Last series we featured the Thomson Dream cruise ship after passengers told us about flooded cabins, broken air conditioning and some very nasty sewage smells.
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All this was on a ship that Thomson claimed was new and luxurious. But which, we revealed, was actually 24 years old and simply sailing under a new name...
(Do you have something to say about this story? Tell us what you think by emailing us here. Don't forget to include 'Thomson' in the subject line. Watchdog will publish a selection of viewers' comments underneath each story, both throughout and after the programme is on air. Please remember to include your name as you would like to see it published).
As part of our film, our researcher Farin went on an undercover Med cruise herself, and she's still getting over it. After our report, Thomson changed the wording on their ad, and told us they were putting the ship into dry dock for repairs. They said they were confident that future passengers would enjoy a 'quality experience in line with their expectations'. But it looks like not all of them have enjoyed a quality experience. The ship is about to sail around the Med, but we've heard from passengers who went on earlier cruises in the Caribbean and it seems that whatever repairs were carried out during its six weeks in dry dock, the same old problems came back afterwards.
Sandra Seward and her husband Brian sailed on the Dream at the start of December. They'd never been on a cruise before, and they're unlikely to go on one again. Sandra told Watchdog,
"The first evening on the boat, we got ready for dinner and just as we were going to go out, Brian popped back into the bathroom and it had flooded. In the morning I put my feet to the ground and realised that there was water, squelching through my toes. A few days later, our bathroom was flooded yet again. And also the toilet started to back up. I feel terribly let down by Thomson's".
The Thomson Dream cruise caused even worse problems for fellow passengers Catherine Shand. She told us about some of her experiences.
"Within minutes of leaving Southampton, we discovered water pouring up from the drain on the floor and also the bath. This was brown dirty water. Well, this flooding continued for three days and the final straw was on the third day when I opened the toilet door. I was met with this rush of water which was going at such a rate that I had to run and grab the cases from underneath the bed. Eventually they moved us to a new cabin".
This would have been the final straw, had it not been for problems with the engine too.
"On one occasion when they tried to start up the engine, there was a plume of black smoke and this really caused a lot of distress to passengers as they thought the ship was on fire".
None of these passengers had seen our previous report about the ship. Lots of other passengers had, but unfortunately, that was AFTER they had booked. Watchdog spoke to Bill Griffiths who paid over £4,000 for a holiday on the Dream with his wife and two boys. Bill told us,
"Having seen the Watchdog programme, we telephoned Thomson for reassurances and they assured us that all the problems had been fixed".
This was true, if you weren't worried by things like this...
"We had massive problems with the toilets from day one. It was constantly filling up to the brim. Every day we had to call a plumber out, we think it was over 15 times. With two teenage boys and my wife all sharing the same cabin, it was pretty appalling really. We tried to get moved but the ship was at capacity and we were told that was not possible. And we were always finding queues of people at reception who were complaining. They had been told, as we had, that things had been fixed and they certainly had not been".
Kevin and Judy Goggins were among the unhappy cruisers. Which wasn't surprising, as they had paid over £9000 for their two week family cruise. Kevin told Watchdog,
"On Boxing Day, I was in the bathroom of our cabin and I had a shave and I was cleaning my teeth and I looked down and there was something in the sink which I ran my hand through... I realised then that it was lumps of sewage coming out of the bottom of the sink and an absolutely horrendous smell. After a week, Joe and I, my youngest son, we left the ship to come home and Judy and Dean stayed on in the hope that things would get better".
Unfortunately things didn't get better. There were further engine problems and a fire on board. In all, Watchdog has received complaints from more than 40 other passengers who holidayed on the Dream between December and March. A return trip for them seems doubtful.
Bill Griffiths told Watchdog,
"We went with a major company, Thomson, who'd been trading for a long time and had an excellent reputation. They have no reputation left as far as we're concerned".
Thomson have told us:
Thomson Dream - Caribbean - Watchdog
Thomson Cruises sincerely apologises to those customers whose holidays were disrupted onboard the Thomson Dream in December. The ship has proved to be a very popular addition to the fleet and enjoys exceptionally high customer feedback scores of 92%, but we recognise that on this occasion the quality of these customers' holiday experience fell short of expectations. These issues resulted from a series of unfortunate events that followed the ship coming out of dry dock. All were rectified swiftly and there have been no significant issues reported since this time.
In November, Thomson Dream went into dry dock in Germany for six weeks to undergo major upgrade and repair work. This programme included an upgrade to the electricity generating plant and system, an overhaul of the sewage and fresh water systems, the installation of new toilets in public areas and general maintenance work.
The problems experienced by customers last summer were fully rectified during this time, but despite our best efforts, the ship's extended time in dry dock created some new issues. These only became apparent when the ship departed Germany, when it came to light that some individual air handling units were damaged during the exceptional freezing conditions in Hamburg.
We would like to clarify that this issue with the air conditioning system was unrelated to the problems experienced during summer 2010, which were rectified whilst in dry dock. As soon as our team became aware, an engineer was immediately dispatched to the ship and replacement air handling units were ordered straight away from a UK supplier.
Thomson Cruises can confirm that while there were some plumbing issues onboard Thomson Dream during December 2010, these issues were swiftly rectified and no further reports have been received this year, they were also unrelated to the problems experienced during the summer.
Unfortunately, whilst in the Caribbean the ship also experienced technical issues with its new electricity system which were quickly rectified. In addition, a small fire was also detected in the engine area of Thomson Dream in the early hours of 31 December 2010. The fire was swiftly brought under control. The health and safety of our customers is our number one priority and at no point was it compromised by this incident.
Customer satisfaction is of paramount importance, and at this time we contacted a number of customers due to join the ship, who we believed might be impacted by the issues and offered a cancellation with full refund.
Once again, we would like to apologise to these holidaymakers for the disruption they experienced and would like to reassure customers that all issues have now been resolved. Despite these challenges, the winter season's customer satisfaction scores onboard the ship have been exceptionally high, with 92% rating the cruise overall as either excellent or good for food, quality, entertainment and service, making it one of Thomson's most popular holiday experiences. We are confident that those due to travel on Thomson Dream will enjoy a quality holiday experience in line with their expectations.
Thomson Dream is the flagship of the Thomson Cruises fleet, mainly because of the size and the facilities offered onboard, therefore offering our passengers an element of luxury comparable to our other ships. Although the ship was introduced to the Thomson Cruises programme in April 2010 as the 'newest addition to our fleet', the ship is actually 25-years old. The ship has never knowingly been sold or positioned by the company as a 'luxury' cruise ship.
A ship of this type would normally operate for two to three years between refits, and the Thomson Dream is programmed to cruise in the Mediterranean through summer 2011 and will return to the Caribbean next winter before returning to the Mediterranean in spring 2012.
Thomson cruise - A recurring Dream...
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.
All this was on a ship that Thomson claimed was new and luxurious. But which, we revealed, was actually 24 years old and simply sailing under a new name...
(Do you have something to say about this story? Tell us what you think by emailing us here. Don't forget to include 'Thomson' in the subject line. Watchdog will publish a selection of viewers' comments underneath each story, both throughout and after the programme is on air. Please remember to include your name as you would like to see it published).
As part of our film, our researcher Farin went on an undercover Med cruise herself, and she's still getting over it. After our report, Thomson changed the wording on their ad, and told us they were putting the ship into dry dock for repairs. They said they were confident that future passengers would enjoy a 'quality experience in line with their expectations'. But it looks like not all of them have enjoyed a quality experience. The ship is about to sail around the Med, but we've heard from passengers who went on earlier cruises in the Caribbean and it seems that whatever repairs were carried out during its six weeks in dry dock, the same old problems came back afterwards.
Sandra Seward and her husband Brian sailed on the Dream at the start of December. They'd never been on a cruise before, and they're unlikely to go on one again. Sandra told Watchdog,
"The first evening on the boat, we got ready for dinner and just as we were going to go out, Brian popped back into the bathroom and it had flooded. In the morning I put my feet to the ground and realised that there was water, squelching through my toes. A few days later, our bathroom was flooded yet again. And also the toilet started to back up. I feel terribly let down by Thomson's".
The Thomson Dream cruise caused even worse problems for fellow passengers Catherine Shand. She told us about some of her experiences.
"Within minutes of leaving Southampton, we discovered water pouring up from the drain on the floor and also the bath. This was brown dirty water. Well, this flooding continued for three days and the final straw was on the third day when I opened the toilet door. I was met with this rush of water which was going at such a rate that I had to run and grab the cases from underneath the bed. Eventually they moved us to a new cabin".
This would have been the final straw, had it not been for problems with the engine too.
"On one occasion when they tried to start up the engine, there was a plume of black smoke and this really caused a lot of distress to passengers as they thought the ship was on fire".
None of these passengers had seen our previous report about the ship. Lots of other passengers had, but unfortunately, that was AFTER they had booked. Watchdog spoke to Bill Griffiths who paid over £4,000 for a holiday on the Dream with his wife and two boys. Bill told us,
"Having seen the Watchdog programme, we telephoned Thomson for reassurances and they assured us that all the problems had been fixed".
This was true, if you weren't worried by things like this...
"We had massive problems with the toilets from day one. It was constantly filling up to the brim. Every day we had to call a plumber out, we think it was over 15 times. With two teenage boys and my wife all sharing the same cabin, it was pretty appalling really. We tried to get moved but the ship was at capacity and we were told that was not possible. And we were always finding queues of people at reception who were complaining. They had been told, as we had, that things had been fixed and they certainly had not been".
Kevin and Judy Goggins were among the unhappy cruisers. Which wasn't surprising, as they had paid over £9000 for their two week family cruise. Kevin told Watchdog,
"On Boxing Day, I was in the bathroom of our cabin and I had a shave and I was cleaning my teeth and I looked down and there was something in the sink which I ran my hand through... I realised then that it was lumps of sewage coming out of the bottom of the sink and an absolutely horrendous smell. After a week, Joe and I, my youngest son, we left the ship to come home and Judy and Dean stayed on in the hope that things would get better".
Unfortunately things didn't get better. There were further engine problems and a fire on board. In all, Watchdog has received complaints from more than 40 other passengers who holidayed on the Dream between December and March. A return trip for them seems doubtful.
Bill Griffiths told Watchdog,
"We went with a major company, Thomson, who'd been trading for a long time and had an excellent reputation. They have no reputation left as far as we're concerned".
Thomson have told us:
Thomson Dream - Caribbean - Watchdog
Thomson Cruises sincerely apologises to those customers whose holidays were disrupted onboard the Thomson Dream in December. The ship has proved to be a very popular addition to the fleet and enjoys exceptionally high customer feedback scores of 92%, but we recognise that on this occasion the quality of these customers' holiday experience fell short of expectations. These issues resulted from a series of unfortunate events that followed the ship coming out of dry dock. All were rectified swiftly and there have been no significant issues reported since this time.
In November, Thomson Dream went into dry dock in Germany for six weeks to undergo major upgrade and repair work. This programme included an upgrade to the electricity generating plant and system, an overhaul of the sewage and fresh water systems, the installation of new toilets in public areas and general maintenance work.
The problems experienced by customers last summer were fully rectified during this time, but despite our best efforts, the ship's extended time in dry dock created some new issues. These only became apparent when the ship departed Germany, when it came to light that some individual air handling units were damaged during the exceptional freezing conditions in Hamburg.
We would like to clarify that this issue with the air conditioning system was unrelated to the problems experienced during summer 2010, which were rectified whilst in dry dock. As soon as our team became aware, an engineer was immediately dispatched to the ship and replacement air handling units were ordered straight away from a UK supplier.
Thomson Cruises can confirm that while there were some plumbing issues onboard Thomson Dream during December 2010, these issues were swiftly rectified and no further reports have been received this year, they were also unrelated to the problems experienced during the summer.
Unfortunately, whilst in the Caribbean the ship also experienced technical issues with its new electricity system which were quickly rectified. In addition, a small fire was also detected in the engine area of Thomson Dream in the early hours of 31 December 2010. The fire was swiftly brought under control. The health and safety of our customers is our number one priority and at no point was it compromised by this incident.
Customer satisfaction is of paramount importance, and at this time we contacted a number of customers due to join the ship, who we believed might be impacted by the issues and offered a cancellation with full refund.
Once again, we would like to apologise to these holidaymakers for the disruption they experienced and would like to reassure customers that all issues have now been resolved. Despite these challenges, the winter season's customer satisfaction scores onboard the ship have been exceptionally high, with 92% rating the cruise overall as either excellent or good for food, quality, entertainment and service, making it one of Thomson's most popular holiday experiences. We are confident that those due to travel on Thomson Dream will enjoy a quality holiday experience in line with their expectations.
Thomson Dream is the flagship of the Thomson Cruises fleet, mainly because of the size and the facilities offered onboard, therefore offering our passengers an element of luxury comparable to our other ships. Although the ship was introduced to the Thomson Cruises programme in April 2010 as the 'newest addition to our fleet', the ship is actually 25-years old. The ship has never knowingly been sold or positioned by the company as a 'luxury' cruise ship.
A ship of this type would normally operate for two to three years between refits, and the Thomson Dream is programmed to cruise in the Mediterranean through summer 2011 and will return to the Caribbean next winter before returning to the Mediterranean in spring 2012.
Thomson cruise - A recurring Dream...