Sorry to hear you had a bad time on the Dream, especially as your experience is so much different to the majority of reviews that have been posted in recent weeks, both on this site and others. I shall be on the Dream in less than four weeks and can only hope that my own holiday matches with those rather than your own, but rest assured I will be posting my comments here when I return!

I have recently joined this forum and see a now quite interesting debate had taken place re Thomson and their so called 'new' ship Thomson Dream.
I have always believed that you get what you pay for and myself and my wife have been on many cruise with RCL,P&O and Cunard and have got just that,with no major complaints at all.We enjoyed what we have experienced and would not contemplate the so called budget end of the cruise market.
Our only experience of Thomson was to pay for one of their so called 'Premium' upgrades on a flight from the U.K. to Barbados.What a waist of money that was.We did complain and their response also left much to be desired,which made matters a lot worse.Perhaps with Thomson you do not get what you pay for.That one very bad experience has put us off Thomson completely.
We have fly cruised twice,but it still cannot beat the superb organisation and lack of airport hassel that you experience at Southampton.
We shall not be fly cruising with anyone in the immediate future and certainly not in Thomsons second hand fleet.

Thanks for your comment 35028pg regarding your experience with Thomson although it was only Thomson fly...

We will never ever go with Thomson again and are hoping you could recommend through your experiece with other companies the best ship and also what was your experiece sailing from Southampton was it a "rough sea"? We are looking at reviws but it is nice to get it direct...Just noted that yes Thomson advertise themselves as Luxury!! The only high end of the markets with Thomson is their prices we went 2 weeks thomson Dream (Nightmare) May/June £3637.00 Including drinks deck 5 outside cabin....never ever again.

We have fly cruised twice,but it still cannot beat the superb organisation and lack of airport hassel that you experience at Southampton.

Have to say I agree. Two years ago we cruised (with Thomson's) from Harwich and it was a lot less stressful than flying. Mind you, there are people who believe the flight is an integral part of the holiday and really enjoy the buzz of an airport. Horses for courses, I suppose.

Also I must defend Thomson's somewhat. We have cruised with then five times and have never had a bad experience. The food, entertainment, friendly crew, ports of call, general cleanliness and value for money are (in my opinion) second to none. They are not for everybody, I admit, and some of the entertainment can be a bit "in your face", but the ships have character and there's nothing better than being remembered by the waiter who served you in the restaurant on the previous cruise!

Dangerman, have you cruised with any other cruiselines. We have cruised 14 times, with 9 different lines (including Thomson and Island). In our experience, with reasonable date flexibility, there is far better value out there on better cruiselines with new(er) ships. This comes often at prices lower than Thomson charge or, at worse, a little more!!

Having experienced this at first hand we would never return to the package cruiselines. This is not to knock Thomson, who offer good cruises (Dream aside, apparently)for those who do not know any better, but simply to point out there is a better way!

Hamrag - no, I have only ever cruised with Thomson's so I appeciate my knowledge is limited. However, we have never been disappointed by Thomson's cruises and have seen no reason to move away from a good thing. We have always been tied to school holidays (my wife is a teacher) and, due mainly to the fact that Thomson's charge child prices up to the age of 16, have found them to be the best value. That said, my "children" are now over that age and I may well look to other cruise lines for next year. Any advice on how to find the best deals will be appreciated!

iv tried 1 other cruise ship and would never go with the big ships again you dont get
the personal touch with the crew you get with thomson

Dangerman, because your wife is tied to school holidays that makes it difficult for good value anywhere!! Not sure your nationality, but we are Scottish and the school summer holidays commence earlier than England, and often good value is to be had because pricing is geared towards the English holidays. We have many times over the years driven to Newcastle or Manchester for flights when the children were travelling with us, and save hundreds of pounds.

The best places to look are websites like:

cruise365.com
smartcruiser.co.uk
iglucruise.co.uk
cruisedeals.co.uk
jetlinecruise.co.uk
cruiseclubuk.com
cruisekings.co.uk

You can sign up for mailing from most of these websites, which gives early alert of any reduced pricing.

Teletext holidays pages 227, 228, 246, 254, 284, 298

You wil not always see good prices but in keeping an eye on all of these you will spot them when they come up. We would often book the cruise separately from flight and get out a day or two before cruise sails. Works out lower cost most of the time, and keeps you in control of flight times etc.

Thanks, Hamrag, I'll add those sites to my favourites and keep my eye on them when we return from this year's cruise. Having cruised the Baltic and both the eastern and western Med, we'd like to go somewhere a bit different such as the Canaries but choice seems to be rather limited during the school holiday period.

We did the canaries in Feb. on NCL Jade and got a fantastic late deal. We paid in dollars the equivalent of £300 each for the cruise and the return flights Barcelona were about £75 each. It is a 9 night cruise, so maybe not possible if half-term only one week.

Has anyone else got recent reports of the Thomson Dream?

We have several reviews of the Dream HERE

luci

Thanks Luci. I am just going into read them.

Well, I'm off on the Dream on Tuesday and I'm determined to enjoy my holiday. It'll take more than a few bad smells and some dodgy air conditioning to stop me having a good time!

I have just had a conversation with one of my customers who traveled on the dream last week and she said she had a fantastic holiday, didn't want to come home she says.
No Smell on board, no plumbing problems for her.

Dangerman Hope you have a fantastic time.

Everyone who did not have a great time. IT LOOKS LIKE THOMSONS HAVE FINALLY DONE IT

Hope that you have a great time Danger man, and look forward to seeing your review.

I have just arrived back from my 7 nights cruise on the Thomson Dream, 3-10 August.
I don't see what you were all moaning about!

The cruise was FANTASTIC. I would happily board the ship in the future without hesitation.

We were in a Deluxe Cabin on Deck 9 and if I had to complain about one thing it would be the noise from the Medusa Ballroom below during the night. (Although we enjoyed our last day as we could hear the Elvis songs clearly!)

0 problems with our toilet
0 problems with our air conditioning
0 problems with public toilets
0 problems with "stuff leaking into the pool"
0 people were sick (That I saw)

The crew were blow-you-away amazing, it's been my first cruise and I wonder if all ships have crew as awesome as the ones on the Thomson Dream. 10/10 satisfaction there.

Now to the problems on the ship, none of which annoyed us to a huge extent but are to be noted in case you are wondering about the latest state of the ship:

* There was a slight smell in the accommodation corridors, however I don't think it was sewage, it didn't smell bad at all.
There was none of this "soot" stuff someone was describing.
* There was a smell of diesel when the ship first embarked from Palma, and when we had to reduce our speed during a repair. Nothing serious, it was only in the stairwells.
* We heard some people complaining about overflow and toilet issues, they were all offered a choice of replacement cabins.
* We missed Tunisia due to repairs on the water tanks, however I do not think this was the case at all, Thomson are missing out Tunisia on purpose. We were offered excursions during the extra day at Palma, and refunded £150.

Any other questions about the ship's latest state please ask.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time on the Thomson Dream, and could see no reason why others have rated this holiday so low.

One extra note, the Orion Resaturant is fantastic. Food absolutely delicious and the waiters top notch, look out for some of their magic tricks!

If you are going on the Dream in the coming weeks, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Sheza, really glad you had a great time.

Looks like problems are being sorted.

A problem that turned into a laugh and was quickly sorted which shows the helpful customer service (I forgot to mention this)

When we checked in, our passports had been swiped incorrectly to our charge cards. When we dis-embarked, the photos were changed around between me and my son! And when I tried to order a beer at the bar, there was an age limit so I had to use my son's card! (He is 14). It was funny all the same and within minutes of popping down to customer services it was resolved.