Thomson pricing out solo cruisers

[davecttr]

Due to a sad change in family circumstances I was looking for a xmas cruise for the coming winter. I knew Majesty was in the Canaries so off to the Thomson TA I went.

 

The 7 night Majesty cruise was not suitable as I do not want to be travelling home on boxing day so the TA priced up a 14 nighter including new year. The cost? £2505 with no freebies :eek:

 

Seeing my reaction they checked out P&O. A 12 nighter to the Canaries returning on the 29th. No problem about new year as i can go out for a drink with friends. The cost? £1724 plus £60 on board credit and £120 worth of M&S vouchers. Add in the expected £60 shareholder benefit gives a £1021 'saving', OK it is 12 nights rather than 14 but no flying.

 

Thomson appear to have lost the plot as far as solo cruisers are concerned :(

[Julessmiles]

Due to a sad change in family circumstances I was looking for a xmas cruise for the coming winter. I knew Majesty was in the Canaries so off to the Thomson TA I went.

 

The 7 night Majesty cruise was not suitable as I do not want to be travelling home on boxing day so the TA priced up a 14 nighter including new year. The cost? £2505 with no freebies :eek:

 

Seeing my reaction they checked out P&O. A 12 nighter to the Canaries returning on the 29th. No problem about new year as i can go out for a drink with friends. The cost? £1724 plus £60 on board credit and £120 worth of M&S vouchers. Add in the expected £60 shareholder benefit gives a £1021 'saving', OK it is 12 nights rather than 14 but no flying.

 

Thomson appear to have lost the plot as far as solo cruisers are concerned :(

 

Sorry to hear all this Dave. Thomson are losing the plot not just with solo travellers but with a lot of things at the moment. They are letting the hardworking & wonderful staff who work on the ships down :(

Edited March 3, 2014 by Julessmiles

[infoqueen]

Completely agree there with you Julie they have become very greedy and getting rich off the backs of the crew who are having to work so much harder for their money. The cutbacks were so evident on our last cruise.

[Justmecruisingsolo]

I am just changing from Thomson as I've got fed up with how we are treated as solo travellers. I have been on three with Thomson and due on the dream on 3rd may. I was shocked by the response I got from Thomson when I enquirer why the single supplements were so high. The customer service pre and post cruise stinks. I was shocked to see how comparable p&o were and the loyalty scheme. So over to p&o I go....

 

 

 

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[kruzseeka]

Completely agree there with you Julie they have become very greedy and getting rich off the backs of the crew who are having to work so much harder for their money. The cutbacks were so evident on our last cruise.

 

I agree - I'm sorry to say that I'm getting rather disillusioned Shirley. :rolleyes:

[Justmecruisingsolo]

I'm not even sure I'm looking forward to my cruise now. I'm sure it will be alright on the night...

 

 

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[Julessmiles]

I'm not even sure I'm looking forward to my cruise now. I'm sure it will be alright on the night...

 

 

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I'm sure you'll have a great time - the cruises are good, as you know - it's the lack of customer care in the UK that let's them & the wonderful staff on the crusie ships down.

[Justmecruisingsolo]

I know feel very disgruntled with them. Have lost my faith. Never thought I would be looking elsewhere for next year but I am. After four lovely and amazing cruises I am jumping over to p&o

 

 

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[norfolklad]

TUI / Thomson has lost the plot in so many ways with it cost cutting / VIP charges for things you have already paid for, no loyalty schemes , fares that go up and down like a fiddler's elbow so booking becomes a lottery to get the best prices , some get free/ reduced priced drinks packages , not offered on early booking for the Caribbean but are for the Med. Sticking with outdated obsolete ships for British guests whilst building brand new ones for it German cruise fleet . we will not be sailing with them again. Enjoy your next cruise .

Edited March 8, 2014 by norfolklad

[Justmecruisingsolo]

See this is exactly what has rubbed me up the wrong way. Was advised as I always have been by future cruise personnel onboard and TAs to book early to get a good deal and then the cruise I'm booked on gets dropped by £300.00. I'm miffed with the single supplements that don't get recorded as such when you search for a cruise on the website. Opting for P&O next year.

[CRUISIN LINDA]

Welcome to cc Justmecruisingsolo. Are you on fb? :D:D

[Justmecruisingsolo]

Yes I am

 

Tracy

[Julessmiles]

I know feel very disgruntled with them. Have lost my faith. Never thought I would be looking elsewhere for next year but I am. After four lovely and amazing cruises I am jumping over to p&o

 

 

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Tracy

 

We are the same as you. We have booked on the Dream for this year and we will enjoy every minute; we're working & saving hard for it so nothing is going to take away our enjoyment! We are however also looking elsewhere & will be travelling with another cruise line next time. We are a family of 4 & the prices are just getting too costly now they have changed the child ages & constantly increasing the prices - for actually a lesser product than we were once used to.

 

We love Thomson cruises, mainly the staff & the entertainment & this will be our 5th - we always do 2 week B2B in peak season so not a cheap holiday by any means but the time has come for us to now move on.

Edited March 8, 2014 by Julessmiles

[CRUISIN LINDA]

Yes I am

 

Tracy

Thought so :D:D

[Justmecruisingsolo]

Haven't been on here for over two years and thought I'd start coming on again...

[mainelycruising]

Judging by many of the comments, it seems that Thomson is slipping.

 

I cannot understand why British people do not look beyond Thomson? They are old ships run by a company that has a long reputation for package holidays. I guess if you want a package holiday onboard a cruise ship, then Thomson is for you.

 

My British friends may want to investigate the new transatlantic flight service starting in the summer by Norwegian Air. I booked a return ticket FLL/LGW in September for about 400 GBPs return. You can book a one-way trip with no surcharge, if you want a return from a transatlantic cruise (NYC, also). LGW-FLL (Fort Lauderdale) prices are very low, and they can add on car rental and hotels before/after the flight. The Caribbean may not be what folks are after, but it is another option - more ships sail from FLL/MIA than any other ports of embarkation in the world. I recently took a seven day Eastern Caribbean cruise from FLL on Holland America - single occupancy with oceanview - for $699, including tax and port charges.

[Little Nell]

Judging by many of the comments, it seems that Thomson is slipping.

 

I cannot understand why British people do not look beyond Thomson? They are old ships run by a company that has a long reputation for package holidays. I guess if you want a package holiday onboard a cruise ship, then Thomson is for you.

 

My British friends may want to investigate the new transatlantic flight service starting in the summer by Norwegian Air. I booked a return ticket FLL/LGW in September for about 400 GBPs return. You can book a one-way trip with no surcharge, if you want a return from a transatlantic cruise (NYC, also). LGW-FLL (Fort Lauderdale) prices are very low, and they can add on car rental and hotels before/after the flight. The Caribbean may not be what folks are after, but it is another option - more ships sail from FLL/MIA than any other ports of embarkation in the world. I recently took a seven day Eastern Caribbean cruise from FLL on Holland America - single occupancy with oceanview - for $699, including tax and port charges.

 

That's interesting that you should mention Norwegian Air. I had an advert pop up on my computer yesterday for Norwegian Air. What a coincidence. I am afraid to say, I hadn't heard of the airline before :o

 

Some of the prices for cruises departing from the USA, not just for the Caribbean but to the Eastern or Western seaboards or Alaska, are very attractively priced and would be a bargain if flights were only £400.

 

We too are becoming disillusioned with Thomson. In the past I would never have looked elsewhere for a cruise but our next one is with Celebrity and we will certainly be looking around from now on.

[Sparkles87]

Due to a sad change in family circumstances I was looking for a xmas cruise for the coming winter. I knew Majesty was in the Canaries so off to the Thomson TA I went.

 

The 7 night Majesty cruise was not suitable as I do not want to be travelling home on boxing day so the TA priced up a 14 nighter including new year. The cost? £2505 with no freebies :eek:

 

Seeing my reaction they checked out P&O. A 12 nighter to the Canaries returning on the 29th. No problem about new year as i can go out for a drink with friends. The cost? £1724 plus £60 on board credit and £120 worth of M&S vouchers. Add in the expected £60 shareholder benefit gives a £1021 'saving', OK it is 12 nights rather than 14 but no flying.

 

Thomson appear to have lost the plot as far as solo cruisers are concerned :(

 

I know exactly how you feel. I came back from my first solo cruise on Dream last year with my heart set on a 14 night cruise on dream this year. But the price for just 7 nights was just too much let alone 14. The free AI incentive wasn't on the site for long and there really was no incentive to pick Thomson over anyone else.

 

So instead I have jumped ship to NCL and have 7 nights booked on the Epic in a solo studio for about £350 less that what Thomson were charging for Dream plus I was given $100 OBC to spend as well.

 

I will always have a small love affair with Dream because it really was a dream holiday but it's too expensive to justify it with no extra incentives for my money.

[Mrs Bob]

I've booked a single cabin for my first ever cruise. I am travelling with my sister and brother-in-law who have a double. I am really shocked that I paid nearly the same for my cabin as they did. This was due to the whopping £560 single supplement! I may think twice about booking again.

[Justmecruisingsolo]

Let us know how you find ncl please. I would be interested to hear all about your experiences onboard

 

 

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[gillhalfpint]

I've booked a single cabin for my first ever cruise. I am travelling with my sister and brother-in-law who have a double. I am really shocked that I paid nearly the same for my cabin as they did. This was due to the whopping £560 single supplement! I may think twice about booking again.

 

Are any of the cabins just for a single occupant? If so, they should not carry a supplement surely as Thomson's would not be losing out.

[Justmecruisingsolo]

Thomson's charge a supplement for even having a single cabin for single occupancy - look on the website and price up a cruise for a person going on their own. When you compare the pricing for two people going the single cabins have a huge supplement.. I have argued this out with Thomson and they say it's to pay for servicing the cabin....

[Little Nell]

Thomson's charge a supplement for even having a single cabin for single occupancy - look on the website and price up a cruise for a person going on their own. When you compare the pricing for two people going the single cabins have a huge supplement.. I have argued this out with Thomson and they say it's to pay for servicing the cabin....

 

I'd like to see a breakdown of those costs :rolleyes:

[davecttr]

It gets worse. The single cabin price used to be the equivalent of about a 30% mark up on what one of a couple would pay for a double. So if a double cabin cost £2000 shared between two a single cabin would cost £1300. This is pretty good but it appears that they have increased the single supplements to about 60-70% so you could now pay £1700:mad:

 

It gets even worse, that price is only for a single cabin. If you want single occupancy of a double you pay the full price, e.g £2000

 

Even more worse, those single cabins are usually in undesirable parts of the ship, maybe even former crew cabins, They can be awfully noisy which is why i now cruise with P&O. Hundreds of double cabins to choose from, insides, outsides and balconies for a varying supplement of 40-70%. I also benefit from their loyalty scheme plus as a shareholder get an additional £150 on board credit for a 14 night cruise.

 

Majesty does have reasonable inside singles which are on higher decks well away from the engines. Not all cabins are impossible to sleep in but my last one on Spirit was just like the inside of a cement mixer on a couple of nights.

 

P&O have problem single cabins too. Avoid the singles on Ventura like the plague:eek:

[Sparkles87]

Let us know how you find ncl please. I would be interested to hear all about your experiences onboard

 

Will do :)