Thomsons Celebration

We travelled on the Celebration in June 08 and have recently returned from a P& O cruise. The Celebration comes tops in every aspect - the main one being the staff friendliness - and we will definitely travel on the Celebration again - unfortunately there's less choice of destinations from the UK next year on the Celebration - but we will be happy to try the Thomson Spirit!!

Cruise on Thomson Celebration to the Baltic

This is going to be a very positive report, so let's get the negative things out of the way to begin with.

Firstly, the transfer with Leger coaches was pretty poor. The basic problem is that there is a change of coaches at Scotch Corner en route to the embarkation port of Newcastle. This entails waiting for the connection to arrive, and then transferring one's own luggage from one coach to the other. Apart from the general inconvenience, Scotch Corner is very crowded and busy, and the coach park very small. Lucky it was a hot day - it would be a thoroughly miserable experience if it was raining. So this was not a good start.

We did the Baltic trip last year with Fred Olsen, so we had a measure of comparison.

We began with some reservations, because the trip was significantly cheaper with Thomson.

The 'Celebration' is a recently updated ship and new to the Thomson line. It was the one which had all the bad publicity because its first voyage was curtailed half way through, due to the failure of the vacuum toilets to function properly. So we were prepared for the worst. In fact, although there was a short lived recurrence of the problem, the ship turned out to be fine. The only snags were that the cabin could be pretty stuffy, and that the engine vibration could be more noticeable at times, than one would expect. Otherwise the ship itself was truly first-rate. The cabin was quite spacious and excellently looked after by the equally excellent steward. The public areas were also fine and noticeably spick and span.

Unlike Fred Olsen, the ship dispenses with first and second sittings. This turns out to be a good experience, as you are simply directed to a table where others have also recently arrived. Otherwise, the buffet serves a wide selection of food. Speaking as a vegetarian on a low fat diet who doesn't like spicy food, there was always a good choice, even for me. Really the food was quite outstanding. The chef claims that he will be even better once the ship is settled in (!). By the way, the provision of free ice lemon tea on sweltering hot days on the quay at Visby, was a delight.

I didn't go to any of the shows, as this type of entertainment has never appealed to me at any time. But I must say, everyone else said that they were top class. Far better than P&O according to some.

The various 'enrichment talks' were very good too.

The movies were a good selection of recent releases and classics like Casablanca and Bringing up Baby - something for everyone.

As for the trips, there was a slight air of uncertainty. It would be nice to know what is on offer before the cruise itself, although the selection turned out to be fine. We only did the St Petersburg ones, otherwise wandering about or using local city tours. The port talks, although presented with humour and great enthusiasm, were a bit short on content. One presumes that here, and in the availability of foreign currency on board ship, things will improve when the ship has done more Baltic trips (This being the first one). In several ports the ship was berthed about 20 minutes walk from the main centre. Sometimes there was a free shuttle bus, but sometimes not. This was not a snag unless, of course, you have mobility problems.

How did it compare to the Fed Olsen? Well, things seemed to run a bit more smoothly on that trip. Largely, one suspects because of the accumulated experience. Fred Olsen also had the advantage of stopping at Riga, which created a lasting impression on me. But the Thomson trip certainly scored rather higher in terms of the food and other things already mentioned. Really it was definitely a better choice than our trip with Fred Olsen for two reasons.

First, Thomson's are to be congratulated on their staff who serve on 'Celebration'. They are really friendly and astonishingly helpful. Although it is invidious to mention particular staff, my requests for late evening Weetabix were met by the ever obliging Darius and demands for endless cups of tea by the ever present Bert. Whatever any quibbles above, Thomson's really have this one cracked.

Secondly, the price was £500 cheaper than the Fred Olsen cruise, even though both were of the same length and covered many of the same destinations. Need I say more? Would I go again - you bet!