Stevio

Part 2...

OK, here goes... An attempt to post images of the bar list of Thomson Majesty as it was at the end of April 2016... Took them with my pad so apologies for quality. The last price is what you get on AI, & if there is an asterisked one in front, that is the supplement you pay.

Part 1....

There have been many news stories about the "biometric" changes to USA passport requirements, but as far as I can see its the same 6 month remaining on a 10 year passport requirement that there has always been. As the UK started issuing chipped passports Oct 1st 2006, any of the older type passports issued on the previous April 1st could not have 6 months left on it from April 1st 2016, and chipped, biometric or not would have been disallowed for entry to USA.

As far as I can see the first of the new style chipped passports issued in October 2006 would also be refused this month (May 2016) as there would not be 6 months left on it.... Perhaps that will be the next big story. :confused:

Our last cruise was similar and only one sailaway party

Thanks for the info Jim I am on the same cruise.

:eek:

No worries Stelin34... If they have the party on the first night of the 8 day cruise... I will tell you what it was like when you board the next day. :D

When I previously praised Thomson buffets, I was thinking of the IE, Destiny & Majesty.. I had forgotten about the Dream April 2013. Ok it was a bad week with many of the staff down sick with Noro or whatever (sorry to remind Linda of the "cruise from hell" again). But the Dream had the largest buffet serving area with the least choice of any cruise I have been on. To the extent that on "Indian night" the only (complimentary) hot food on offer were a few dishes at the end of the counter & hamburgers available from outside on deck provided you made it out there before the burger stall closed at 19:00 hrs. The same fare was repeated downstairs in the main restaurant (minus the burgers of course) so if you didn't like Indian... Tough.

In comparison my first buffet on the Majesty had the choice of chicken, beef or pork, three types of fish, pasta, full salad selection, rice, chips, boiled or mash potatoes, full selection of cold meats, cheeses, etc. etc. And that was lunch... I kid you not there was a wider selection of food on offer for the first lunch on the Majesty than I saw for the whole week on the Dream.

I think if I were to order the buffets we have been to it would be 1/ Ocean Village, ... 2/ Island Escape ... 3/ Majesty ... 4/ Destiny .... 5/ NCL (all ships fairly equal menu) ... (Dream a non runner).

How does Thomson compare to other lines ?

We too fell in love with Ocean Village, took 5 cruises on OV2 in her last two years & been looking for something similar ever since... Island Escape came pretty close but she too has now retired.

All the cruise lines seem to have really good staff.

Thomsons are older smaller ships but more laid back & relaxed. They have the highest quality entertainment teams but generally lack the entertainment venues of NCL ships. I would say the food, good old British nosh (curries, Chinese etc.) is directly comparable to Ocean Village food, in that they have buffets with just about the widest selection of food you could want. The only difference from OV is that there are also complimentary service restaurants that will deliver the same food to your table for you. Thomson make a pretty good stab at "freestyle dining" & I think the only nights with sittings are the formal ones. The main quibble I have with Thomson's is that every time they take over a ship they seem to remove two thirds of the casino. :confused:

However, I have high hopes for the Thomson Discovery. It looks to have a decently sized theatre and overall appears distinctly Ocean Villagy... Apart from the climbing wall of course. :D

Island Escape on a Baltic itinerary would have sold out in hours. :)

I think Oasis is R.C.I. ship Oasis of the Seas so... http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=83

Now when Thomson gets hold of an old one of those.. Freedom class, 100,000 metric tons 6,000 passenger including ice skating rink, on-board boardwalk with fairground etc. etc.... it will be much more impressive.... But then we will probably all transfer to Fred.

Well I've booked for October and taking my sister who has never cruised before so she is in for a treat. Is Thomson good for entertainment as never cruised Thomson before.

I believe Thomson productions & entertainment is highly rated against most other cruise lines, only let down by the venues on their existing ships such as sightlines & pillars in the way. Discovery looks to have a decent "proper" theatre so hopefully the best of both.

I wouldn't pin any hopes of extensive cabin refurbishments from Thomsons.

I would have thought that the view would be that if it was good enough for R.C.I then Thomson can get a few more years out of her before they need a the odd new carpet... Other than removing most of the casino of course to provide more areas of essential seating.

I am still surprised that they decided to alter the name from Splendour to Discovery, they could have saved a drop of paint there.

Having said that, this ship does look a step up from anything Thomson has had before and I for one am looking forward to sailing her one day.

Can confirm that NCL have removed all stops at Turkey for the whole of 2016.

I was informed officially a couple of weeks ago that my NCL Spirit cruise in Oct would no longer call at Istanbul & Kusadasi & that instead cruise would be rejigged to include Dubrovnik Croatia & Kotor Montenegro... As have done Turkey before, we prefer Dubrovnik & am looking forward to Kotor as a new port so quite pleased really.

I think NCL were heavily exposed to problems with reduced bookings with a lot of their cruises starting & finishing in Istanbul and with overnight stays there. I believe they were even experimenting with several day pre cruise hotel stays on their US site & once they removed one product, they all had to go.

Have only been on the Maj' since the buffet upgrade & as Sugarloaf says the ship has a very well laid out buffet facility in a newly covered in area at the back of the ship called Piazza San Marco. The old buffet is still on the same deck at the other end of the ship which I think is closed for the evening when the staff are used for the main restaurant, but that still leaves the Majesty with two fully operational buffets at breakfast making it the best I have been on.

Think the only difference in the food was the afternoon cream teas were served in the old buffet.

Fully agree with the American / Canadian nationality roll call thing, but whenever I have looked on the NCL roll calls they consist of 90% people organising private tours with each other & the rest are for the meet & greet (which is often for the purpose of arranging meet up times for said tours).

Sometimes wish I had the bottle to arrange the private tours as they often look to be a fraction of the price of the ship ones.

After having some great times on the Island Escape, is this ship going to be as relaxed and friendly. Local travel agent wasn't sure!

As an ex IE cruiser, I would say the closest Thomson ship match would be the Majesty.

Have sailed the Dream & found them to have the longest buffet serving area & the least choice. To the extent that on curry night with both restaurants serving the same fare, one poor lady who didn't like Indian food had nothing to eat after the burger bar on deck closed at 6 pm unless she paid.

Found both IE & Majesty in a fraction of the serving space, to provide more choice for a single a meal than Dream provided for the week. I thought Majesty food to be on a par with IE & had no problems with temperatures. There is also better buffet seating on the Majesty than the IE since they covered in the San Marco restaurant.

If you are a casino visitor the Majesty has a slightly larger one than the IE. (Casino virtually non existent on Dream).

The casino on the Discovery could be their great advantage if they leave it the same size as on RC... But you know they will not by their past record of carving the sports bar out of the original on the IE & installing pointless seating both sides of Majesty.

There were certainly a few Eastern European staff on the Majesty that do not smile as much as those from the Philippines, but my main problem was the Russian waiter who kept serenading us at dinner... Everyone loved him & he was very good, but it would draw attention to the fact that I had gone up for more than one helping of spotted dick & custard.

No entertainment on other ships can compete to IE standards as they haven't got a Ross Roberts. :eek:

But it is strange the way the booking link hasn't been fixed isn't it.

Been trying to let Thomsons know that their web links were broken on next April's Majesty Iberian Adventure cruises, & today received this reply from the customer service agent Swansea...

"Good afternoon,

Thank you for contacting Thomson cruises.

I've looked into your query and unfortunately that cruise itinerary is currently on a stop sale from our trading department until due to some technical difficulties. The cruise will become available for sale again once these have been fixed.

I hope this answers your query"

Looks as though she forgot to put a date in after the word "until", but the phrase "on a stop sale " is very curious. Still looks as though the cruise will be on sale again at some point, but technical difficulties that have now lasted several weeks affecting only this cruise seems to be an odd one.

Perhaps my previous jest was correct & they got the AI stuck on £1.30 a day.:)

Hi stevio can you point me in the direction for roll call for majesty . I've done it once and can't find it now

Hi Stelin34 , no probs. The roll call is named “Thomson Majesty - Monday 25th April - 2016 Iberian Adventure” on the CC Thomson Roll call page it is currently 20th from the top (including sticky) & the last post is dated Nov 13th. That post was one of yours so you haven’t missed anything.

Thomson roll calls always seem quiet, (well dead really) compared to say the American NCL ones where by this time they would have organised a 200+ strong meet & greet, gift exchange, cabin crawl, privately booked tours, etc, etc… Not the British way at all. :D

Right OK drum roll please, let’s go for a direct link…:eek:

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2249359

Still worried that you can book about any cruise on the Thomson site except this one that has gone to a dead link from the cruise options button since a couple of weeks after the new site went live. Or maybe it was when they realised they were offering the all inclusive for less than a couple of quid pp per night?

Hi stevio where does the the 8 day start on the 25th.

It starts from Las Palmas Gran Canaria

When the Maj is doing its normal Winter Canaries itinerary it picks up & departs customers from more than one point, so this repositioning cruise has more than one start point.... Just seen the Roll call page & posted to you over there.

As for the sites technical problems, I have reported them but I wouldn't hold my breath & their alternative booking number is a 10p per min job.

As for booking another cabin I think there is a normal low cost phone number to ring that will put you through to bookings but I do not know what it is. Hopefully some kind poster will come up with it for you on here.

Good Luck.

Anybody know why there aren't any Caribbean cruises showing for March 2017?

 

TIA Kay

you are lucky I can find no cruise dates for the Majesty beyond October 2016 :confused:

Thanks everyone for your posts. We got hooked on cruising after doing the island escape in 2014 then 2015 now we're doing the majesty and hoping to get the in-laws hooked.We liked the escape cos it wasn't full of pretentious people. Hoping this is the same.

I got into this cruising lark with the Ocean Village cruises & found the Island Escape to be a good (if older) alternative after the OV shut down.

I think the Majesty is a good substitute for the IE… Well it has decent buffets and a slightly larger casino so that meets my requirements.

Your fellow cruisers on Thomson ships are generally the same types to be found on the IE… In fact a good number will certainly be ex Escapers looking for a new home.

Now if they could just get Ross Roberts on there it really would be a real home from home. :)

We will be on her the day before you, so will get the ship warmed up for you.

oooh! not bad:cool: ... is that by booking direct with premier inn or thru a holiday extras style site

That's the non flexible saver price direct with premier inn, price still showing for most of April :)

Do you mean £18.20 for the two of you for the whole holiday?:eek:

 

That does seem very cheap considering it is only 5 months away! We booked our last Majesty cruise 7 months before the cruise and paid £105 each for drinks package.

The Iberian Adventure cruises departing 25th and 26th April 2016 were free AI up to a few weeks ago then they went to £10pp per cruise... Then the new site wants odd amounts like £9.10 for the AI for the week ???

I did miss out on the £75 off code the other month but can't complain as I got the free AI and the Premier Inn at Gatwick was snapped up when it went down to £39 for the pre flight stay. :) :)

This is all i keep getting from the new site.Anyone else.

Thomson Holidays

HOLIDAYSCRUISESFLIGHTSHOTELSDESTINATIONSEXTRAS

We're really sorry, we're having some technical problems.

Yes... Next April's 8 day Iberian adventure on the Majesty has been showing "We're really sorry, we're having some technical problems" on the cruise options link all day... But the Spirit's April Ancient Horizons cruise seems to be bookable.

Maybe they are upgrading the hand baggage from 5 to 7 Kg one cruise at a time. :confused:

this has been happening to me for ages???

 

try loging into cruisecritic . com (rather than co . uk) its a little more stable/reliable

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=497

 

.

Tis witchery :eek: ... I had all but given up on this CC stuff what with being repeatedly logged out even after ticking the remember me box. But this .com trick of yours Geo is working fine so far.

Oh by the way Geo, while I am still logged in I shall take the opportunity to go way off topic & report that on my October NCL jade cruise Brussel Sprouts were served at least once a week. The ship was however Marmiteless, but there was a new one for me on cruiseships in that there was an abundance of fresh boiled buttered Beetroot. :)

I have a 4 digit booking number that works for me

Now that's just showing off :D:D

I can log into the flight extras where I presume when the time comes I will be able to check in and will do the API then. I haven't booked premium seats so that won't be until a week before we go. We used to be able to log onto the Mange My Booking where you could view all the ports of call and the weather forecast but that doesn't seem to be available now.

You might get away without other documents, but you will have to fill in the API. If you cannot log in to that by now you may have a problem as I have filled it in for my Majesty cruise for next April.

Log on via the API link at the top of the Thomson cruise page using the 6 digit number given on the last booking documents sent, (if you have a set of reference numbers starting with 2020, they are the old ones & you will need the new singular 6 digit number from Thomson's) then after you provide & submit your email address all the relevant sections to your flight should turn from greyed out to yellow with API under the "Travel Documents" button... Most of the old "Manage My Booking stuff is still there only well spread about & hidden.

Things like the cruise specific shore excursion booking links are shown on the main cruise page and can be accessed with the same ref number but take you to the good old fashioned Thomson booking page. (Until they mess up that one as well :()