We four friends booked Cuban Fusion and a weeks stay in Montego Bay, leaving the Uk in early February.

We booked a direct flight from Newcastle to Montego Bay. A week before departure we were informed that the flight would first go from Newcastle to Manchester for a change of cabin crew. As we live as near to Manchester as Newcastle, if we had realised that that the flight would go via Manchester we would obviously have flown from Manchester and saved two and a half hours of waiting on board a stationary plane. Surely with all their experience Thomsons can sort out their staffing rotas correctly. We eventually arrived at Montego Bay to be greeted by officious immigration staff. We were split from our friends because we stopped to help an elderly couple fill in their immigration form as they were being bullied by a woman member of staff. Eventually we reached the end of the long, humid and dark tunnel to be told by immigration that there wasn't a coach. We asked how long it would be and were given a shrug before the staff disappeared. There was no Thomson rep to offer advice or let us know what was happening. After an hour of uncertainty an old coach with problem gears arrived and we got on feeling tired, hot and generally worn out. On arrival at the ship we were greeted with " you lot are late". What a great start to our celebratory holiday.

As we have been on several Thomson cruises before we knew what to expect and so were not disappointed. The ship and cabin were clean, the staff friendly and hard working and the food acceptable. Havana was amazing, Cayman Islamds expensive and unexciting and unfortunately we were not able to dock in Mexico because of the poor weather and high winds. The hotel in Montego Bay, organised by Thomson, was superb. The flight back was with the Dreamliner direct to Newcastle only reinforced how awful the outward journey had been. Read more