Why?

;)

Completely agree with nancyneptune also. Perfectly summarised the issues the loyal customer base is having. Here's hoping something is done.

I'm not sure that anything will be done Sailaway - Thomson seem to be filling thieir ships & are now selling to the Canadian Market at a cheaper price than their loyal UK customers are paying & they don't seem to really appreciate their regular loyal customers. Whilst they can make money with what they are currently doing, why should they change?

We are due to sail fairly soon on the Dream & are really looking forward to it aside from problems I have had UK end getting some definite answers from their Customer Care Department however it will be our last time with Thomson Cruises for a while & we have already booked with another line for next year - the only way I would sail with them again would be to get a rock bottom deal like I had earlier this year by booking last minute.

I've had a look around for these cheaper cruises and can't find any.

But surely if people are unhappy with the quality, the customer service and the price, they will just stop using Thomson's. It's your money, your choices, so use another company and if as many people as said are unhappy, then Thomson's will change or fall as many other travel firms have.

They are trying to squeeze as much profit out of the company as they can in in the 6 years they have left. After 2020 all the existing ships will not be economic to upgrade to the new sulphur emission regulations.

After 2020 it is either modern ships, new builds or no Thomson cruises :eek:

Maybe TUI will build additional 'mein schiffs' for Thomson but somehow I doubt it.

Of on Madge soon so i will see how things have changed in 2 years.

But surely if people are unhappy with the quality, the customer service and the price, they will just stop using Thomson's. It's your money, your choices, so use another company and if as many people as said are unhappy, then Thomson's will change or fall as many other travel firms have.

But I don't think that's what many of us would like to see. :o If Thomson don't heed the reservations of many regarding the direction it has been taking over the last couple of years - fine! They will lose some customers but with a widening market and what seems to me to be over-capacity I think Thomson could have their backs to the wall in which case any loss of custom should be of concern to them.

You are quite right - it is our money and our choice and from reading this Forum for many years, I detect quite a few are voting with their feet and taking their money elsewhere. It is however a source of sadness to me in that the product of old was great, suited us very well for many cruises, but Thomson Cruises has changed. I had hoped, along with others, that Thomson may respond to customer concerns. One aspect of having a forum such as this is to exchange ideas, report what we experience and hopefully provide some feedback. Everyone will decide on their own priorities - if Thomson continue to have the priority for cut-backs then I share Jules view - it will be only excellent deals which will attract me as I feel paying more does not give me value for money when taking the whole Thomson experience into account.

Amerryscot - You could do a 14 night fly/cruise to the Med on the Queen Elizabeth for £1100 (basic cabin) in August. Or our friends have booked an MSC cruise for 10 nights for £499 end of August. Or 14 nights in the Far East on RCL for £1500. OK, before I get shot down, these cruiselines and itineraries may not appeal for all manner of reasons - but there are deals out there which are tempting some of us!

But surely if people are unhappy with the quality, the customer service and the price, they will just stop using Thomson's. It's your money, your choices, so use another company and if as many people as said are unhappy, then Thomson's will change or fall as many other travel firms have.

I think a lot of people on here have tried other lines or a thinking of trying other lines and I have seen several posts saying they will not be sailing with Thomson again. I think Thomson as we know it may fall, but TUI is a huge company and will just adjust to it. Sadly this is indicative of the way Britain is going now, from the selling off of utilities, the fact that we have no industry to speak of, everything is imported, we are in hock to half the world.............I could go on.............another subject though!

As has been said before, I think Thomsons are making a huge mistake in pulling out of ex-UK sailings. Lots of people can't or don't want to fly so need to go from the UK. There are lots of other ships now going to the Fjords, Iceland and the Baltic with similar prices and newer/better ships.

It is such a shame, as when we were looking for a cruise to Iceland, Fire and Ice was by far the best itinerary as it has less sea days and we also visit Lerwick and Stornaway, which helps to stop the long haul up there, which others ships, such as P&O, have.

Regarding the OP's question, I think he is correct about people staying through loyalty, but now wonder if Thomsons give a fig about their loyal customers :rolleyes:

I hope the Thomson CS reps that monitor this site see this.

If you do guys, don't just read it and do nothing, make sure Helen Caron sees it.

There are quite a few Loyal Customers on here and FB that are defecting to other lines. We are your bread and butter, and you wouldn't want us to stop recommending to friends.

I hope the Thomson CS reps that monitor this site see this.

 

If you do guys, don't just read it and do nothing, make sure Helen Caron sees it.

 

There are quite a few Loyal Customers on here and FB that are defecting to other lines. We are your bread and butter, and you wouldn't want us to stop recommending to friends.

Point well made joe!

They are trying to squeeze as much profit out of the company as they can in in the 6 years they have left. After 2020 all the existing ships will not be economic to upgrade to the new sulphur emission regulations.

 

After 2020 it is either modern ships, new builds or no Thomson cruises :eek:

 

louis & fred will suffer the same fate??

louis & fred will suffer the same fate??

Quite possibly geo.

Perhaps the best we could hope for is for the Mein Schiff ships to be passed on to the UK arm and then they can continue with their programme of new build for the German market. Having said that, they do look lovely ships - might not all be bad!

There are a lot of people on here that are loyal to the brand, and I can see why on the whole. Our cruise next week will be our third with Thomson and it is my experience that the first one on the Destiny was excellent, the second, on Majesty was ok but not quite as good mainly because the food went down hill. I am going on Celebration with an open mind. In between these, we did a week on P&O Oceana. Very much enjoyed it and found it very similar to Thomson, perhaps a little better in many respects. We tried Celebrity and without doubt that was the best so far. Outstanding in all respects, which is why we have already booked for next year. So, in my experience I would say try the other lines. Thomson don't have a monopoly and they are no cheaper now than the others, so give it a whirl!

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As a non-UK based customer and non-loyal Thomson cruiser booking our second Thomson cruise I'll throw in my 2 cents (or pence I guess!) ...

We are booking with Thomson primarily for the size of ship (smaller is better for us), itinerary (ports and minimal sea days), we thought the service was great and loved the drinks package when booking early.

That being said, I am frugal by nature and easily swayed by price. For the cruise we are looking at (Croatia Classics) an obvious competitors is the NCL Jade (which we have done and enjoyed) with a similar itinerary out of Turkey (ports in Venice, Split and Dubrovnik). For the cheapest cabin by the time I add in port fees/taxes and the gratuity charges, there is only about $50 Canadian Dollars difference (less than 30 GBP).

The final analysis for us, the price is essentially the same, we can add in the drinks package on Thomson at this point for 70GBP each (very reasonable), it's a smaller ship and has only 1 sea day verses 2 sea days on the NCL Jade.

Not really much interest in cruising on the all singing all dancing floating town.Me and Mrs JTS happy with our lot with Thomson at the mo

I like Thomson as they fly from local airports (in my case Aberdeen).

I also like the cruise and stay aspect and have found by taking the AI option on the ship (either 'free' or low cost £69 per head), one week cruise and one week in the hotel, is very competitively priced compared with a conventional two week holiday in a good quality all inclusive 4 star hotel.

In fairness, there are generally limited holidays on offer flying from Aberdeen and consequently they do tend to more expensive anyway.

I also find a cruise and stay provides greater choice for our requirements, and Thomson does offer a well organised and cost effective overall package.

I like Thomson as they fly from local airports (in my case Aberdeen).

 

I also like the cruise and stay aspect and have found by taking the AI option on the ship (either 'free' or low cost £69 per head), one week cruise and one week in the hotel, is very competitively priced compared with a conventional two week holiday in a good quality all inclusive 4 star hotel.

 

In fairness, there are generally limited holidays on offer flying from Aberdeen and consequently they do tend to more expensive anyway.

 

I also find a cruise and stay provides greater choice for our requirements, and Thomson does offer a well organised and cost effective overall package.

Much the same GlenLivet

Thomson used to be good value for money. However we cruised on the Dream in February this year. We had to go with a Thomson ship because it was a transfer from a Thomson land based holiday. The cost of the cruise per person for an outside cabin was more than what we would have paid for a balcony on Azura with P&O. We were doing the caribbean. We paid full price for the drinks package which worked out around £800 for the two weeks for two of us. However I understand that now there is a supplement for Bombay Sapphire gin on the drinks package. There is also a supplement for Jamesons whiskey which when we last sailed on the Dream in 2012 was included in the drinks package.

The drinks package was a big pull for us as we like to enjoy ourselves however we would certainly think twice about paying full price for it if we ever did the same cruise again.

We are booked on Celebrity Eclipse next may for 7 nights taking advantage of their 123 promotion, from which we picked classic drinks package and gratuities. I understand Celebrity recently revamped their classic drinks package, but because of so much fall out from passengers, they reverted back. I don't think we will need to upgrade to the premium package. The classic package puts Thomson to shame and it does not work out a great deal of difference between the two if you pay full price on Thomson. The standard of drinks on Thomson also left a lot to be desired.

We found the food on the Dream to be mediocre at best. Our waiter who we met on a previous cruise, and his assistant, looked after us extremely well and the staff in the outside bar where we went every evening also gave us fabulous service. However a lot of the other staff were dour, miserable and at times downright rude. The entertainment team were young and so far up their own backsides it was untrue, some of them came across as extremely arrogant.

Therefore you can see why we are not in a hurry to go back, although we would love to see Jodel, Crispin, Neil and "Socks" again...I somehow doubt that we will :(

Of course this is my personal opinion. Friends have recently come back off the Majesty and they too have said no more Thomson for them...its a shame because Thomson go to some great places on their cruises and do tend to stay longer in port than a lot of the other cruiselines. However overall they have just declined too much of late for us to consider them again.

It's the staff, food, ports of call, fewer sea days, smaller size ship, but above all it's the flights from local airports that keep me sailing with Thomson.

I would hate to have to fly from Manchester ever again, and as for London airports- err no thanks.

Give me the relaxed atmosphere of little airports such as Doncaster or East Midlands, less than an hour from home with airport hotels with parking on site, every time.

Flopsy

I agree with Flopsy, if we can't fly from Glasgow or Edinburgh then we won't be going!

I like Thomson as they fly from local airports (in my case Aberdeen).

 

I also like the cruise and stay aspect and have found by taking the AI option on the ship (either 'free' or low cost £69 per head), one week cruise and one week in the hotel, is very competitively priced compared with a conventional two week holiday in a good quality all inclusive 4 star hotel.

 

In fairness, there are generally limited holidays on offer flying from Aberdeen and consequently they do tend to more expensive anyway.

 

I also find a cruise and stay provides greater choice for our requirements, and Thomson does offer a well organised and cost effective overall package.

Totally agree with your points

We book because we like the cruise and stay option ( we also have AI in our hotel ) which we have done a number of times now and have managed to get free AI on most of the cruises we have taken ( have free AI for next year and have only paid the minimal amount for this year) . We like the itineraries and the fact that there is only 1 day at sea and also that the time in port is generous. We sail on the Majesty next week so will review on our return.

Yes the ships are sometimes a little dated but they are compact and as someone else said this allows Thomson to go into some ports that bigger ships cannot access. I have yet to not see someone painting or cleaning an area of the ship when in port and have always found the staff to be amongst the most friendly around.

We tend to also do the Thomson excursions at the more popular ports and whilst they can be expensive they do guarantee the ship cannot sail without you !! . We can attest to this as the coach bringing us back to the ship in Villefranche from Monaco broke down and 2 hours later we were getting on the tenders which had been waiting and the ship then sailed with us and the other 50 passengers on board with only a 45 minute delay to their leaving time.

As we always do AI we then find we are only paying for drink supplements if we want to , trips and any other extras we may want to on board.

The whole point for us on our holiday is not to penny pinch and enjoy ourselves which is after all what we save all year for :)

I agree with Flopsy, if we can't fly from Glasgow or Edinburgh then we won't be going!

What have you got against Aberdeen ? :)

Edinburgh for us at a push Glasgow. . .Aberdeen,no although love the place

WCM, nothing against Aberdeen as such (spent my honeymoon there:eek: and daughter-in-law is from there) but just a wee bit to far to drive. If it was all that was available I would be happy to go there, hubby not so keen.

Jim, Edinburgh was my preferred choice until a month ago when we returned from Majesty cruise and stay. Due to Passport control holdups, (despite having new passports with chips in them), waiting ages for luggage, almost getting trapped in a corridor between two security doors which closed automatically because some stupid woman tried to re-enter the baggage claim area to find her hubby who had dared to go to the toilet without telling her! Then it was pouring with rain and they have moved the stances for the airport parking buses to pick you up much further away from the exit so we got soaked and then the first bus was full and we had to wait in the rain till he came back again! On top of all that the traffic was nose to tail all the way to the Forth Road Bridge.

I now prefer Glasgow!:D

No flights from any Scottish airports for the Caribbean on the Celebration and that includes the Transatlantic crossings in November and April.

No flights from any Scottish airports either for the Transatlantic on the Dream in April 2015.

Departures from Edinburgh and Aberdeen only available for European cruises from May - October.

Looking at P & O and Fred once again.

No flights from any Scottish airports for the Caribbean on the Celebration and that includes the Transatlantic crossings in November and April.

 

No flights from any Scottish airports either for the Transatlantic on the Dream in April 2015.

 

Departures from Edinburgh and Aberdeen only available for European cruises from May - October.

 

Looking at P & O and Fred once again.

Aberdeen suddenly looking better!:)

Aberdeen suddenly looking better!:)

Never been to Aberdeen......but could definitely recommend Fred :)