Thomson Dream..or was it a nightmare!

[Tommytoolhire]

Hi Everyone

 

Following all the concerned comments on my Dream photos thread I thought I ought to try and post some feedback as quickly as I could. I know most of you are hoping that the problems are just teething troubles, and it’s true to say that some of them are due to poor organisation and bad management, but there are also some more serious issues.

 

This was our first cruise which we booked the day before travelling after our Thomson Spirit cruise had been cancelled due to the volcanic ash. I had read a lot of the threads on this forum and felt that I knew what to expect on the Spirit. I looked at the Thomson brochure and website and read the hype about the Dream being the flagship of the Thomson fleet, so set off on our cruise expecting even more.

 

Our disappointment started shortly after leaving Palma airport. We were on coach 3 of about 15. There had been 5 Thomson’s flights all arriving within 15 minutes of each other from various parts of the country. A rep got on board the coach and told us that as soon as the coach was full we would set off to the port where someone would explain the check in procedure. The rep then left the coach and we set off. We had already seen The Dream in port from our plane as we came in to land. As we arrived at the port the driver drove past the security gates we then heard sirens as the port police flagged us down in their car. There was a loud exchange between the police and the driver, in Spanish, we then turned around and drove out of the port. Nobody knew what was going on until we eventually realised that the Dream was berthed in a different part of the port with a separate entrance. Once we got to the right place a rep boarded our coach and explained that when told to do so we had to leave the coach and go into the terminal building where we would be given an envelope with our boarding cards and a sheet of stickers to put on our luggage, which had been taken to a different shed. It took ages to get to the table where we collected our boarding cards as there was a bottleneck caused by the ships photographer. Once we got the boarding cards we had to queue again to get them activated and register our credit card. We then had to go to find our luggage and stick the stickers on before finally boarding the ship. It was pouring down and we had to run from one building to another to do this. This whole process took well over an hour and a half to complete and there were still massive queues behind us. We had all been on flights that took off around 6:00am and by this time were tired and weary. Some of the more elderly passengers looked fit to drop, as there was nowhere to sit nor was there any complimentary drinks provided. When we came to board the ship we found that the person who had activated the boarding cards had linked my card to my wife's photo and vice versa so we had to swap cards.

 

When we finally got to our cabin we were exhausted but found that the cabin door did not have a key in it like all the others. We found a member of the housekeeping staff who opened the door with a passkey and told us that the cabin was already being used by a member of staff. We were then taken to the Customer Services desk to be allocated another cabin. When we got there the queue was very long. After a while we got another cabin and were escorted to it by a member of staff. Concerned that our luggage now had the wrong labels stuck on them we looked out for our cases as we passed the lift. Luckily for us we managed to spot both our cases and took them with us. Some people didn't find their luggage until the following day.

 

We got to the corridor that lead to our cabin but found it was blocked by a couple of maintenance guys who had the tiles off the ceiling and what looked and smelled like raw sewage was dripping down from the ceiling on to the floor. We took a detour and finally got to our new cabin which was quite spacious and clean. The bathroom and particularly the bath could have been cleaner. On the first night I had a shower and my wife took a bath. The water didn’t drain away so we reported it to the crew member who looked after our cabin before we went to dinner but nothing got done about it. In the morning my wife got up to go to the morning fitness session with the spa team but this didn’t go ahead for some reason. With the bath was still full of water and we had to shower with old bathwater up to our ankles. In fairness, we then reported the problem to reception and an engineer came to fix it within 45 minutes, which was quite impressive.

 

After we had unpacked the first thing on our minds was food. We went to the Andromeda Restaurant where a buffet lunch was being served. The plastic plates didn't really live up to our expectations but the brightly coloured plastic mugs, many of which were badly tea stained, were certainly not what we had expected. The food however was reasonable although a little cold after waiting for such a long time in the queue.

The itinerary said that we were due to sail from Palma at 23:00 but the cruise news which we found in our cabin after lunch said we were sailing at 18:00. It also said that the lido bar, where we were supposed to be meeting other Cruise Critic members at 22:30, was due to close at 19:00. We took some time to explore the ship after lunch and soon discovered that the lifts were slow and not very responsive when called, but we put this down to so many people on the move at the same time due to just getting on board. We later discovered that the problems with the lifts were not only were they slow but, although they stated that they had a capacity for 10 people, they refused to move if more than four people was in them. This was very frustrating and as a consequence we ended up using the stairs most of the time.

We made our way up to deck 11, via the stairs, where the main pool is situated and sat and had a drink. When I asked for a draught beer the waitress said that they didn’t have any in this bar but if I would wait a few minutes she would go another bar on the deck below to fetch me one, which she did. I must say at this point that throughout the cruise the waiters both in the bar areas and the restaurants were excellent. Very friendly and attentive, as were the housekeeping staff that looked after the cabins. The problem was that they were very disorganised and obviously not well managed. We sat enjoying our drinks. Suddenly some powerful water jets started in the pool a bit like a fountain. I say water jets, what was coming out for quite some time was brown sludge. Once I had seen that I don’t think that I would have been happy to go in that pool.

The public areas of the ship were clean but looked a little ‘tired’ in places. As you walked around the ship every now and then you would encounter some terrible smells which could be put into one of two different categories, either sewage or an oily engineering type smell. They didn’t seem to appear in the same places you would just walk around a corner and it would hit you. One day we went up to the Andromeda restaurant, just to get a cup of coffee and sit out on the deck but the sewage smell was lingering outside the restaurant entrance. If we had been going there for something to eat that would have put us both off.

We always ate in the Orion restaurant which we both enjoyed enormously. We usually opted to sit with others at the larger tables where we met some very nice and interesting people. The menus in the Orion were very good but at busier times service became very slow, with one couple telling us that their meal the day before had taken two and half hours from start to finish. We went in for lunch one day and as we were going on an excursion that was leaving at 13:15 we went to the restaurant at 12:00. We ordered a three course meal but after an hour and a quarter we had to leave to get on the coach without having had our dessert.

Most of the problems so far, with the exception of the lifts, the smells and the sewage incident, were down to poor organisation which should be easily rectified. For example one night I went to the Ocean bar. As I stood at the bar there was four waiters standing at one end of the bar all waiting for drinks orders they had taken to be fulfilled and about five other passengers stood waiting to be served. There was only one person working behind the bar and he was making cocktails.

Probably the most worrying thing of all was when we arrived at Villefranche. Because the port is too small for cruise ships to berth there they have to anchor in the bay and use tenders to ferry passengers to the shore. The tenders, which also double as lifeboats, were lowered from the ship into the water and began to take passengers ashore. As we were booked on an excursion we were one of the first to go. When we boarded the tender it brought home the fact that the ship is actually 24 years old! If the ship itself looked tired, the tenders looked like they should have long since been retired. As we were about halfway from ship to shore a message came over the radio from the bridge. It was very loud and everyone on the tender could hear the bridge ask the person in charge of our tender if he had managed to get the steering working properly yet. We landed at the port without incident but a little apprehensive. Others we spoke to later told us how one of the tenders, upon reaching port, could not manoeuvre to the quayside properly and was sent back to the ship by the port authorities while still full of passengers. Once they got back to the ship they had trouble manoeuvring to the landing deck on the ship. A different member of staff then took to the wheel and took the passengers back to shore. On one of the other tenders the engine cut out on the way between the shore and the ship and would not restart but managed to drift to the landing platform. One of the passengers on board questioned what would have happened in an emergency with the engine not working and all she got was a shrug of their shoulders.

Also at Villefranche we were joined by a further 172 passengers who were on a ‘cruise taster’, and had been flown into Nice airport. The service, which was slow before they arrived, became even slower.

The Cruise News, which we had been advised to read from cover to cover as it provided invaluable information, was inaccurate most days. It always stated where the gangway would be for the following day. On two occasions, including the last day, the information was wrong causing disruption and frustration to many of the passengers.

One night we felt a little peckish so decided to go to the Andromeda restaurant for a snack before bed. It was about 23:35 when we went and as the restaurant was due to open for its late night buffet at 23:30 we thought everything would still be nice and fresh. Quite a few other people must have thought the same as us because there were about 20 people sitting waiting for the shutters to open and the food to be served. That didn’t happen until around 23:55. There were a number of people complaining but the restaurant staff was still not prepared to open on time, even though the food had been prepared and could be seen behind the shutters.

There were also a number of advertised amenities that were not open or were unavailable. These included the Sirens restaurant, The Grill (which as far as we could see didn’t even exist!), The Delo bar and the whirlpools which were at the side of the main pool but never had any water in them.

Disembarkation was also a farce. First of all everyone went to deck 4 as advised in the Cruise News when in fact the gangway was on deck 6. Then there was the mass luggage hunt as everyone on the ship seemed to get off at exactly the same time. There was only a 10 minute slot arranged for each flight to get off find their cases and get on board a coach. That was never going to happen.

On the positive side the entertainment was quite good. The second nights show being by far the best. Stephen Guy did an after show session which was also very good as was the guest comedian Dave Kristian who did two spots, one on Saturday and one on Monday. All the staff was nice, polite and very helpful. The Orion restaurant was very good, with a good menu choice and excellent food. The service in this restaurant however did vary and could be quite slow, especially towards the end of the cruise.

We also liked the Ocean bar with resident entertainers The Albert Duo. This was a quieter bar so service here was generally quite good.

The cruise wasn’t anywhere near what we had expected and although some of the problems were quite minor and could be put down to teething troubles there was so many of them that it did become an issue in itself. There were no chocolates on our pillows or towel animals in our room or any of the little luxuries that we were so looking forward to.

I just hope things improve for future travellers on the Dream, especially the safety issues that we encountered.

Tommy

[ekco]

Wow! I don't think anyone's going to complain about the Island Escape again after reading that. I didn't appreciate how quickly we embarked at Funchal with just a little queue to register onboard. Not looking forward to embarking at Marmaris now, on the Celebration, as I think we'll all be boarding around the same time. Did your luggage get wet in the rain? Kruzseeker posted a tip the other week about putting plastic all around the clothes in the case in case the luggage got wet.

 

I would expect some kind of recompense as it obviously was not as advertised and you didn't get everything you paid for. Good luck.:):)

 

Jan

[Huddersfieldtourist]

Tommy - thank you for the effort you have gone to in explaining the first cruise experience for the Dream - If you have any photos of the outside decks and the Theatre it would be great to see them - Thanks again:)

 

Gareth

[alliballi]

Gosh Tank you so much for the time put in on this review, selfishly I think about our cruise in Aug but I mean it when I say my heart goes out to you, what a terrible dissapointment for you and your other half, seriously there are some major MAJOR short falls in service ect in that review and the sewage and tender boats, unavailable resteraunts, maintinance and repair issues along with the brown water jets in the pool ect ect ect are just too much I am so sorry it wasnt the holiday you hoped and paid for I would seriously be complaining:(

[scout1956]

Tommy - thank you for the effort you have gone to in explaining the first cruise experience for the Dream - If you have any photos of the outside decks and the Theatre it would be great to see them - Thanks again:)

 

Gareth

 

Very interested in your posts thus far and hope your investigations prove helpful

[Jim The Scot]

Noticed this review

 

http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=66383

[sobral]

Thanks for taking the time to give us your detailed review. We have all been waiting for ther first reviews and yours was very informative. Sorry you didnt have the best of times though!

[morgans2]

Many thanks for your in depth report,and can only hope a lot of issues are sorted before we go on the 4th May.Have been on a few Thomson Ships ,The Spirit and The Destiny and both have been excelent and can only hope things inprove.Sorry you had all this hassel on your first cruise and can only hope it has not put you off to much

 

Cheers

Glen

[jenny wren]

Very informative review thanks for that....as a regular customer of Thomson cruises (and also having had a couple with Costa who owned the ship previously!) can I just say that the embarkation fiasco appears to have happened because all the flights arrived within a short space of time whereas normally they arrive spaced out over the whole day into the evening.....some arriving late in the evening which is why the ships usually sail around 11.00 pm. so that may explain why the ship sailed when everyone was on board....earlier than normal.

 

As you say many of the problems seemed to be organisational issues and this is something that Thomson is usually very good at solving...however in their defence I would say that because of the Volcano inicident the ship had been used as a 'ferry' for several days so of course they might have spent that time sorting some of the 'issues' out in normal circumstances.

 

Regarding the plastic plates and mugs it sounds like these were Costa leftovers!!! but several other cruiselines use them especially in the buffet restaurants....I think so that they won't cause accidents if dropped outside on deck.

 

Most ships appear to have plumbing problems not just the 'old' ones....Dream is the newest of the thomson ships ....Destiny is the oldest 1982, then Spirit 1983, Celebration is 1984 and Dream 1986 so they should be used to dealing with ships of that age.....we sailed on costa Serena when she was a year old and we had sewage smells near our cabin for the duration of the cruise and many ships new and old have various smells from laundry to diesel fumes wafting around depending which way the winds blowing!!!!!!!!!!!!:D

 

There is nothing in your report which would put me off cruising with this ship (it has the best Cruise Director in the business in Stephen Guy) most things would appear to be teething problems which hopefully Thomson will be sorting out asap....its such a shame that it spoilt your experience but I hope it will not put you off cruising !! I must also add that we never sail on the first cruise of the season... we always wait until the staff have 'gelled' together which must take a month or so....this year we sailed on Spirit on the second week of the season and there were minor issues there for that reason. I do realise however that your cruise was a last minute change of plan because of the travel chaos.