Cuban Adventure - Thomson Dream 30 December

[Ontinyent]

Hi everyone

Just booked this cruise yesterday, in order to celebrate our Silver Wedding Anniversary. :) I have cruised once before with MSC, but it's Hubby's first trip. Hope he likes it as I would go again and again.

 

Looking forward to hearing from those of you sailing onboard the Dream in the upcoming months. It looks like a lovely ship and all I have heard on this forum is good things regarding Thomsons (which does appear to be rare if you have spent time browsing the other lines).

 

Decided not to take the drinks package, our T/A quoted £756 per party :eek: which needless to say we didn't hesitate to decline.

 

Would love to hear from any of you who have travelled to the Caribbean with Thomsons, and of course from anyone else who has booked the same cruise as us.

 

[Cymro1953]

Hi,

We'll be one of the first ones on the Dream on the 27th April and I'll be reporting back at the beginning of May as to how we got on.

We did look to going on her there, but we want to see more of the Mayan ruins in Mexico than the cruise will allow.

 

Berwyn

[kruzseeka]

Hi everyone

Just booked this cruise yesterday, in order to celebrate our Silver Wedding Anniversary. :) I have cruised once before with MSC, but it's Hubby's first trip. Hope he likes it as I would go again and again.

 

Looking forward to hearing from those of you sailing onboard the Dream in the upcoming months. It looks like a lovely ship and all I have heard on this forum is good things regarding Thomsons (which does appear to be rare if you have spent time browsing the other lines).

 

Decided not to take the drinks package, our T/A quoted £756 per party :eek: which needless to say we didn't hesitate to decline.

 

Would love to hear from any of you who have travelled to the

 

Caribbean with Thomsons, and of course from anyone else who has booked the same cruise as us.

 

 

How lovely - what a great Silver Wedding treat. :)

 

I think part of your itinerary includes a large proportion of the Caribbean Gems cruise which Destiny is currently doing. If you do a search using the 'Search this Forum' tab at the top right of the table and type in Caribbean Gems you will find some threads about this itinerary. Quite a few of us did reviews of the ports of call with details of DiY options and some of the ship's trips last year. This might be helpful to you but if you have specific questions about the destinations, just ask.

 

Hopefully some members will report back about the 'new' destinations (Cuba, Mexico etc) on their return, but it may be we'll be looking to you to tell us all about it as you'll be amongst the first trying out these exciting itineraries! In the meantime you could do a search on the Mexican and Caribbean Forums on this site (under 'Ports') and look for the ports of call you are visiting and see what people are saying and recommending although there may not be too much on Cuba as the American ships don't go there. It could be worth a try though.

 

Good luck with your research - the anticipation and planning are all part of the fun!!! Enjoy! ;)

 

P.S. Don't blame you declining the AI - what an extortionate price!:eek:

[its,only,me]

I,m sure that your hubby will love it :) and then think of all the many more cruises you can :D and what a lovely time to go away to the hot weather :cool:

 

mrs.c

[Cymro1953]

Not even No.1 son could drink that much on a cruise :D

I did price it up, but it was coming in at approx £4000 :eek::eek: without the A.I. and that wasn't at holiday time.

It looks lovely though, especially at the moment with all this cold and damp.

 

Berwyn

[Ontinyent]

Hi,

We'll be one of the first ones on the Dream on the 27th April and I'll be reporting back at the beginning of May as to how we got on.

We did look to going on her there, but we want to see more of the Mayan ruins in Mexico than the cruise will allow.

 

Berwyn

 

Thanks for replying so quickly, I will follow your posts eagerly. My husband really wants to do Havana - nearly did it as a land break for his 50th, hence our choice of intinerary, and the couple of stops in Mexico are definitely another highlight, agree that the Mayan ruins may be tight in this schedule (maybe I can persuade him to go to Mexico again). Not too long for you now, our anniversary is actually in August so the wait is longer than I was hoping for (have been trying to get him to cruise since I went with my mother 4 years ago) still it's booked I can hardly believe it :D

[Ontinyent]

How lovely - what a great Silver Wedding treat. :)

 

I think part of your itinerary includes a large proportion of the Caribbean Gems cruise which Destiny is currently doing. If you do a search using the 'Search this Forum' tab at the top right of the table and type in Caribbean Gems you will find some threads about this itinerary. Quite a few of us did reviews of the ports of call with details of DiY options and some of the ship's trips last year. This might be helpful to you but if you have specific questions about the destinations, just ask.

 

Hopefully some members will report back about the 'new' destinations (Cuba, Mexico etc) on their return, but it may be we'll be looking to you to tell us all about it as you'll be amongst the first trying out these exciting itineraries! In the meantime you could do a search on the Mexican and Caribbean Forums on this site (under 'Ports') and look for the ports of call you are visiting and see what people are saying and recommending although there may not be too much on Cuba as the American ships don't go there. It could be worth a try though.

 

Good luck with your research - the anticipation and planning are all part of the fun!!! Enjoy! ;)

 

P.S. Don't blame you declining the AI - what an extortionate price!:eek:

 

Thanks for all your advice and information, will certainly follow it up. I will certainly report back on the cruise, as I think we are going on the first trip of this particular intinerary. Really enjoying the research, because up to last weekend we were thinking of the Med, complete turn around due to Thomsons going to Cuba and now he's booked it!!! and thoroughly enjoying the friendly banter on this forum too.

[Cymro1953]

Thanks for replying so quickly, I will follow your posts eagerly. My husband really wants to do Havana - nearly did it as a land break for his 50th, hence our choice of intinerary, and the couple of stops in Mexico are definitely another highlight, agree that the Mayan ruins may be tight in this schedule (maybe I can persuade him to go to Mexico again). Not too long for you now, our anniversary is actually in August so the wait is longer than I was hoping for (have been trying to get him to cruise since I went with my mother 4 years ago) still it's booked I can hardly believe it :D

 

It's our 30th too in October and as we didn't get much time in Mexico we've booked a tour with Thomson's a week touring exploring the Mayan riuins and a week in 5* hotel A.I. afterwards. and we're opposite to you, going early in September.

We only started in April 2008, wished we'd done it sooner now.

At least in Dec. we took the boys with us on their 1st cruise and they loved it.

There's a website here with pics of the ship as she is now (still with Costa Cruises)

http://www.zoover.com/costa-europa/cruise-ship/photos#tabs

there's 70 + pics there that people have posted.

 

Berwyn

[Ontinyent]

I,m sure that your hubby will love it :) and then think of all the many more cruises you can :D and what a lovely time to go away to the hot weather :cool:

 

mrs.c

 

I hope so, and yes after this winter I can't wait to go away for the next.

I see you have 2 cruises booked, lucky you.

[Ontinyent]

Not even No.1 son could drink that much on a cruise :D

I did price it up, but it was coming in at approx £4000 :eek::eek: without the A.I. and that wasn't at holiday time.

It looks lovely though, especially at the moment with all this cold and damp.

 

Berwyn

 

Your No.1 son sounds very like ours, he'd have a good go though (as long as he wasn't paying):)

[Cymro1953]

That's good he's not alone then :D

By the middle of the week in Dec he had to go to shandy as he couldn't cope.

Sounds bad, but what got me is he wasn't even drunk, I think they get used to it. If I'd have drunk half of what he did I'd have been flat on my back.

We had "free" A.I. for early booking but we'd have only have drunk about £100 in a week max between me and the wife if we'd paid for the drinks. You might drink a bit more out there as it will be warmer, but prices are reasonable on the other Thomson's ships. Beer £2.90 a pint and cocktails just over £3.

 

It is iilegal for Americans to go to Cuba for some crazy reason to do with Castro and cold war. So there is not much in the Ports of Call part on Cuba.

 

Berwyn

[its,only,me]

I hope so, and yes after this winter I can't wait to go away for the next.

I see you have 2 cruises booked, lucky you.

 

Yes only 11 days to go :eek: and then with my son and his wife who had there 1st cruise last year so they cannot wait for june to come along :D so looking forward to going on the Dream

 

mrs.c