Hit the nail on the head

 

i feel it should have been sold as a trial cruise for a much lower price, inviting us to go along, try things out and report back.

 

Agree

 

 

 

By the time we left yesterday so much had improved such as the air conditioning, smell and food outside so i think people booked on from now will have a much better experiance than we did.

 

Nice to read something positive

[MrsP1981]

"Guinea Pigs"

 

Hit the nail on the head

 

 

 

Agree

 

 

 

 

 

Nice to read something positive

 

Have just posted on another thread that i really don't think people should panic and change, wait and see how other reviews come out. The problems were getting sorted, it's a shame for us they were there but we pointed them all out so it should be ok for the rest of you ;) - happy to help!!!

[davecttr]

Regarding solo anytime dining I agree it is a problem, even for blokes!

 

On Spirit we had a large number of solos and arranged an informal meeting outside the restaurant at 6.45. A few people always turned up so we never had to go in the dining room alone. We even had the same table and waiters each evening.

 

I think it would be a good idea to have a 'meet for dinner' at two times every evening and it should be standard practice to offer this to solo cruisers. Something like a solo dining club, each evening at X time.