X-Ray investigation: Thomson 'Dream' cruise turns sour
Post categories: coming up on X-Ray,Ìýholidays,Ìýstories
| 16:55 UK time, Monday, 5 July 2010
They promoted it as the pride of their fleet. Spacious, stylish and modern and their biggest and most luxurious ship.
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Rachel Treadaway-Williams
So the holiday makers who'd booked a Mediterranean cruise on board Thomson's newest acquisition - The Thomson Dream - expected nothing less than the best.
Maria and Andrew Challenger, Maria's daughter Cerys and her boyfriend Alex, had been planning their holiday for months.
Although Maria and Andrew were veteran cruisers, this was the first time Cerys and Alex had taken to the water.
Cruises don't come cheap - Maria and Andrew's fortnight in the Med cost more than £3,500. Alex and Cerys were on holiday for a week and paid over £1,700.
But even as they boarded the ship - there were signs that the plumbing system wasn't working as it should. Andrew said, 'the smell, you couldn't describe it, it was raw sewage'.
Despite the awful smell on board, the family tried to make the most of their holiday, escaping the stench of the ship with excursions in some of Europe's loveliest cities. But after a few days at sea, the smell became unbearable, along with stained carpets across the ship.
During the week the toilets overflowed with waste from other passengers rising up through the system and ending up on the holidaymakers' bathroom floor.
For Cerys things got particularly horrific: "We were just going into the restaurant, I felt something drop on my arm and turned to see what it was. It was sewage, you could smell it, it was in my hair, it was on my clothes, in my mouth. It was just horrible, vile."
And it wasn't just the Challengers having a terrible experience. On internet forums, dozens of other passengers have described their nightmare on the waves.
So what were Thomson doing all this time? They sent a letter to passengers from the ship's captain apologising for the unpleasant odour on board and saying they were trying to eliminate it. They also took the unusual step of sending a letter from their MD, asking holiday makers to request compensation from Thomson's customer service team on a case-by-case basis.
Both couples have put their complaints in writing and waited weeks for a response from Thomson. X-Ray asked travel lawyer Mark Harvey for his advice.
Mark believes there is a clear breach of contract, under the package tour regulations. He said that everything you see in the brochure forms part of the contract.
He told Rachel Treadaway-Williams: "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."
And the Challengers aren't the only unhappy customers - hundreds of passengers, including twenty Welsh families are now considering legal action.
In the meantime, Thomson have apologised and say they're dealing with complaints swiftly. Their engineers and crew worked around the clock to solve the problem, but say they never claimed that the Dream was a brand new ship - although their own video describes it as their 'new flagship' [!I would lose the exclamation mark]
Julie Barratt is an expert in environmental health. She thinks that the Challengers' experience gives real cause for concern. This was on a ship, but if a similar incident happened on land, environmental health officers could take action.
Julie commented, "There is a real risk to passengers' health if they are coming into contact with sewage. If the ship had still been in port, things would have been very different. The port health officers wouldn't have allowed it to leave until they were quite satisfied that the conditions on board didn't pose a risk to health."
"The master of the ship is in charge of hygiene and conditions when the ship is at sea. He should forward a form to the destination port advising them if there are any problems which may compromise public health so that port health officers can meet the ship when it arrives to review the conditions."
Comment number 1.
At 6th Jul 2010, janet wrote:We are due to go on this ship in September for my 60th Birthday so it is a special cruise. Was this ship inspected when it reached port after its journey? When did these passengers travel? I was told by my travel agents that it was a brand new ship, hence I booked the holiday.
Could I please have a response as soon as possible as I have to pay for the holiday by the 20th of this month.
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Comment number 2.
At 6th Jul 2010, doctor diamond wrote:I'm due to go on the Dream in August and so have quite an interest in this story. Fortunately, the more recent reviews are much more positive and it would appear that Thomson's now have the problem under control. Sadly, this is small comfort for those who were affected during the first few cruises. But I'm intrigued - the ship holds over a thousand people. Were they all unhappy? I'm surprised that more people haven't raised concerns with the national press.
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Comment number 3.
At 7th Jul 2010, janet parry wrote:myself and my two friends sailed on the thomson dream (nightmare) on 25th may for my 50th birthday(on my 50th birthday) and my friends birthday later on that week ,we had two horrific weeks on board,we spent the whole first week having to use a cabin on the other side of the ship to use the loo, or have a shower, as our loo and shower didnt work, we sufferd the same smells bad tummies, banging from the men working all night, sewage flooding our cabin, especially if we tried to use the shower, we are dealing with a solicitor who up to now are dealing on behalf of 650 peoples claims,
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Comment number 4.
At 11th Sep 2010, l clements wrote:10/09/10
Just arrived back from a week on the Thomson Dream, believe me it was a no Dream but a nightmare! I so wish I had found this site before travelling! The cruise was miss sold as it had not docked in Tunisia for 12 weeks. The photos of the deluxe cabin we booked was way below expectations, the bathroom was tired and grubby, with a vile stench coming from the sink through the cabin, and often blocked. Air conditioning not working either freezing cold or roasting. Toilets on deck 8 and 11 not secured to the floor making them dangerous these where either blocked or overflowing. Staff at customer service very unhelpful and didn't seem to be interested in the needs of the passengers.
We are in the process of putting in a formal complaint and as we saved hard for this crusie we feel that we were cheated out of our holiday.
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Comment number 5.
At 22nd Sep 2010, angie hardy wrote:We went on the thomson dream for our honeymoon on 27th July 2010, when we first got onboard and was shown to our room the carpet was completely wet through so we went to complain and had to be moved. Then the captain annonced we had to change our first port of call as we had to get fresh water onboard as they was a problem. We then had to stop at another port all day and not go anywhere as they had to get the engineers in to fix our water problem so they cancelled us going to barcelona. When we got back and complained we was told by customer services that if we looked at our terms and conditions the captain can change the iternary at any time. I would not recommend anyone to go onto this ship.
Angie and Matt Hardy
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Comment number 6.
At 14th Oct 2010, Albert wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 7.
At 20th Oct 2010, cat wrote:We have just come off the Thomson Dream, it was amazing! food was brilliant, entertainment was great, service was excellent,and ship was clean and tidy. We had no problems but if there were then it was solved immediately by friendly staff!I would definitely recommend this ship
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Comment number 8.
At 24th Apr 2011, dave p wrote:Saw your programs on the thomson dream ship scared me, but I and 7 friends have just come back from 7 days on the dream and we had a very good time excellent food, staff extremely pleasant and polite only problem I have put on roughly a stone in weight, nice cabin on the 9th deck super bed, good entertainment thoroughly recommend it, only niggle finding sunbeds was hard, plenty of them but occupied. shame the airport let them down both here and in Palma almost two hours to check in at gatwick and about the same at palma coming back( the check in machine broke down.
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Comment number 9.
At 13th Jun 2011, mac wrote:[Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator] Wow!Really its dream come true to achieevd that you wanted.Cruise looking great combination of class n luxury.I always dreamt about such awesome locations to visit.You you work passionately for something to gain that will become successful..
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