Irwin Mitchell has been contacted by a number of guests who stayed onboard the Thomson Dream cruise liner during the months of May and June 2010. We have received complaints concerning the poor conditions onboard the Thomson Dream including complaints about the toilets becoming blocked and overflowing which resulted in raw sewage leaking onto the deck and into some of the cabins. There are also reports that food served in the buffet resturant was undercooked on occasions and not served at the right tempreture. Some of the guests have also instructed us that they have suffered from suspected Campylobacter bactor, which is a bacterial organism that causes diarrhoea, cramping, abdominal pain, and fever in people who are exposed to it.

Should anyone require any assistance or advice about making a claim against their Tour Operator please contact the legal team at Irwin Mitchell by telephone on 0121 214 6573 or 0870 1500 100 ext 5056.

For more information about the Group Action we are making please visit our holiday claims website.

Reviews from those returning from the Dream in the past couple of weeks have been positive. This obviously doesn't excuse the problems people had earlier in the year but at least it's some good news for those of us who will be "Dreaming" in the next few months!

Well surprise surprise! no contact from Thomson's today!
Although I was promised a call today, NOTHING, but then I am not that surprised.
I got stranded with the "ash cloud" in April and Thomson's dealt with that, very quickly and efficiently and I have no complaints with them over that issue, just the opposite in fact, but "the Cruise issue" I have a totally opposite feeling towards them. Very poor after service.

Has anybody who has travelled on "The Dream" in the early days and complained to Thomson's heard anything back, I have been waiting 6 weeks for a reply, still nothing, but hoping to hear something tomorrow.
Just interested in hearing what offers/apologies/compo have been offered to other cruisers.
Cheers

If you look at some of the other cruise forums (not sure if I'm allowed to mention them here) you will see lots of comments about the Dream, some good some bad. Quite a few people have had responses from Thomson's and have also received compensation. Probably not as much as some of these "no win no fee" legal firms would have you believe is possible, but it is clear Thomson's are slowly but surely taking action.

have set my Sky+ for the programme (it's on BBC wales) and will watch with interest.

The programme didn't tell me much that I didn't already know and certainly didn't give me any more reason for concern. I'm encouraged by the reviews that the Dream is now getting and am really looking forward to 10 August!

I very much hope that the ship has now improved and that you have a brilliant cruise. If you don't at least you know that Thomson don't care and you wont get anything back.

I very much hope that the ship has now improved and that you have a brilliant cruise. If you don't at least you know that Thomson don't care and you wont get anything back.

Thank-you, I hope I do enjoy my cruise. I am certainly going with a positive frame of mind

As for getting money back if I am dissatisfied, comments from cruisers on one of the other cruise forums seem to suggest that Thomson's have been paying compensation to those with genuine complaints. As I said earlier, it may not be as much as some of the compensation lawyers would have you believe is possible (they invariably take a cut from any compensation paid out) but it is probably commensurate with the losses actually incurred. My advice to anyone in this situation would be to go to the small claims courts if they get no luck with Thomson's; leave the bloodsucking lawyers well alone!

Danger Man

And if it's on a no win no fee basis i would stick with them, i have been offered a small amount and in vouchers, i was told that would be the maximum So i think i will go with the solicitor.

Its a lot of hard work and cost to take it to a no claims court.

You do have a opinion on everything and you hav'nt even sailed yet, as i said before don't knock us, as you hav'nt experianced what we have and until you do you carn't really comment.

]You do have a opinion on everything and you hav'nt even sailed yet, as i said before don't knock us, as you hav'nt experianced what we have and until you do you carn't really comment.

Not sure if that's a compliment or just plain rude!

I've never doubted that people have had bad experiences on the Dream and I agree that they should seek compensation from Thomson's. If you have been offered vouchers then you should say "no thanks" and hold out for compensation in cash. Read this advice from a travel lawyer:

The package tour regulations say if you didn't get what you bargained for, you're entitled to be compensated to the extent that you didn't get part of the holiday or that your enjoyment was spoilt. It's important to remember that they're entitled to compensation; they don't have to accept vouchers, but if they can't reach an agreement with Thomson the only thing they can then do is to go to the small claims section of the county court.

It takes very little cost and effort to go to a small claims court; I have done it myself on a couple of occasions, although not holiday related claims, I admit. My experience with compensation lawyers acting on a no-win no-fee basis has not been good. They make ludicrous promises of the sort of compensation you could receive, drag claims on for ever and a day and you end up receiving little more than you would have done in the first place. Why are they advertising on this forum for people to come forward? Because they know the more takers they get, the higher the value of percentage they can take.

Message received with thanks. Will have a look

Seven weeks after returning from our cruise, I have finally heard from Thomsons, and they have offered me????, WAIT FOR IT!!!!

A DERISORY £100 IN VOUCHERS!!, off a future Thomsons/First choice holiday!! but they are valid for a full 18 months!! whoooopeee doooo

Less than 5% of the cost of our cruise!

I am not a "happy bunny"

You should get back to them immediately and say you are not happy. I can't comment on the amount (although I know from other forums that people have been receiving £200 in cash per person) but you should not have to accept vouchers in place of cash.

Its a mega amount of money, you do not have to except the compensation in vouchers unless you paid for the holiday in vouchers which I assume you paid cash?

I have been advised not to accept the first offer go back to them with a refusal. Good luck.

Hi edinmac
Danger man is right don't accept this first offer, if you can wait, I had to wait 14 months similar problem on Destiny but i finally won over 50% first offer was nothing then £50 etc etc, but i am still travelling with Thomson as they provide the type of cruise we like and have booked the Dream for next year, this was prior to all the problems which i hope will be sorted for when we go .
Good luck
Roger

Don't worry I will be refusing that! I did expect a minimum of 10%, which if offered in vouchers we would definitely refuse. I think we deserve 50% in cash, and that is my target.

The ship was just not ready to go to sea when we sailed and spoilt our long awaited first cruise, and it has put us off crusing, even though everyone said crusing is much better, and usual Thomson cruises are much better and come highly recommended by Thomson cruisers,

We honestly thought before we went we would be hooked on crusing, but that just isn't the case now, (but never say never) and we aren't complainers in general, we are a very easy going couple, and well travelled, but "The Dream" just did not live up to it's billing and we feel very short changed, even angry, by this offer!.

It's difficult to say what would be reasonable compensation. If you assume that a cancelled cruise would give you 100% compensation and then reduce this for the things that did go right (eg did the ship go to all the places that the brochure said it would?), you may end up with a figure that is reasonable.

I am still waiting for my cruise and although I am encouraged by recent reviews, I shall certainly be taking the matter further if it does not live up to the standard of previous cruises with Thomson's.

The cruise did have it's good points, and I am sure it has improved and will continue to improve, and good luck to all who have future bookings.
The cabin was an excellent size and better than expected, (except for us the aircon wasn't working and of course the plumbing caused problems)
The Orion restaurant was excellent with quality food, we would recommned you eat there every night, (the wine/drinks waiters were quite slow, and all through our cruise the staff didn't appear fully trained and didn't know where things were when asked for them) but that should be resolved now and everyone fully up to speed.
The other restaurants were ok, but poorly designed/lay out, leading to queues and sometimes the food wasn't that hot, but hopefully that will be sorted out by now.
The gym was very good with excellent equipment for a weeks cruising/keeping fit, and there were 2 good sized swimming pools. ( an acute shortage of sun loungers and space when we cruised, and very unsightly portacabins/containers occupying sunbathing spaces)
The entertainment was ok at the start of the cruise and improved and became excellent as the very cruise went on.
But all the other major problems over rode everything, else, and really spoilt what would otherwise have been an excellent time aboard

Having just returned , 6/7/10 to 13/7/10, from cruise on the new Thomson Dream

From what I read from Thomson's publicity and Thomson's sales staff who we spoke to last year on the Thomson Celebration, The Thomson's Dreamship was a big let down. We believed we were going on a newly refurbished ship but we found out the ship itself is 25 year old and the decor confirmed this.

We were located near the rear of the ship on level 5 and had to suffer the smell of diesel on three separate occasions when the ship re-fuelled. The diesel smell woke me up and you could taste it in your mouth. My wife was sick one morning because the smell was so strong.

The smell of the diesel was also very strong all day on desks 9 and 10 when it was docked at Barcelona.

Also at the rear of the boat soot regularly (every day) came out of the boat chimney and landed on customer's clothes, towels and outside tables were people ate. I personally saw a large piece of soot, as big as a golf ball land on a man's foot. Our towels

The decks were washed each evening most likely to wash away the soot

Unlike many of the comments I thought the choice of ports was poor. We never got to La Goulette in Tunisia because we were told that the port in La Goulette could not provide us with fresh water. Instead we were re-routed to Cagliari in Sardinia, which angered a lot of guests. Not much to see in Caglairi. Naples was not better, road dangerous to cross, dirty and lots of pick pockets. My wife spoke to an elderly couple who had been pick pocketed100 yards from the ship and only got their money by shouting for the police. We heard of other incidents as well. Next we went back to Obia Sardinia, again nothing to see. We did however like Toulon and Barcelona but most of the shops in Toulon (Sunday) were shut and we were warned by Thomson's that to be careful of pick pockets in Barcelona.

Sorry but Thomson's have been sold a dud from Costa cruises. The ship is old and full of faults.

All the negative publicity has to be doing Thomson's harm but no one from Thomson seems to be doing anything about passengers concerns. We complained to the Customer Service desk about the sewage smell on the decks 9 and 10 which was there all day and made you want to boak if you breathed through your nose.

Why was there no senior management of Customer Services manger walking around the ship addressing the issues ?????.

The Customer Services desk was poor, they need to record all complaints and provide each customer with an incident number and a resolve the issues raised like all proper Customer Services organisations

Other complaints, we spoke to a young couple who were on their honeymoon whose toilet only worked twice all week, another couple had no air-conditioning, another couple's room was under the disco which went onto the early hours of the night, another couple got no sleep because they room was beside the engineer room and the cold water went off for 10 minutes when I was having a shower.

As for the entertainment, food and service similar to the other Thomson cruises. Rooms were larger and better equipped.

Its all down to luck, if you get a good room with no faults and located in the right part of the ship but if you encounter problems then your are stuck. The Ship is full and you will not be moved.

Personally I liked I doubt if I will ever go back on the Thomson Dream. It should never have been put into operation until it was in good working order.

If I was to give the Thomson Dream ship a quality rating, it would only get 3 stars. My holiday was not a complete disaster because we met a lot of nice people but the ship should never had been allowed to go into service until the problems had been resolved

SHAME ON THOMSON'S !!!!!!!!!!!

Hi and welcome to HT!

Sorry to hear you had such a miserable time.

If you haven't done so already, it would be appreciated if you could copy and paste your review to our Cruise Reviews site, link at the top of the page.

luci