Thomson Dream review and Caribbean itineraries

[ThePauls]

We did a two weeks cruise on the Dream, Cuban Fusion + Pride of Panama back in January (starting 30th Dec 2014). I wrote this ready to post after coming back but for a few reasons only just got access to post it now.

 

M'Bay Airport

We arrived slightly late (due to late departure from UK) but were whisked through very quickly to coaches. I was throughly impressed at the time as the luggage was taken straight to the ship (and the same coming back) which was a nice touch. It seems like Thomson had learned the painful lessons from the week before as it was handled much better on the 30th Dec. But it is very true that the staff at the airport are rude, and for the return journey there are far too many repeat checks of documentation. For that return flight (also delayed in leaving seemingly by the inefficient ground staff) they even had to do two a headcount on the plane in case someone had boarded the wrong flight!

 

Impressions of the Dream

It was our first holiday on the Thomson Dream, we've already done the other three active ships at least once. I'll state upfront that all of this is very much our personal opinions:

 

The coffee bar is a big plus, I've heard there's one on the Celebration too but we haven't been back on it to see this yet. However they do not serve any herbal tea (even peppermint) in there, very strange omission!

 

We loved the food in the MDR (Orion's) and had very good food and drinks waiters.

 

The buffet was generally good although my partner is veggie and sometimes the veggie options were pretty unimaginative.

 

The musicians were all a good standard and we enjoyed listening to them. The trio (Tunesmith) play Mariachi style, moving around the room to do request songs, it works great in the smaller bars but not so well in the large Medusa lounge. We also thought on a related note that this venue is too big for the early evening quizzes, we much prefer the ambience on the Celebration/Spirit for these.

 

We found, personally, the show team were not as friendly as other teams we've encountered, especially the cruise director who was more actively involved in the shows and seemed to be less involved in mixing with the passengers. The evening shows were very good though some were repeated on our second week sadly.

 

The itineraries and sea days

I agree with some of the comments on other Dream threads that the distances are too large and the sea days are too many. Backup ports are not available or are possibly congested with other ships.

 

Cuban Fusion port comments:

Playa del Carmen - ship tender operation cancelled mid morning (as described in previous posts) and ship moved to Cozumel cutting short the time in port

 

Havana - a great port to visit but one word of warning on the Havana Highlights tour. We compared notes on this over dinner with some other passengers and felt rather short changed since our group spent 40 minutes (!) shopping at the Cigar Museum, the tour guide did nothing to hurry things up and we missed out on seeing a lot as our walking tour was much shorter than other groups! If you do this and the cigar shopping takes longer than 15 mins it'd be worth speaking up!

 

Pride of Panama comments:

Cartagena - like many ports in this week there's no option to walk from the ship to something interesting, nor a shuttle bus. We did a tour (the 1/2 day Mangrove Swamp) so we didn't want to add on the expense of taxis to see the old town in the afternoon.

 

San Blas - cancelled due to the high winds we experienced for much of the week - the weather was generally sunny and hot but very windy. San Blas was a beach stop with no tours but an extra sea day when there are already two programmed was unwelcome.

 

Colón, Panama - we did the canal tour by boat, it was excellent although the boat we were on hadn't enough seating in the shade and since we happened to arrive on the last bus spent most of the time stood in the shade as the only seats left were in the blazing sun for 8 hours! Lots of complaints that this tour sold out so quickly, if you didn't book in advance or book at the end of the previous week (we did this; there was a port talk for two-week itinerary passengers before the changeover day) you were out of luck. That's pretty bad if you imagine booking the cruise and finding out on day 1 that the number one trip is already full!

 

Puerto Limon, Costa Rica - a dock-port that was cancelled due to the high winds, we stayed overnight in Colón instead. This was very disappointing as we were so looking forward to the Sloth Sanctuary+Rainforest trip. In the end we were glad to have the extra day in port as the three days at sea were so rough this week.

 

I think Thomson really needs to completely rethink these itineraries. Why is the ship based out of Jamaica for itineraries that are, for the most part, showcasing the Central American Caribbean coast? The worst of the sea days were those crossing the open sea between islands (Cuba or Jamaica) and the coast. Wouldn't it be better to fly to a Central American port like Cartagena and to then just make the run to Cuba for that week? If they could possibly rejig the holidays to not have two full sea days per week that would be a big improvement as well.

 

We liked the ports we made it to, and have some great memories but I'd hesistate to travel so far with Thomson again as their cruise formula seems to work much better in the Med or Canary Islands where backup ports are available and the one sea day per week makes things seem better value.

[BaggersCruising]

Welcome to the forums and a nice balanced review of your time on the Dream.

 

The main reason why Thomson have chosen Montego Bay as the home port is because of the facilities there, and the fact that already have a good base of hotels there to offer cruise & stay holidays, a central core to Thomson's cruising operations!

 

Although I have to admit we're not really a fan of Jamacia anyway and wouldn't even consider a cruise & stay there, and we left the Dream a week before you boarded!

 

From more recent reviews it seems to be getting better, but the two sea days per week will still happen due to the distances involved between the ports, but they have been re-scheduling alternative stops for San Blas and Playa Del Carmen.

 

Barbados is a totally different kettle of fish though and they're system seems to work well from there, and has the same little touches, like the bonded luggage that doesn't happen in the Med. Also, those itineraries only have one sea day per week.

[gillhalfpint]

Lovely review, and we did Mayan Treasures / Pride of Panama, and missed San Blas. Agree with a lot of your observations. We booked Panama trip in advance as that was the main reason we booked that cruise, as would most folk I imagine. We do feel the itinerary didn't work well for Thomson so been there, done that, and as we would prefer the Barbados home port if we go out there again Celebration could be looking good for next January.

[Chaffesbird]

WE did Cuban Fusion and Mayan Treasures and have only been back a few days.

We had a fantastic time, but I agree that 2 sea days a week is too many but can understand why it is necessary. The Dream is much improved from last year, in both the public areas and the food.

[gandalf123]

Also just back. Havana was by far the highlight, very different and interesting. I agree the Jamaican customs and immigration officials need some lessons in customer care but no worse than the USA officials. Two days at sea each week is a drag but unless they convert a naval destroyer there is not really an option. I felt the ports were not as good as the Caribbean islands and certainly most of the beaches are not as good. Food better than last year shows OK but 2 were very poorly light (they are getting a lighting guy from the UK to fix) watching shadows and silhouettes is not ideal. All in all a good cruise and I would return to Havana but give the rest a miss.

 

PS did not do Panama

[Vitalsign]

As said previously on my review of Pride of Panama/Cuban Fusion on 27th January where we ended up with 3 sea days per week and some poor weather which is not the fault of Thomsons I would reiterate that these itineries if planned correctly (including the now revised itineries) can be done with just one sea day per week because we have done them out of Montego Bay on Ocean Village - the boat just got a move on during the sea day and night journeys!!!

We are on Dreams Atlantic crossing 14th April and if it can get to Horta in 5 days it's possible to get to Grand Cayman from Cuba in a night for example.

[BaggersCruising]

As said previously on my review of Pride of Panama/Cuban Fusion on 27th January where we ended up with 3 sea days per week and some poor weather which is not the fault of Thomsons I would reiterate that these itineries if planned correctly (including the now revised itineries) can be done with just one sea day per week because we have done them out of Montego Bay on Ocean Village - the boat just got a move on during the sea day and night journeys!!!

We are on Dreams Atlantic crossing 14th April and if it can get to Horta in 5 days it's possible to get to Grand Cayman from Cuba in a night for example.

 

Quite possibly, although P&O's Eastern Caribbean itineraries have more sea days on than Thomson, so they stretch things out a little there, so Ocean Village may have been the same if it was still around today!

[csmjfmbe]

Thanks for the well balanced review.

We were on the Cuban Fusion - Mayan Treasure legs in mid January and apart from the outbound flight, we had a great time. Yes, the Dream like all Thomson ships are older, but very friendly.

We met some people on Board who had been on the Panama leg the week before who said it was terrible with the cancelled ports.

However, our two weeks were great.

All the best

mike

[ThePauls]

Thanks for the comments. We'll stick to the Med for a bit I think just for the shorter travel times and fewer sea days. The Eastern Caribbean sounds like it might be a better bet to avoid excessive sea days but then I wanted to see some of the Central American sights so it was worth doing this trip the once!

[P&O Lynn Knickers]

Thanks for the comments. !

Great review, and welcome to Cruise Critic.

Thanks for sharing, we are a very helpful bunch on here, and will do anything to help other cruisers.

 

 

If you need any help, just ask.

 

 

 

Lots of love

Lynn