Excited !!!

We are sat in the Radisson Blu at Manchester Airport having a drink.

We fly tomorrow to meet up with The Dream. It will bring back some lovely memories.

We sailed on her for our first ever cruise. I was very dubious about cruising but she who must be obeyed decided I was going, whether I liked it or not.

All I will say, is thank you to her. I have stayed in 5 star hotels since and nothing has ever matched the service I have had on a cruise.

We look forward to meeting new people and the lovely staff that will look after us all.

Anyway.

See you all over the next ten days.

Cannot wait. :cool::p:cool:;p:p

Calton.

Were off on her in a few weeks so look forward to your thoughts on her on your return.We,ve cruised with The Dream 5 times previously but its a number of years since our last time

Have a magic time

I will give a review when we get back.

Have a great time on your cruise.

Calton.:cool:

I will also be interested to read your review. Like Jim The Scot we have had 5 cruises on Dream (all great) but the last was in 2015 and we are now thinking of going on her again round the Canaries later in the year.

Have a great time.

I'm sure we will.

Enjot your next cruise yourselves 👍

Calton.

It will be sad when the Dream goes out of service, but the bigger ships with more balconies and bigger venues are the way forward, IMHO.

I also fell in love with cruising by doing the small ships in the early days, I've done the big and tried different lines, but keep coming back to Marella.They must be doing a lot of things right with my repeat service. And I hope the bigger ships don't lose the special touches and service we get with the smaller ones. Next year will tell and I will come back and let you all know.

In the meantime, have another drink and enjoy your cruise Calton

The reason we like marella / Thomson, is the old ships.

We have been discussing going on one of the new ones and I hope, they still have the same atmosphere and friendliness, that you get with the Dream, Spirit and celebration.

🤞🤞

The bigger ships,more balconies and bigger venues being the way forward.Not for me or Mrs Jim The Scot.We have no inclination to cruise on these bigger ships.Pardon thd pun but it doesn,t float our boat

The reason we like marella / Thomson, is the old ships.

 

We have been discussing going on one of the new ones and I hope, they still have the same atmosphere and friendliness, that you get with the Dream, Spirit and celebration.

 

🤞🤞

Calton

We cruised on Discovery last year.Lovely ship but sadly for us and our friends it lacked the atmosphere and friendliness of the Dream and the Majesty

The bigger ships, more balconies and bigger venues being the way forward.Not for me or Mrs Jim The Scot.We have no inclination to cruise on these bigger ships.Pardon the pun but it doesn't float our boat

Not everyone's taste and hence that is why there are so many cruise lines to choose from.

Having done the 800 passenger to the 6,400 passenger ships, I find the optimal size for a cruise ship, where you get decent sized amenities and venues, not fighting for seats in a venue and having a good entertainment/experience is the ships sized around the 2,000 passenger mark.

Not too big and not so small, the Goldilocks size.

The massive ships were less crowded than the small ships. Let me explain. On the 800 passenger ship, 400 goes to the show and the other 400 go and eat in the MDR (basic maths here, so not accurate as some people will do their own thing) 1st Seating. Then they swap over and eat and watch the show. This is great, but it's after this that you get 2/3rds try and all go for a nightcap drink in the 100 seater bar or do the quiz in the 100 seater lounge. You were always fighting for a seat.

On the 6,400 passenger ship (you can guess which one from my signature) you had a 2,100 seat theatre, a 1,000 seat ice ring show, a 1,000 outdoor high dive venue, 18 restaurants, 15 bars and 21 swimming pools. There was always a seat, no queues and never felt cramped like on the little ship.

These huge ships are scary to most until you try them but as my previous post, the mid-size ships have the best of both ships, smaller in size and numbers but big enough to have the space in venues. So in my opinion, the new Discovery and Explorer ships are the perfect size for Marella to compete in a crowded market. If they just upscale what they do on a small ship, then we will all love the new ships just as much as the old ones.

I know I am doing a small ship with Fred Olsen this summer, but Marella doesn't do Greenland and that is where the DW wants to go this year. Next year is my choice and I have booked Discovery 2.

Calton

 

We cruised on Discovery last year.Lovely ship but sadly for us and our friends it lacked the atmosphere and friendliness of the Dream and the Majesty

Can you pin down what was missing?

Was it just due to staff?

Think the bottom line is we all do what we like have only been with Thomson, well over fifty cruises now, and do enjoy the new, bigger ships, but still enjoy the oldie's why change something you enjoy.

Sent from my VF-895N using Forums mobile app

Can you pin down what was missing?

Was it just due to staff?

SausPud

Strange as it may sound its difficult to explain exactly what was missing.How do you measure atmosphere?You just know,you feel it.Staff were generally okay as was the food( pretty good),snack shack was excellent and the ship in general was lovely..but as I say lacked the atmosphere and friendliness/mixing of passengers of the Dream or Majesty.Didn,t particularly like the layout in comparison to the Dream.Theres no toilets on the main bar level,you have to go downstairs if you require the toilets for instance( picky I know).Not for one minute saying I wouldn,t try her again but preference would certainly be the Dream although the might change in a month or so :D

Before cruising with Thomson/ TUI we cruised many times on OV and when they left for waters new we thought our cruising days were finished as we loved OV and thought it would be difficult to find something close to or similar.Decided to give Thomson/TUI a go and now coming up for our 10 th cruise with them.As long as i,m happy with the price and the ships unlikely to jump ship

Not everyone's taste and hence that is why there are so many cruise lines to choose from.

Having done the 800 passenger to the 6,400 passenger ships, I find the optimal size for a cruise ship, where you get decent sized amenities and venues, not fighting for seats in a venue and having a good entertainment/experience is the ships sized around the 2,000 passenger mark.

Not too big and not so small, the Goldilocks size.

 

The massive ships were less crowded than the small ships. Let me explain. On the 800 passenger ship, 400 goes to the show and the other 400 go and eat in the MDR (basic maths here, so not accurate as some people will do their own thing) 1st Seating. Then they swap over and eat and watch the show. This is great, but it's after this that you get 2/3rds try and all go for a nightcap drink in the 100 seater bar or do the quiz in the 100 seater lounge. You were always fighting for a seat.

On the 6,400 passenger ship (you can guess which one from my signature) you had a 2,100 seat theatre, a 1,000 seat ice ring show, a 1,000 outdoor high dive venue, 18 restaurants, 15 bars and 21 swimming pools. There was always a seat, no queues and never felt cramped like on the little ship.

These huge ships are scary to most until you try them but as my previous post, the mid-size ships have the best of both ships, smaller in size and numbers but big enough to have the space in venues. So in my opinion, the new Discovery and Explorer ships are the perfect size for Marella to compete in a crowded market. If they just upscale what they do on a small ship, then we will all love the new ships just as much as the old ones.

 

I know I am doing a small ship with Fred Olsen this summer, but Marella doesn't do Greenland and that is where the DW wants to go this year. Next year is my choice and I have booked Discovery 2.

Fair comment