This was our first ever cruise and we were excited about going on the Thomson Dream, their new flagship. We were never led to believe it was a brand new ship so no disappointment there. Palma airport was a problem - as has happened on a previous occasion we were sent to the wrong baggage reclaim which caused a slight delay. The transfer from coach to ship was a little slow as all the luggage had to be scanned again before it could be loaded. We went off to eat and by the time we had finished, our luggage was outside of our cabin. We were then able to go off and walk around Palma for a couple of hours which was nice.
We enjoyed the Theatre shows and the guest comedian, Maxwell Plum was hilarious. He appeared on two separate occasions. The music in all the other bars was also good. In fact with having so many late nights we came home in need of another holiday. As everybody has previously commented, the staff were extremely polite and attentive. The talent show put on by the staff 'Dream's got Talent' was exceptional. There is a lot of talent aboard the ship!
With regard to the restaurants there is a major problem with the organisation of the food in the Andromeda restaurant. It is mainly in one long line and people are not able to bypass the cold food if they only wish to eat the hot food. It just seemed as though we were pushing in. Salads and cold meats need to be elsewhere. I don't know if there is an answer to this due to the initial design. Bearing in mind the majority of passengers are British the cold meats were unimaginative, the sort you expect to find put out for German people in a holiday resort. There was a reasonable choice of hot food and the daily hot sweet was usually good, ie. A pudding of some sort. The Orion restaurant which has waiter service is far superior without the added charge which is applied by the Grill Room. It was good to see that although chips were available they were not very obvious to us as they were to be found on the outside deck, along with the burgers for those who fancied that sort of meal. Cold sweets were not too special but the cream teas served in the Ballroom and the Sirens in the afternoon were lovely, with delicate sandwiches and miniature scones as well as a selection of other cakes. My one disappointment was that there was an obvious lack of my favourite tomatoes at any mealtime. After all this is the Mediterranean and on land they are in abundance everywhere. Maybe they don't travel so well - loved the fried eggs though. They were cooked to perfection for me.
The ship's facilities were as clean as could be expected and our inside cabin was exactly as shown in the brochure and nice and quiet. One nice touch was that as well as plump pillows, there were two large cushions for sitting up in bed. I nearly always need to request an extra pillow. The storage drawers were also quite adequate. Yes, we did experience the diesel smell on most mornings when we were docking but it was bearable. It was never our intention to spend much time in the cabin. It was just somewhere to sleep. Our bathroom remained clean and fresh as did most of the public toilet areas I visited. The air conditioning was perfect for us. The safe was slightly temperamental and on the one occasion we could not unlock it, the problem was solved immediately by customer services. I accidently briefly beeped the smoke detector when I used my hair straighteners on damp hair, so be warned!