Au Revoir Thomson?

This morning we booked a 7 day Med fly/cruise leaving next week , our 1st time with P & O. It cost £599 each which we thought excellent value when compared with Thomson's offer of £749 each for 7 days in the Med on the Dream, also leaving next week. It will be interesting to compare the two as whilst we have in the main enjoyed our Thomson cruises, we have noticed a steady decline in value for money over the last couple of years.

Well done rookery. Have a great time. ;) Will be interested to know your opinions. They certainly have some very attractive offers in their current sale!

Mmm, pays to wait for a last minute bargain :)

Looking forward to hearing how P&O compare as have not been on them.....yet!

We've only been cruisers for about three and a half years, our first six were with Thomson and the next two with P&O. Our opinion is that P&O beats Thomson in all areas except crew friendliness and entertainment.

It'll be interesting to hear the OP's views.

Our last cruise was with Princess and that bettered P&O in crew friendliness.

Same old, each line has its plusses and minuses but it's about what suits any individual in terms of perceived value for price paid.

Not been on P&O (yet) but would recommend Princess. Like Thomson, but with newer ships :)

Having asked the question, I thought I'd better answer it. On the whole, a week on Ventura was much the same as on Thomson. Plusses were the obviously more modern ship (although much too big/far too many pax), better cabin and the food in MDR was excellent. Minuses were the impersonal service, anonymous entertainment staff and, the extremely poor cleanliness in the public areas. The outside buffet and bar tables were filthy and we never once saw any cleaning going on inside or out, cabins excepted. The constant attempts to sell us something was an irritation too but Thomson seem to have caught that bug too.

So yes we would continue to cruise with Thomson but only if the price is competitive.

Thank you for reporting back to us Rookery. Your general comments re crew and entertainment coincide with our experience too - good service on P&O, perfectly pleasant but lacking warmth. Celebrity crew were fab by the way but we haven't found any entertainment in the same league as Thomson at least for the shows. Yes we found the food much better too, in fact it's cost cutting on Thomson in this area, particularly the evening meal in the mdr, which has prompted us to try different cruise lines.

Disappointing to hear about the housekeeping though. Thomson do very well on that score and to be fair we didn't find that an issue on the two P&O ships we've been on - but they were the smaller ones.

As you say swings and roundabouts and for each cruise you just have to weigh up the pluses and minuses and take an 'on balance' judgement for your personal priorities. Like you for the right price we still rate Thomson but have also had some wonderful cruises on other ships too and at no greater cost.

Thanks for posting rookery :) As you know I am debating between P&O and Thomson for next February :rolleyes:

I was surprised to hear about the cleanliness issues. I should have thought P&O would have been up to scratch on that given that they have had Noro on ships at various times. (Yes I know all lines get it ;)) When we were on Crown Princess last year we were surprised to find we didn't have to sanitize our hands before embarking as on Thomson, given that they had a massive outbreak of Noro in 2012 and had to abort the cruise after 2 days and go back to Fort Lauderdale for a deep clean. We should have been on that cruise, but cancelled it due to our friend's illness. (It got us in the end though -oops promised not to mention that :o:D)

My worry was whether the people on P&O would be like the people on their cc page and also if I would dare to mention that I had been on 9 Thomson cruises (Dave - you are responsible for that worry :D) Kruzseeka has reassured me that the passengers on P&O are friendly, if not the staff!

We didn't find the other pax unfriendly but it's fair to say that as the ship carries over 3000, we rarely saw anyone twice. I would imagine that the snooty ones might be those who used the separate, paid-for outside deck & bar area. It's a good job we went in term time because apparently it typically has 700 children/teens on board during school holidays. Re the sanitation, there were plenty of hand sanitizers around the ship including on embarkation. We were particularly impressed that the public loos had them with signs asking you to use a paper towel when using the door handle on the way out. I was a little surprised when arriving at one port to hear the entertainment manager publicly boasting that Ventura hadn't had noro but the already docked Azura had.

Far from being 'up market', I felt the ambiance the same as on Thomson except for one occasion when they has some sort of British flag waving arrival - very Butlins in my view.

Far from being 'up market', I felt the ambiance the same as on Thomson except for one occasion when they has some sort of British flag waving arrival - very Butlins in my view.

Ha ha Rookery, they did that on the Sea Princess in the Caribbean, so embarassing ;)

Think we have ruled out Ventura anyway as the itinerary is all places we have been and it has 3 sea days one week! P&O seem to have a lot of sea days compared with Thomson :(

Azura itinerary looks good too, but again 4 sea days in a fortnight. I think Celebration is beginning to look the best option :)

Of course we may decide not to do a cruise at all, and book a week in Agadir or the Canaries :rolleyes: Who knows :confused:

I'm also looking at a land based holiday as a possible alternative to a cruise. Agadir is not everyone's cup of tea but we like it. The weather is always good, wonderful beach and the locals are nice. Marrakesh is great too and even warmer.

We had a week at the Founty Beach in Agadir in February 2009. It rained on my birthday, but the rest of the week was not too bad. We went to Agadir on the Braemar in February and went to the Hotel area. It has a lovely promenade which goes on for miles.

Why is P&O the only alternative??? Princess seems to deliver a much better product at a more than competitive price (notwithstanding that it, like P&O, is a Carnival subsidiary) Or Celebrity or Holland-America? We Americans aren't such terrible company.:p

Why is P&O the only alternative??? Princess seems to deliver a much better product at a more than competitive price (notwithstanding that it, like P&O, is a Carnival subsidiary) Or Celebrity or Holland-America? We Americans aren't such terrible company.:p

It's not, but the OP was reporting on his trip on P&O!

From the UK 14 night fly cruises direct to the Caribbean with typically 9-11 days on different islands are very attractive - which is what Thomson and P&O offer with their ships based in Barbados. The other Thomson ship based in Jamaica offers cruises which include Havana which is also very popular - and not possible to do on American ships. Cruises beginning from the States don't usually offer such lengthy itineraries short of doing b-2-b which often repeat the same PoC, or provide cruises with a comparable number and variety of islands. In my experience cruises from the US aren't so competitive for us to purchase from the UK either. Remember Thomson has its own airline too so that fly/cruises are their stock in trade - which is often reflected in better deals for us.

We have already booked with another line for next year; got a very good deal for a family of 4 (older teens who don't want kids club, climbing walls etc!) sailing with Fred. Went on a mini cruise of theirs in June & had a fantastic time. We're also doing a pre-Christmas mini cruise with them this year on the same ship we will be sailing on next summer so look forward to getting another taste of what's to come. There are also 3 other Thomson cruise fans sailing with us next summer & I know of 4 others who will be onboard who have done a mix of Fred & Thomson in the past.

Have absolutely loved our times with Thomson however they are getting too expensive IMO for families.

I will report back my findings before Christmas!

We have already booked with another line for next year; got a very good deal for a family of 4 (older teens who don't want kids club, climbing walls etc!) sailing with Fred. Went on a mini cruise of theirs in June & had a fantastic time. We're also doing a pre-Christmas mini cruise with them this year on the same ship we will be sailing on next summer so look forward to getting another taste of what's to come. There are also 3 other Thomson cruise fans sailing with us next summer & I know of 4 others who will be onboard who have done a mix of Fred & Thomson in the past.

 

Have absolutely loved our times with Thomson however they are getting too expensive IMO for families.

 

 

I will report back my findings before Christmas!

Look forward to hearing your views, Jules. All helps us to appreciate what's out there and weigh up what we value most from different cruise operators. Have a great time. Not too long now. ;);)

Why is P&O the only alternative??? Princess seems to deliver a much better product at a more than competitive price (notwithstanding that it, like P&O, is a Carnival subsidiary) Or Celebrity or Holland-America? We Americans aren't such terrible company.:p

Having cruised with Thomson, Princess and P&O, in my opinion P&O are head and shoulders over the other two. Thomson are fine but they are no longer competitive on price or the quality of their ships. Princess uses the US dollar not GBP for on board spending and all drinks carry a 15% gratuity charge.

Terry

We have already booked with another line for next year; got a very good deal for a family of 4 (older teens who don't want kids club, climbing walls etc!) sailing with Fred. Went on a mini cruise of theirs in June & had a fantastic time. We're also doing a pre-Christmas mini cruise with them this year on the same ship we will be sailing on next summer so look forward to getting another taste of what's to come. There are also 3 other Thomson cruise fans sailing with us next summer & I know of 4 others who will be onboard who have done a mix of Fred & Thomson in the past.

 

Have absolutely loved our times with Thomson however they are getting too expensive IMO for families.

 

 

I will report back my findings before Christmas!

very interesting to me jules, that you rate/like fred, I think our families are about the same age (older teens) and might enjoy similar things

like you we too are finding it increasingly expensive on thoms for families (kids over 12 years) ....thoms do seem to be going down the adults only route a little bit?

we are very seriously thinking of ditching thoms for christmas next year and booking fred instead, fred go out to the caribbean, the ships are about the same size, reviews are okay and the prices are competitive (for families) ...once we get jamaica & cuba under our belts then we will be looking to book something up in the new year

have a good one on fred jules (& family)... will be waiting avidly to hear all about it and how you (& your kids) rated it from a family's perspective

very interesting to me jules, that you rate/like fred, I think our families are about the same age (older teens) and might enjoy similar things

 

like you we too are finding it increasingly expensive on thoms for families (kids over 12 years) ....thoms do seem to be going down the adults only route a little bit?

 

we are very seriously thinking of ditching thoms for christmas next year and booking fred instead, fred go out to the caribbean, the ships are about the same size, reviews are okay and the prices are competitive (for families) ...once we get jamaica & cuba under our belts then we will be looking to book something up in the new year

 

have a good one on fred jules (& family)... will be waiting avidly to hear all about it and how you (& your kids) rated it from a family's perspective

We're quite excited about the thought of trying something different - will certainly let you know how we get on with the mini cruise.