A Thomson Dream come true?

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Passengers had been expecting a five star break. The company had promised a luxurious and stylish ship - its biggest yet. But passengers who contacted Watchdog after the first few sailings claimed it was tired, creaking and badly in need of a facelift. Passenger Natasha Hopkins told us:

"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 us 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".

Susan also told us about the smell on board: "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".

Susan's partner Dr John Brass added: "It wasn't a holiday, it was a prison sentence".

Perhaps the passengers would have been less surprised at the conditions on board if they had known the truth about Thomson's newest flagship. As we were to discover, the ship isn't actually 'new' at all. The Thomson Dream was built in 1986 and as recently as April it belonged to a different company, sailing under the name 'The Costa Europa'.

We wanted to find out more about this 24 year old ship, so we sent our researchers Farin and Becky undercover on board to find out. From Palma, Majorca they set out on a five day tour of the Med. This was after they had been assured by a Thomson agent about the level of comfort to expect. We asked whether there was a star rating for the ship, and were told by the Thomson booking agent that the ship was five star.

The first stop was their £170 a night cabin, where they found a stained mattress and yellow pillow. Thomson's website says all the cabins have been refurbished, but ours certainly hadn't. In fact, Thomson hadn't even bothered to change the ship's name on the cabin door. It still said 'Costa Europa'. More importantly, they hadn't fixed the air conditioning and everyone we met was feeling the heat. We caught up with honeymooners Chris and Kate Kingsbury who told us:

"The air con is the main thing. It's so hot you just can't enjoy anything... Even walking down the corridor's roasting hot, isn't it?"

After sweltering in our own cabin, we mentioned the broken air conditioning three times to customer services on board. Three days later they were still working on it. Thomson did offer us another room, but its air conditioning was broken too. One member of staff admitted they were being inundated with complaints, and just like the passengers, this wasn't the sort of voyage she'd signed up for:

"I also expected too much when I came here, and I was so disappointed... they said actually it's a refurbished ship but I didn't expect... it's really bad".

Our team were supplied with a fan to help cool them down.

Passengers on previous sailings had also complained about the ship's plumbing and the resulting smell of sewage. People we met on board had also heard the rumours. Karen McIntosh and James Rollingson told us they had been so concerned they even contacted Thomson before boarding. Karen said:

"Thomson promised me that the situation had been largely resolved but it hasn't been, as my nose detected this morning".

James added: "It was quite clear that brown waste water was leaking from underneath the toilet and by that time it had gone all the way around the rim of the bathroom and we had to get the whole thing sanitised."

On our last day on board we discovered another unpleasant find suggesting that the plumbing was far from fixed. Farin said: "We filmed toilets on the top deck near the swimming pool. It was quite bad, quite filthy. Some had towels wedged down the back so that would suggest leaks or plumbing issues at some point".

Perhaps 'plumbing issues' was a bit of an understatement. Watchdog has since heard from other passengers whose cabins were flooded with water and waste from their toilets.

So, broken air conditioning, sewage smells and flooded cabins. Surely Thomson were planning to do something about it - and soon? We spoke to one of the most senior members of staff on board, the Cruise Director. We asked him about the complaints and the state of the ship. He told us:

"Nothing's been refurbished. Thomson took this ship on the 12th of April, they sailed it for the first time on the 22nd April and in 10 days we changed the branding, we changed such and such. We installed quite a lot of different sound equipment for example. And we set sail." When we asked him whether a refurbishment was due we were told "No".

So there we have it. Not only is the Thomson Dream 24 years old, according to the Cruise Director, it's not going to be refurbished any time soon, which is something other potential passengers might want to remember when they next see the Thomson Dream advertised.

Thomson told Watchdog:

Thomson Cruises is naturally sorry to hear that some of our customers did not enjoy their time on board Thomson Dream this summer. The fuller picture is far more positive, however. The majority of our customers have told us that they enjoyed a fantastic holiday with us. For example, 94% of customers rated the experience as good or excellent at the time Watchdog's team were onboard.

Thomson Dream is described in our marketing materials as "new to the Thomson fleet" (which it is), rather than "new" (which it is not). It has never been positioned by the company as being a 5 star ship, and we can only apologise if any of our customers misunderstood the way this was communicated.

We accept that there were some challenges following the ship's introduction to our fleet in April of this year. The Captain and his crew did their utmost to resolve any concerns our customers may have had at the time. Any outstanding concerns have been or are being looked at by our customer services team on a case-by-case basis.

Thomson Cruises is proud of the service record and positive feedback we receive about all our cruises and ships. We are confident that those due to travel on Thomson Dream will enjoy a quality holiday experience in line with their expectations.

Watchdog viewers' responses:

We were on board at the beginning of June and the ship was having major problems. It certainly shouldn't be described as new or refurbished!

There were buckets positioned on various decks together with driers. The smell of sewage was horrendous on the first few days and the carpets along our corridor were stained with who knows what.
The cabins were supposed to have been refurbished but we found no evidence of this, they were extremely dated and had no drawer space, we had to cram things on a shelf in the wardrobe.
The queues for food in the buffet restaurant was worse than being at school. On the top deck part of it was cordoned off while deckhands were caulking between the deck boards. Ceiling tiles were off and workmen doing something up there. A poor couple that we met had gone for their evening meal and when they got back to their cabin they could smell paint and found that the window frame had been painted in their absence, they had to endure a night of inhaling paint fumes.

If 94% of the customers thought that this was acceptable well goodness only knows what type of holiday they have been on previously. We paid full whack for 2 weeks under the impression that this would be a dream 5 star holiday for our Ruby wedding, what a let down. Thomson's have really lost their good name in our opinion!

P and D Smith

Despite your story on the Thomson Dream, I have to say I was very lucky. I went on the dream and found no faults possible; I don't think it was 5* but definitely worthy of 4*!

Stephen

Hi

I have just watched your program and would confirm your findings in respect of the Dream. I too was told that the ship was 'new'. My friend advised me that the ship was not new and when I questioned
the travel agent was told that the ship had been totally refurbished and was 5*.

I also had problems with the air con, the ship not sailing from Palma and missing one destination from the Cruise. There were also problems with the ship listing, which had been an ongoing problem for several weeks, preventing the ship calling at Tunisia on several occasions.

All in all I must have complained about ten separate items and had not even had an acknowledgment to my complaint. I am still waiting for a reply.

Janis Penn

My husband and I went on a cruise on the Thomson Dream in June this year ,

The first thing we noticed when shown to our cabin was the smell of sewage, I went to the service desk to asked to be moved, we were told that there were no available alternative cabins,

The whole of the seven night cruise was blighted by , the smell also our bathroom was flooded , the water was turned off on several occasions, and to really make things worse the weather was awful and we came through a force 11/12 gale , that of course was NOT Thomson's fault ,

The staff seemed unable to deal with the vast amount of complaints , and at no time were we offerd any compensation ,

It was not a dream holiday but hell,

Sue Barry

I went on the Thomson Dream at the end of August, and I can honestly say I found it faultless. I had heard some of the bad stories before I went, so was quite apprehensive as to what my experience would be. However, i did not come across one issue the whole week. The ship was clean, the shows were great and the service was excellent. From a first time cruise I could not have asked for anything better and I will definately be cruising again next year.

Anonymous Watchdog viewer

Dear Watchdog,
I got married earlier this year and a cruise on the Thompson Dream was to be our honeymoon. We set sail on 18th May 2010 and on first appearances we could see that the ship was not as described. We continued on out cruise and when we returned we wrote to Thompson about the problems we had had on the ship (find attached a copy of both letters we have sent (they told us they hadn't received the first). We have recently received a letter from Thompson stating "unfortunately, your letter was outside of the 28 days as per our a-z in the back of the broucher" and with this in mind they are unable to investigate our complaint further.
Our first letter was in the 28 ays time limit it was that they didn't recieve it. We feel that our first trip on a cruise and also our honey moon has been spoiled.
To us it wasn't a Dream cruise it was a smelly cruise with countless problems.
Yours sincerly

Nina & Stephen Dela Warr

I have actually just written to Thomsons to complain about our experiences on Dream - very much following the themes in your report.
Regards

Ian

We went on the cruise liner Dream on the 8th of June and as your program showed it was bad. We complained to Thomsons when we returned home, But were told inThomson,s opinion we got value for money. after watching your programe last night we have been in contact with them again, and now they say they will look into our complaint again.
We will have to wait and see, but this proves your show does work, yours sincerley

Keith Baird

This was our first ever cruise and we had a great time! We went on the "dream" early august and having done some research I was a little apprehensive. The ship isn't new, think late 80's but on the whole clean and tidy. The ship crew were fantastic, evening entertainment 10/10. I'm sure if you spent the whole holiday on the ship you could find many faults but we spent 5 days out of 7 on excursions....isn't that what cruising is about. All in all we found it to be very stress free and relaxing and something we would definitely do again!

Duncan S

Watchdog viewers' responses were received between the 23/09/10 and 29/09/10.