Thomson confiscating your Duty Free

[skioncruises]

Yes, but don't forget, they have streamlined the drinks packages across the fleet. At this rate, we will be on the Dream on our own next year

 

Hi Little Nell

 

I was on my own over the weekend so had a trawl around and found some interesting cruises which were cheaper and of much the same duration flying from Glasgow to Singapore then cruising to Australia or various other ports in the Far East.:eek:

 

Lots of consideration and comparisons to be done after we get back from our cruise on Celebration in seven weeks time as to whether to forego our deposit for the Dream next April in favour of another cruise line.:confused:

 

So embedded with Thomson since 1989 that I am wary about moving to another line but it is very tempting and there are other places in the world I would like to see by floating hotel.:)

[skioncruises]

Don't normally pay much attention to Replies & Views but this thread, which was started on 26th March, has received 250 replies and 10,926 views as I post. Lotta folks reading.:eek:

[Little Nell]

Hi Little Nell

 

I was on my own over the weekend so had a trawl around and found some interesting cruises which were cheaper and of much the same duration flying from Glasgow to Singapore then cruising to Australia or various other ports in the Far East.:eek:

 

Lots of consideration and comparisons to be done after we get back from our cruise on Celebration in seven weeks time as to whether to forego our deposit for the Dream next April in favour of another cruise line.:confused:

 

So embedded with Thomson since 1989 that I am wary about moving to another line but it is very tempting and there are other places in the world I would like to see by floating hotel.:)

 

We looked at something similar, Skioncruises. There are certainly more attractive options out there. I think if we hadn't booked, we wouldn't be considering it right now.

[stevedeccaman]

my question today 19-05

we are on Celebation 25-05 from Sharm on the repo cruise

there has beem much debate on the Thomson forum with regards to Duty free taking onboard etc etc different Thomson ships seem to have different rules?

my questions are are you allowed to take onboard to the Celebration(say a bottle of wine purchased at duty free at departing airport )

and if purchasing any drink in the duty free onboard this will be returned on leaving the ship ?

please clarify .as I only like a certain wine and hoped I could take a bottle on board to have a drink before dinner in our cabin

Thank you

Steve

reply from Dan the man

 

 

Hi Steve,

 

We're constantly reviewing our policies and you'll be notified about any duty free taken onboard and purchased onboard once you're on the ship. You can also find information in our A-Z guide regarding our Alcohol Policy which states 'During your flight and on our ships, you can only drink the alcohol that staff serve you.'

 

no change but no direct answer just like a politician(quick sidestep ):rolleyes:

but thanks Dan you did reply

 

 

Stevie :)

[geomagot]

 

'During your flight and on our ships, you can only drink the alcohol that staff serve you.'

 

 

 

Interesting wording

 

what about the mini bar then??? do I have to go and fetch a bar waiter to come and serve me??

 

what if i wanted to take my (confiscated) duty free ashore....will they send someone to go and fetch it from the lockup??

 

and, if they did go and fetch it

 

could i just drink it on the dock??

 

am I being pedantic?? guess I am....but policy is policy.... is it not?

 

why cant they just say it as it is.....ie...you cannot drink your own alcohol, you must buy it off Thoms and nowhere else:(

[bluemug]

That's what I thought too but........................

 

In the April 2013 - April 2014 Brochure, in the A-Z Guide, Page 206 bottom line.....

 

"Alcohol

During your flight and on our cruise ships, you can only drink the alcohol that staff serve you."

 

When did that creep in? Has anyone got an older brochure? What did it say in there? Is it just a change in the more recent edition?

 

I suspect they have they put it in the April 2013 - April 2014 brochure, waited until the old brochure is out of date (i.e. the one which went up to April 2013) and are now starting to implement it - pointing us to the brochure to say 'it's in the terms and conditions'?

 

But that does beg the question of when you booked - what did it say in the current brochure at the time of booking? Shouldn't that be the situation for your cruise? I guess it's been in the A-Z for a while and we've not noticed until they put it into operation! :(

if Thomson organise a shore trip which includes a visit to a vineyard, is the Thomson rep duty bound to inform passengers on the trip that any alcohol bought at the vineyard would be removed from the passengers on boarding the ship. Also, would the rep also have to inform the owners of the vineyard of the ship's policy.

[Jakanne1]

Just returned from Majesty and catching up while the washing machine does the work. We (3 ladies) did not buy the AI as we booked at the last minute and it was £199 each or £219 each on board. Instead, as we all drink wine we bought a wine package each on board. There were lots of permutations of packages, so you could choose the one best suited to you. We bought the one that gave us 3 bottles of wine, 3 bottles of water and an additional bottle of sparkling wine. As we did not want the sparkling wine they said we could choose a still wine instead. We were given a little booklet of 4 tickets. This was package C and cost £56.25 each an average of £14.06 a bottle.

 

Each time we ordered a bottle of wine (in the dining room or any bar) we handed over a ticket and our room card and then signed the usual chitty when the wine was brought to us. As to choice of wines, there were about 12 of red and 12 of white plus rose and sparkling. I should have a photo of one somewhere on my camera but this list changed on our penultimate day slightly. We had Jacobs Creek Chardonnay and Pouilly Fuisse (sp) amongst others. It didn't matter which wine package you bought, you chose from the same list of wines.

 

I only bought 5 other drinks (Campari and orange juice) £3.70 and was not charged for the orange juice.

 

We also bought a bottle of Gin from the Duty Free Shop to share in the cabin and used the cans of tonic in the room. They were the same price as at the bars. We could also of bought tonic and brought it on board.

 

I bought a bottle of wine which was recommended by our guide on an excursion in La Palma. It was less than €5 in the Spa shop just over the road outside the port gates. The shop was packed with people from Majesty. No trouble taking it on board and we used the tumblers in the cabin to drink it from. I wrote down the name of the wine and if any future cruisers are interested I will post it.

 

Bit of a different alcohol experience from that when with DH so I think it is good to have choices to suit different people's drinking habits.

[TC28]

Just back from Dream 20 day Caribbean/Transatlantic crossing. Did the same trip last April. What a difference in the passengers’ drinking habits - only saw one AI couple, thought all drinks were very expensive, draught lager £3.70 pint, VERY small glass of red wine £3.90. AI package had asterisks everywhere for supplemental charges, even coke had extra cost. Brought back the drinks menu, will post more later when unpacked.

Heard the rule regarding taking alcohol on board was run as a trial for 2 of our 3 weeks and is now back as it was, i.e. you can take it to your cabin.

TC.

[Little Nell]

Just back from Dream 20 day Caribbean/Transatlantic crossing. Did the same trip last April. What a difference in the passengers’ drinking habits - only saw one AI couple, thought all drinks were very expensive, draught lager £3.70 pint, VERY small glass of red wine £3.90. AI package had asterisks everywhere for supplemental charges, even coke had extra cost. Brought back the drinks menu, will post more later when unpacked.

Heard the rule regarding taking alcohol on board was run as a trial for 2 of our 3 weeks and is now back as it was, i.e. you can take it to your cabin.

TC.

 

How interesting, TC28.

 

Hope you enjoyed your cruise. I am so looking forward to hearing all about it as I have booked for the 20 day next year. How did the changes that you speak of affect the atmosphere onboard the ship? What was your weather like and did you have any rough seas?

 

Let's hope that this experiment is the last we hear of this and they learn from this and make improvements to the AI package too. I do feel sorry for the guinea pigs that were caught up in the experiment.

[TC28]

Little Nell ... Caribbean islands all wonderful as ever, didn’t do any organised trips which can be expensive like £29 each for 3 hours to a beach, just did local taxis to the beaches for almost a tenth of that price and for all day. Done 30 cruises mostly Caribbean so seen all the rainforests etc. Crossing the Atlantic for 6 days was very calm and mostly sunny and warm. Get up early for a bed chair, all gone by 8.30am and not enough for everyone. You lose an hour a day for 5 days during the crossing as you cross time zones and clocks are reset at 2pm, so at 2pm the clocks go forward to 3pm. Plenty of smoking areas or non-smoking areas. Food excellent, especially the salads if you don’t fancy the cooked stuff one night. Several themed food nights, Indian, Spanish, English etc. Didn’t use the restaurants, only the self service. In order to control Norovirus etc. the staff were serving you for 2 days after new arrivals had boarded and this did slow up the service but there were no problems with virus outbreaks so think it was a good idea. Afternoon tea on deck 11 was wonderful, also burgers and hotdogs on deck 9 and an omelette station at breakfast.

Thought the atmosphere on board was subdued compared to last year. People weren’t drinking much which I think was due to the high prices. The accountants think hiking up the drinks prices will produce more income but it doesn’t if people aren’t buying, and it’s tax and duty free! They are charging for a safe so kept our stuff in a locked suitcase under the bed. You can get free iced water from a bottle at the bar which was nice. Staff were all friendly and jolly, mostly Indonesians.

TC ..

[kruzseeka]

Little Nell ... Caribbean islands all wonderful as ever, didn’t do any organised trips which can be expensive like £29 each for 3 hours to a beach, just did local taxis to the beaches for almost a tenth of that price and for all day. Done 30 cruises mostly Caribbean so seen all the rainforests etc. Crossing the Atlantic for 6 days was very calm and mostly sunny and warm. Get up early for a bed chair, all gone by 8.30am and not enough for everyone. You lose an hour a day for 5 days during the crossing as you cross time zones and clocks are reset at 2pm, so at 2pm the clocks go forward to 3pm. Plenty of smoking areas or non-smoking areas. Food excellent, especially the salads if you don’t fancy the cooked stuff one night. Several themed food nights, Indian, Spanish, English etc. Didn’t use the restaurants, only the self service. In order to control Norovirus etc. the staff were serving you for 2 days after new arrivals had boarded and this did slow up the service but there were no problems with virus outbreaks so think it was a good idea. Afternoon tea on deck 11 was wonderful, also burgers and hotdogs on deck 9 and an omelette station at breakfast.

Thought the atmosphere on board was subdued compared to last year. People weren’t drinking much which I think was due to the high prices. The accountants think hiking up the drinks prices will produce more income but it doesn’t if people aren’t buying, and it’s tax and duty free! They are charging for a safe so kept our stuff in a locked suitcase under the bed. You can get free iced water from a bottle at the bar which was nice. Staff were all friendly and jolly, mostly Indonesians.

TC ..

 

 

Good to hear you had a good crossing and enjoyed all the Caribbean islands - what's not to like? ;)

 

I think you are right re prices - it's a fine balance between making enough profit and over-pricing so that returns become less. Hopefully thye will see the trend! Was free AI ever available on this itinerary in the past - just wondering if that had a bearing.

 

Seems as though the staff are as good as ever although unless there has been a dramatic change in staffing it's mainly Filipinos who are the bar/waiting staff and the housekeeping staff who are Indonesian. But they are all wonderful in our experience! :)

[Little Nell]

Little Nell ... Caribbean islands all wonderful as ever, didn’t do any organised trips which can be expensive like £29 each for 3 hours to a beach, just did local taxis to the beaches for almost a tenth of that price and for all day. Done 30 cruises mostly Caribbean so seen all the rainforests etc. Crossing the Atlantic for 6 days was very calm and mostly sunny and warm. Get up early for a bed chair, all gone by 8.30am and not enough for everyone. You lose an hour a day for 5 days during the crossing as you cross time zones and clocks are reset at 2pm, so at 2pm the clocks go forward to 3pm. Plenty of smoking areas or non-smoking areas. Food excellent, especially the salads if you don’t fancy the cooked stuff one night. Several themed food nights, Indian, Spanish, English etc. Didn’t use the restaurants, only the self service. In order to control Norovirus etc. the staff were serving you for 2 days after new arrivals had boarded and this did slow up the service but there were no problems with virus outbreaks so think it was a good idea. Afternoon tea on deck 11 was wonderful, also burgers and hotdogs on deck 9 and an omelette station at breakfast.

Thought the atmosphere on board was subdued compared to last year. People weren’t drinking much which I think was due to the high prices. The accountants think hiking up the drinks prices will produce more income but it doesn’t if people aren’t buying, and it’s tax and duty free! They are charging for a safe so kept our stuff in a locked suitcase under the bed. You can get free iced water from a bottle at the bar which was nice. Staff were all friendly and jolly, mostly Indonesians.

TC ..

 

Thanks TC. Relieved the weather was calm crossing the Atlantic, as it has been in previous years as far as I can gather. Sounds like you enjoyed the food too which is good to know. Thanks for the advice on trips and sun chairs :)

 

I hope Thomson realize that they are in dangerous waters changing a product that has been so successful for them in the past and restore the AI package. As it stands, many people are choosing not to book it because they don't see it represents value for money. You can fool some of the people some of the time and all that. It would be interesting to know if it does bring in more money for them. I suspect not.