5th May - More like a nightmare than a Dream

[GJE2011]

This review may provoke a few remarks about being emotive but after cruising on Thomson ships a number of times, I feel that my comments are not biased but honest and open-minded.

 

This was my first time cruising on Dream and was looking forward to sharing my holiday with my family including my grandson aged 21 months. We both had cabins on Deck 6; my daughter had an inside cabin and I had an Outside Plus cabin. We were both pleased and impressed with the size of the cabins. As it had been a long day, we decided to have dinner in the Lido Restaurant. I had to ask a few times for a highchair but eventually one arrived.

 

The following day, which was the first day at sea, we ventured on Deck 9 where the children's paddling pool was located. This pool was obviously in the wrong place as passengers liked to read and sunbathe and obviously did not like a lot of noise. We subsequently ended on Deck 13 where we spent the rest of our holiday. There were organised games etc. and had one swimming pool and two jucuzzis. The children ended up in the jucuzzis as the pool was freezing.

 

The second evening, we went to the Orion Restaurant where we had a table for four plus a highchair. We had to wait a while for one to arrive and felt as if we were an inconvenience. Therefore, again we only visited this restaurant one more time which was the last night.

 

The staff were ok and some did their best for us which we hugely appreciated, but the attitude of a lot of the passengers surprised me the most. Some just looked down their noses if my grandson made a noise but others were just downright rude. We made sure that he was not in the bar lounges in the evenings and on a couple of occasions, I took him back to the cabin so my family could enjoy the entertainment. My daughter was queuing up in the toilets by the Broadway lounge, of which there are ony two and one was out of order, when she commented to a couple of ladies that she was fed up as the lift was always out of order and she had to wait 40 minutes to take the buggy on deck 11. The lady told my daughter that she did not think children should be on the ship and the other said that she felt they had spoilt her holiday. How dare they!!!!! I wish I had been there to answer them. Obviously these comments upset my daughter. There were no baby changing facilities in the toilets, and again this made life difficult,

 

I certainly do not think Thomsons should be advertising their ships as child friendly as this has definitely not been my experience and those other families on the same cruise as us.

 

My final experience was of my husband struggling to get the buggy down the steps to the quayside as were were leaving and a Thomsons Rep, stood at the bottom and just watched. Shame on you Thomson. Needless to say we will not be sailing on Dream again.

[by767]

Sorry you were disappointed with your cruise on the Thomson Dream. Please accept my apologies if I've missed something, but it seems to me that the majority of the problems on your cruise was the single, self scented narrow minded, selfish and opinionated fellow passengers. Did they not ever go on holidays with their children.

 

With regards to the Thomson rep not helping (I don't know their policy's) but I used to rep for another UK tour company and we were told NEVER to offer help in those situations as it may be seen as the family cannot cope and also with the current blame someone for everything culture, unless children's reps were there, never help unless asked incase the rep slipped or caused injury to the child. Children's reps could but if they are the same as the company I worked for, that's why they watched you.

 

As for the lifts, technology and mechanics go wrong, just unfortunate it was on your cruise. Would you not ever to go a shopping centre again because their lifts were out of order for a week?

 

Like I said at the beginning, I may have missed something in your post and again, sorry you didn't enjoy your cruise.

[newmills]

I am so sorry you did not enjoy your cruise. Our experience of the lifts was a bit different to your own though.

 

We were on the same trip and, yes, one of the lifts did break down on - I think - 4 occasions but it was repaired within a couple of hours each time. This did cause delays but the longest we ever waited for a lift to arrive with space in was 15 minutes. Unless she was not not prepared to fold down the buggy I am very surprised that your daughter waited 40 minutes - obviously if she waited until the buggy could get in a left fully extended/child sitting in it she may have had to wait longer.

[blossom52]

Isn't there more than one set of lifts that can be used? Was the buggy always needed at 21 months surely the kiddie could walk up the stairs sometimes with help although this may take some time, or be carried?

[GJE2011]

Many thanks for all your comments. The lift being out of order was purely an example of things that were not right on the ship. It was not the sole reason for our disappointment. My grandson in fact walked a lot of the time on his reins. I suppose my disappointment was with the other passengers. I must stress that this does not apply to everyone as we met some smashing people whilst on board.

 

I fully accept the comments regarding the Thomson Rep not helping, but I am sure you can appreciate that by then, I had had enough.

 

After further reflection, I still do not think that Dream is the ship for me but that is a personal opinion as I dont really like the layout. I know that I will continue to sail with Thomsons in the future, and in fact will be sailing on Majesty next year. As we normally travel as a couple, I will be much more aware of difficulties that could be encountered by families.

[blossom52]

Personally I don't think I would like to cruise with such a young child, as they do have quite a low boredom threshold and there isn't much for them to do.

I must admit I can be a bit intolerant of noisy, unruly children (not that I am suggesting yours was) but there is no excuse for rudeness from fellow passengers and it's a shame it spoiled your holiday.

[NorthWalesCouple]

Yep been on the Dream and loved it and the Staff, Passengers are Passengers everywhere and all are different. I always thought the Dream was a Adult only ship as to be fair there is very little for Children on board.

[Kiki cat]

When we were on the Dream last year there were a lot of children and they seemed well catered for regarding highchairs and in the Orion people paid them a lot of attention. No-one seemed to mind children however there were quite a few younger people.

It might have been just the cohort that were on that cruise who were narrow minded and rude.

I have been to a hotel that had some very snotty older people turning their nose up at children and have felt that they needed to get a life!

I read from the post that your point was that your daughter was upset by the extremely rude remarks made to her rather than the fact of the lift not working. I am sorry that she experienced such bad behaviour and hope it has not spoilt things for the future.

I wish we had some grandchildren but things are not too hot on that front.