Thomson Dream? Not according to BBC Watchdog…..
8pm tonight will see the latest addition to the Thomson fleet in the Watchdog spotlight – not the most comfortable place to be at the best of times. Rest assured they will slate her and highlight all her failings to the BBC viewer. Naturally I will be watching, but should people be concerned if they have a cruise booked on her?
When she was launched earlier this year she did have major issues – you only have to look at our ‘Reviews’ webpage to see how bad things were –
“On Thomson Dream 11-25/5/10. We had no cabin toilet for 4 days on the last occasion it wasn’t working for 10 hours at the same time there was only two public toilets working on the whole ship!. It was getting desperate!”
“a smell of sewerage on several decks , flooding on some decks , toilets not working etc”
“In the end an angry party of 200 travellers met in the Atlanta Theatre . First the crew tried to stop the meeting , secondly we demanded to see the captain . He would not meet us and the message passed to the crowd was it had nothing to do with him”
Mmmm, doesn’t sound too good does it? However, if you watch the programme you need to bear in mind that this was filmed in April/May this year so really it is ‘old news’. Thomson accepts that at the time of the introduction of the Dream to the fleet there were ‘some challenges’ but say that this is now behind them –
– “In recent months, Thomson Dream has been operating to the same high standard as the rest of the fleet and the customer satisfaction scores reflect this. For example, in the last 5 cruises, over 97% of customers have rated their overall holiday as good or excellent. The fleet average is 98%, meaning Thomson Dream is now performing in line with expectations.”
I have to say that although Thomson are not the biggest or glitziest cruise line they do, on the whole, offer value for money – local airports, good food, great entertainment, lovely itineraries. They are a popular cruisse line with fmilies and couples alike and I think it is such a shame that they risked their reputation by putting a ship into service before ensuring that she was ready for the job. Let’s hope they can move forward from this episode swiftly.
About Me
I've been a Cruise Consultant for a number of years now and I can honestly say that it is just the best job ever. No two days are the same. I have got to know some fantastic people through the course of my job, both in the industry and clients,…
Read more
Thank you for subscribing!