For those of you that missed it, on Thursday 23rd September BBC Watchdog featured a segment on the "newest flag ship" for Thomson, the Dream.
The Thomson Dream is marketed by Thomson as the newest, and most luxurious, ship in their fleet and Thomson claim that the cabins were recently refurbished, have 'interior-designed good looks' and that the ship is 'new for 2010'
Funnily enough I took a call from a passenger that has booked to go on the Dream complaining because she was under the illusion that she was booking on a "brand new ship" when in fact the ship was built in 1986 and was previously operating as the Costa Europa. She was very unhappy as she felt their brochure had misled her into thinking that I was a newly built ship.
Watchdog featured testimonies from passengers that have sailed on the Dream, most of which I'm saddened to say were not good.
Passenger Natasha Hopkins onboard reported
"Everything was very dated, it definitely wasn't new. The first experience was it definitely wasn't luxurious... It was really humid, it made you feel nauseous, it made you feel tired. It drained you"
Susan Macklam was on the Thomson Dream for its maiden voyage and she told Watchdog about the water in her cabin: "Something came out of the tap but it was thick brown sludge so you can imagine I was absolutely horrified".
She also mentioned an horrific smell onboard the ship "It just overwhelmed you, and you know when you just feel like you can taste a smell. And it was the smell of raw sewage".
This takes me back to my blog that I did back in May "A Dream Makeover for the Thomson Dream" stating that Thomson were planning on spending £5million on new interiors and an overhaul of all the public areas - so what happened to this?! Why haven't they spent the money on upgrading the cabins as promised?
I have to say in Thomson’s defence we have had a statement from our Key Account Manager who has pointed out that this programme was based on passengers who had travelled in April/May and so was therefore "old news" and that in actual fact Recent CSQ scores for the overall holiday experience on the ship have averaged 97%, which she feels speaks for itself.
Since going live last night we have had a lot of reviews that have been added to our cruise reviews on our website, which are very positive so it may well be that since April/May Thomson have pulled their socks up and have the problems rectified.
If you have sailed on her since April/May please leave me feedback on my blog as we would like to know your views!! My advice if you are booked to go on her next year - dont panic and cancel as Thomson are doing their best to get things sorted and up to scatch.....and remember one mans hell is another mans heaven.....
dear julie, just been reading the comments regarding thompson dream ship, you say when the t.v. programme aired that the problems had all been solved, and the sewage, and all the other dreadful complaints had been resolved, and only people who had been on board in april/may were effected, this is soooo not true, we where on in june, and the problems were far from resolved - as this was our seventh time with thompson cruises, we were disgusted with the state of the ship, it should never have been in service - we had raw sewage in the bathroon, toilet overflowing, smells in the corridor, they had blowers on all the time =- the air conditioning was not always working, all in all a very disappointing cruise ---
ReplyDeleteI just arrived from my Med.Medley Cruise (July 7 to 14 2012) from palma to Barcelona, Its my first time cruise and I went to Thomson Dream,despite all the bad reviews- I would say, I had a tremendous time, and my cabin is spic and span.
ReplyDeleteI uploaded some photos from the cruise and wrote a review--please visit my site if you get the chance. but all I can say--I enjoyed my stay at Thomson Dream,the staff and crew were excellent...