Embarking/disembarking FIASCO

[Nuthouse]

Just returned from a cruise & stay, sailing on Celebration 11/6/15 then a week in Dubrovnik 18/6/15.

Had a brilliant week on board. We haven't cruised since 2013 and we did notice the increased 'sales push' on board. We were constantly approached by waiters and other crew members to buy a particular package or pay for the A La Carte restaurants. Even pushed by table waiters to pay extra for streaks at the dining table. Personally I don't like this kind of thing but it didn't spoil our holiday.

All went really well upto the final day with disembarking!!!

Almost everyone going to hotels had times of 10.30 to 11.30 to leave the ship.

Trying to get off the ship to collect our luggage, to take to the hotel, was an absolute nightmare. Thomson had passengers boarding and queueing on the 'single' gangway at the same time. Trying to get past people with your own hand luggage and them with their hand luggage was just about impossible. Disembarking passengers had to pass their bags over the top of the gangway to crew members then pick them up again at the bottom of the gangway.

The bus journey was advised of 10 mins but was actually 30 mins with other drop offs. This left us at your hotel at 11.30 am with check in time being 2pm. My question is, why could we not stay on board till 1pm then go to hotels. We were left in limbo, especially as we had a problem at our hotel with rooms not being ready and having a 5 hour wait for a room. We therefore lost a day of our holiday. Thomson know the times when rooms are normally available but I think their attitude is one of not caring. I will certainly be avoiding booking with Thomson again, which is a shame as I love their cruises.

[Julessmiles]

Just returned from a cruise & stay, sailing on Celebration 11/6/15 then a week in Dubrovnik 18/6/15.

Had a brilliant week on board. We haven't cruised since 2013 and we did notice the increased 'sales push' on board. We were constantly approached by waiters and other crew members to buy a particular package or pay for the A La Carte restaurants. Even pushed by table waiters to pay extra for streaks at the dining table. Personally I don't like this kind of thing but it didn't spoil our holiday.

All went really well upto the final day with disembarking!!!

Almost everyone going to hotels had times of 10.30 to 11.30 to leave the ship.

Trying to get off the ship to collect our luggage, to take to the hotel, was an absolute nightmare. Thomson had passengers boarding and queueing on the 'single' gangway at the same time. Trying to get past people with your own hand luggage and them with their hand luggage was just about impossible. Disembarking passengers had to pass their bags over the top of the gangway to crew members then pick them up again at the bottom of the gangway.

The bus journey was advised of 10 mins but was actually 30 mins with other drop offs. This left us at your hotel at 11.30 am with check in time being 2pm. My question is, why could we not stay on board till 1pm then go to hotels. We were left in limbo, especially as we had a problem at our hotel with rooms not being ready and having a 5 hour wait for a room. We therefore lost a day of our holiday. Thomson know the times when rooms are normally available but I think their attitude is one of not caring. I will certainly be avoiding booking with Thomson again, which is a shame as I love their cruises.

 

 

One reason I wouldn't do a Cruise & Stay would be the 'waste of a day' in the middle & having to pack everything up & unpack again - B2B all the time!

[BaggersCruising]

One reason I wouldn't do a Cruise & Stay would be the 'waste of a day' in the middle & having to pack everything up & unpack again - B2B all the time!

 

And also probably as you love cruising so much too ;)

[Grez]

Just returned from a cruise & stay, sailing on Celebration 11/6/15 then a week in Dubrovnik 18/6/15.

Had a brilliant week on board. We haven't cruised since 2013 and we did notice the increased 'sales push' on board. We were constantly approached by waiters and other crew members to buy a particular package or pay for the A La Carte restaurants. Even pushed by table waiters to pay extra for streaks at the dining table. Personally I don't like this kind of thing but it didn't spoil our holiday.

All went really well upto the final day with disembarking!!!

Almost everyone going to hotels had times of 10.30 to 11.30 to leave the ship.

Trying to get off the ship to collect our luggage, to take to the hotel, was an absolute nightmare. Thomson had passengers boarding and queueing on the 'single' gangway at the same time. Trying to get past people with your own hand luggage and them with their hand luggage was just about impossible. Disembarking passengers had to pass their bags over the top of the gangway to crew members then pick them up again at the bottom of the gangway.

The bus journey was advised of 10 mins but was actually 30 mins with other drop offs. This left us at your hotel at 11.30 am with check in time being 2pm. My question is, why could we not stay on board till 1pm then go to hotels. We were left in limbo, especially as we had a problem at our hotel with rooms not being ready and having a 5 hour wait for a room. We therefore lost a day of our holiday. Thomson know the times when rooms are normally available but I think their attitude is one of not caring. I will certainly be avoiding booking with Thomson again, which is a shame as I love their cruises.

 

What did they say when you complained?

[Nuthouse]

We have to put it in writing to them and , as we booked through TA, we have to go through them. Called today but the TA s are so busy at the moment with rearranging Tunisia bound holidays I didn't feel like taking up their time. I will pop a letter in to them later this week. I must admit that I feel I'm being somewhat 'petty 'with what's gone on lately. I'm sure Thomson will have enough to deal with at the moment.

My husband doesn't particularly enjoy cruising for two weeks - hence the cruise and stay. Have done it a few times before and never had any problems.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Nuthouse
Mis spelling

[WeeCountyMan]

Nuthouse - was the issue new arrivals from the UK trying to embark using the same gangway as departing passengers ?

 

Surely that could have been avoided by using two gangways with a clear one way system on each ?

 

Or have I misunderstood ?

[Pensioncruiser]

Sorry you had problems but I do hope they have it sorted for September😕😕

[Nuthouse]

Yes, Wee Countyman, that was exactly the problem. The one way system would have worked perfect but unfortunately it was not in force.

Also it didn't help that the people boarding were queueing to register on board at the point of entry to the ship. I'm sure that with all previous cruises we have registered prior to boarding - in fact we did on our cruise as we arrived, but perhaps there was a problem wiith the availability on that particular day.

We also noted that all the public toilets had been closed so there were no quick last minute visits to the loo.

[WeeCountyMan]

Sounds like a typical case of the lack of joined up thinking.

 

One cruise we did with Thomson had arrivals queuing to register on ship with long delays - we simply went to the customer services to hand over our £200 onboard account deposit and were immediately registered there and then.

 

I had sussed out that they can't take your deposit until you are registered (rather obvious I would have guessed) and acted accordingly.

 

A few other punters clocked this move and followed suit.

[Broughton]

Wasn't on a cruise and stay but think that this appears to have been sorted now. Registration is now done in a large hangar type building parallel to the ship (about 15 metres away). Plenty of desks open so process did not take very long at all for us. We arrived around noon. After registering we were straight on the ship with no hassle.

 

Great thing about Dubrovnik embarkation/disembarkation was the way main hold luggage was handled. Flew from Glasgow. Was given labels with cabin number there. Put them on cases, had them checked in and never saw them again until they arrived outside our cabin about 1 hour after boarding. Similarly put cases outside cabin prior to 3am on day of departure and never saw them again until we got them off the carousel at Glasgow.

[WeeCountyMan]

Even pushed by table waiters to pay extra for streaks at the dining table. Personally I don't like this kind of thing but it didn't spoil our holiday.

I've just clocked this bit from the thread opener.

 

How much extra was " The Full Monty" offer ? :D