Thomson Dream – NIGHTMARE

Although nightmare is a good pun on the ships name, whatever this ship was called the cruise experience on it can only be described as a nightmare. I have actually suffered bad dreams about this cruise in the past few weeks.

I’m also astonished to read reviews of some cruisers giving this cruise 5 stars, there’s no way this cruise deserves anything like that kind of rating, I can only assume these are people who haven’t cruised before and haven’t experienced a decent quality cruise or people who haven’t experienced 4 or 5 star treatment in the past.

This is at best a 3 star cruise if comparing to U.K hotels and resorts.

The ship in the most part can only be described as drab, then you add to this bad smells like sewage and diesel oil it becomes well below a 3 star rating.

Some parts of the ship have been refurbished, yep you guessed it, the retail areas and casino LOL The rest of the ship is pretty bland especially stairwells and lifts.

People have also given the food an excellent rating, WHAT are these people used to eating, the food at best could be described as decent works canteen food, this is supposed to be a cruise with some kind of luxury food somewhere.

Don’t get me wrong most of the food served was adequate to survive on daily, well that was when it was served hot and not undercooked. But compared to other ships the food is very basic.

I can here the cries already, who is this snob. Well I’m no snob, working class to the core and have had my share of living in poverty. Anyone who rated the food on this ship as excellent knows little or nothing about food, and probably lives on beans on toast and spaghetti hoops. Both available on ship by the way LOL

The food in the seated restaurants was better apparently, but people continuously complained that dinner was taking up to 2 hours a sitting, we gave it a miss.

We had to endure a boiling hot cabin which we could not sleep in, a dozen complaints and 4 days later it was eventually fixed, well to a point, the room was somewhat cooler, but full air con certainly wasn’t available. Still we managed to sleep a lot better but not as comfortable as it should have been, and the bad smells from the corridor pervaded into the cabin.

Our cabin was on deck 5 definitely the worst deck to end up on although recently I heard other decks are having problems also. Smells of sewage on a daily basis mixed with the smell of strong detergents, extreme smell of diesel oil which pervaded through the lift shafts and stairwells, positive this caused our sore throats. Cabin was a good size although old and dated. Rust on the ceiling old stained bath tub. Darkwood interior like something from the 70's and showing it's age. Plent of storage for 2 persons but would struggle if with kids.

The air con on the ship as a hole was pants, hot and cold spots, though mostly hot, many passengers suffered colds and sore throats, us included, this ship was about to cruise the Caribbean, those 100 passengers who didn’t make that cruise due to Thomson cancelling their cruise, take your compensation and run and consider your-selves very fortunate not ending up on board this nightmare, the air con will not handle the temperatures in the Caribbean.


List of complaints.


Deck 5 Strong smell of diesel oil which pervaded up through lift shafts on most days.
Deck 5 Strong smell of sewage on several days.
Gray water from cabin taps and shower (Occasional)
Cabin water smelt of strong chemical.
TV in cabin was held together with Black gaffer tape, dangerous when touched, it switched off
Food for the first 4 days was cold and below safe temperatures to eat.
For the first 5 days suffered long queues for food.
In no way was food of 4 star quality, more like works canteen food.
No enforcement of hygienic hand wipe when entering food areas.
Air conditioning throughout the ship was inadequate.
Ships overall condition was poor, far from what’s described in brochure.
Free Ice cream machine broke down day 7 never repaired or worked again
Self service coffee diabolical, unhygienic use of milk jugs in icy water.
Tables not cleared quickly for reseating.
No fruit juices free after 11am
Ruined T-shirt due to painters not leaving adequate warning signs of wet varnish on stern deck rail.
Swimming pools in poor condition many tiles missing leaving sharp edges.
Jacuzzis inoperative throughout the cruise. Hesard since thed did work on 2 occasions, but queue to long to get in.
Long queues at reception due to the amount of complaints overall from other cruisers.
All beers served were short measures way less than 1 pint. Continually had to request it filled correctly.




Our last cruise was on the Independence of the Seas, absolutely superb and a pretty new ship, every thing on the Independence far surpassed anything on the Dream, yet the price we paid was very similar to the dream, and we had a super deluxe cabin with balcony on the Independence. So those who will say you get what you pay for, it’s totally irrelevant. Some passengers on this cruise paid £1500 each, we paid £900 each and some got on as cheap as £450 each.

Even at £450 though I would still be asking for compensation.

We’ve put in a claim with Thomson, something we’ve never had to do before not being the complaining type, however this really was a poor cruise and the fact that Thomson must have known of the ships defects before we cruised makes things even worse and we’ve yet to receive any kind of regret or apology following our complaints.

We thought Thomsom was a well respected company and thought they could be trusted, clearly not, we will never ever choose any Thomson product ever again.

Just avoid this boat at all costs it's way past it in todays modern cruise industry.It's also now in the caribbean and the multitude of problems will not be fixed any time soon.

to start with we arrived at 6.45am thursday 6th dec told flight was delayed untill 1.00pm it ended up we were 11hrs and 50 mins delayed arrived on board ship at approx 3.30am friday not able to use tiolets at check in they were disgusting not able to flush the smell was awful informed staff they did apoloogise had to wait till we got to our cabin by tis time 4am room decent sized bed not comfy the safe didnt always work air condition not working properley at first we did sail on this ship in september and the smell of sewage was awful and sunbeds were broken we were told the ship was going into dry dock for refurbishment we had already booked for xmas in the jan 2010 so we assumed it would be ok the smell was still the same we were running on one engine most of the two weeks at one point thick black smoke pouring out of funnel late arrival at destinations had to miss one out boosters on engine failed gasket blew on boiler then on th 30th of december there was a code bravo called then close water tight doors then a code charlie was called crew dropped everything and ran to put lifejackets on there was a fire in engine room people where told to go to cabins and wait further instructions all the fire doors shut the crew looked frightened the captain said they had it under control eventually but we did not feel safe after that we always went to deck 11 to sunbathe on two occasions we had no swimming pool the tiolets were out of order same on next floor had to go cabin the food was always cold the burger stand had flies landing on the fresh fruit and salad which was uncovered there was always someone complaining at reception the ship is a disaster waiting to happen we are going to be claiming compensation it was the worst cruise ever and i would not recommend this ship to anyone only the scrapyard the good thing i can say about it is the crew are brilliant when the day came to leave we where told that the plane was delayed 7 and half hours got to the airport and another 2 and half hrs delay so in total 10 hrs delayed just glad to get home

have cruised 3 times in 2010 on the dream on the last cruise in oct. met some passengers who had seen the tv documentary,who booked after seeing it thought about cancelling,but decided not to& boy where they pleased they hadnt cancelled,they like us where having a great cruise.the waiters there all the time
seeing if you like to order,the shows where good & the
entertainers where chatty. cruise director steven guy was so friendly.carnt wait for our next dream cruise
january 2010 round the carbbean.

My advice would be "do not travel on this ship". It is a tub - it smells, sinks block, toilets do not flush, showers overflow all over the floor, engineers in white overalls are everywhere fixing things. The ship lists (and this is frightening). The power keeps cutting out. The carpets on worn (deck five) and you can feel holes under the carpets as you walk. The pool decks are uninviting with broken sunbeds and the smell of fat frying. It is a complete disgrace Thomson!!! There are so many things wrong with it I cannot list them all. I cannot believe I paid and wasted good money to travel on this so called ship. Yes the staff are wonderful and the food is good but I am afraid that is all.

Iam terrible for reading reviews before i book a holiday but this time me and my Boyfriend went to travel agents and ending up booking a cruise before i even had a chance to read reviews and he made sure i didnt read any reviews before i left and thank god i didnt i dont think i wouldve gone on this ship if i had read some of the reviews i just read. But We had an absoulute fab time you can not fault this ship. Checking in was fine they take your suitcases and within ten minutes of us being showed to our room our suit cases were outside. The people that work on this ship can not do enough for you, Our cabin was cleaned twice a day, and outside the room you see people cleaning all day long. I did read that some people mentioned the toilets getting blocked i did see this but it never happened in peoples rooms just the public toilets but they got resloved pretty quickly and really was not a big deal you can just use another toilet. The food was nice and iam a fussy eater but you can eat all day long and there is plenty of food to choose from you will find something you like, There are waiters and waitresses going around all day asking if you want a drink you will never have to leave you sun lounger if you dont want too but at the same time they are not annoying and it is not one of them places where they want a tip for bringing your drinks over they are happy to bring your drinks over and expect nothing in return. Also i will add me and my boyfriend paid for the drinks package too has the drinks are not incuded but i would advise people do this you will save money by doing this! The entertainment Was brilliant we had a cruise director called Gavin who was absoulutly brilliant at his job and his team delievered outstanding entertainment every night. The thing i was worried about was sea sckness but i never experienced this and anyone i spoke to on the ship didnt either. If i had a negtive comment it would be our cabin was at the back of the ship so you could hear engine noise but to be honest we were so tierd by the time we got to our room in the evening you just fall asleep without any problem but if you did want to avoid this you can pre-book your room in advance. I would reccommend this cruise to my family and friends. Hope your not put off by negative comments it was my first cruise and i think everyone should go on a cruise once in there life time. its that lil summink different.

We sailed on the Thomson Dream on 21st September for 1 week. We booked an outside cabin only on deck 5 having stayed independently in Majorca for 5 days. Like many others after reading some reviews, I was dreading this Cruise. I can only say that we did not encounter any problems at all. The staff worked tirelessly keeping the ship clean and everyone we met on board remarked on how good the ship was. Check-in was easy and quick mainly because we arrived before many of the coaches. Our Cabin was larger than expected and in excellent condition. Lots of storage, good size en-suite and the added benefit of not having to pay extra for the safety deposit box. We were all inclusive and I can only say that the choice of drinks were comparable to the Destiny which we sailed on in 2009. The Restaurant Waiters and Wine Waiters worked really hard and were great entertainers. I didn't think the Restaurant food was up to the standard of other Thomson Ships. The buffet on deck 9 had a good choice and was open for 24 hours. Our Cabin Steward Mary kept the Cabin spotlessly clean. Entertainment was of a very high standard, lead by Cruise Director Stephen Guy and Captain Torsten Olbrich also kept us entertained with tales of Ships that he had Captained and his weather reports were great! Excursions were quite pricey but some of the distances from Port to City (especially Rome and Florence)were over 1.5 hours drive each way. We did have one night when the weather was not good and the ship did "rock and roll" quite badly. We were supposed to go to Palamos but the Captain changed course because of the weather and we docked in Barcelona instead. If you have booked to go on this ship, go with an open mind. Maybe now that she has been sailing since May, most of the early problems that were reported have been rectified.

I have had a great holiday on the Thompson Dream.

Our cabin was spacious and clean, cleaned twice a day by our always-smiling cabin steward. The ship's public areas could have done with slightly more cleaning, however are most likely more in need of replacement.

Food in the Orion restaurant excellent, food in Andromeda restaurant not luxurious but great for what it is, a 24 hour buffet.

Crew were fantastic, I give them 100%. I never encountered a sad or unhelpful crew member.

Entertainment rather repetitive in the lounges but lovely all the same.

The bad reviews below are either of problems that have been fixed, or are greatly exaggerated!

We have just got back from a holiday on the thomson dream
We were told this was a new ship and a 5 star at that
the cabin was clean but smelly
The staff were great but the food certainly not 5 star my husband found a large piece of plastic in his food when he spoke to the waiter we gave him our cabin number and a while later we had a bottle of fizz sent to the cabin
The entertainment was like being in butlins
this ship does need a re furb but we were told this was a new ship would not sail on this again till it has been refurb

Despite some bad reviews, particularly earlier on the year, we had a fantastic time on the Dream and have no hesitation in recommending it to others. OK, so there are a few minor issues. There was a slight smell of drains along the corridors, a small list to one side and some of the decor and carpetry are a bit dated but anyone who lets things like this bother them is either very fussy or very petty indeed!

The food is excellent, especially in the Orion restaurant where the waiters work tirelessly to keep you happy. The Andromeda buffet is not so good but the food is hot and plentiful.

I found the entertainment a bit "in your face" but the majority of people seemed to love it. Again, the entertainemnt staff work really hard to make your cruise an enjoyable one.

I mentioned that the decor is a little dated and the carpets a bit bare here and there but the ship is at least clean. The Indonesian housekeeping staff take pride in their work and are constantly polishing, scrubbing and sweeping the ship to keep it spotless.

The ports of call were all good, although Santa Margherita (sp?) was chnaged at the last minute to Genoa due to the awful weather. Few would disagree with the captain's assessment that a tender would not have been pleasent in those circumsatnces!

All in all it was a really good cruise and I would definitely book to go on this ship again.

We returned from our holiday on the Thomson Dream last week 24th August, 2010. This was our 16th cruise with Thomson and Airtours previously. I read the reviews before we travelled and was unsure as what to expect. But what a lovely ship. by far the best ship in the fleet. We had a fantastic holiday and will be booking for the Carribean on the Dream for January. I would just like to thank everyone on the Dream for looking after us, and would recommend this ship to anyone.