We are first time cruisers and left Glasgow 2.5 hours late on 30/4. The arrival at Palma was straightforward and getting onto the ship was a breeze (I reckon less than one hour after touchdown we were in our cabin). The cabin on deck 5 was much more spacious than we expected and very comfortable, complete with large bed (2 singles placed together to a make a double), a three seat sofa and dressing table and TV.The Dream was excellent and ended up feeling like a comfortable old slipper. Yes there are a few areas looking tired (mainly the window frames) but most of the public areas are pretty smart. The theatre is superb and the entertainment team are brilliant singers and dancers. The mainly Filipino or Indonesian crew are very hard working and friendly and some like Fernando in the Orion restaurant are downright comedians.The choice of food was excellent and you would be hard pushed not to find something to your liking. On our last night we paid £20 per head cover charge and had a 7 course meal in the Grill on deck 11 which was excellent (the snails were particularly good).We did the Genoa, Livorno, Calvi, Toulon, Barcelona tour which was very good although we should have taken a tour out of Genoa which is a 'port' port as is Livorno. The other ports of call are good for a 'do-it-yourself' tour. We did go to Florence from Livorno but the tour guide was not great and after a while his broken English began to grate. Florence whilst magnificent in parts was incredibly busy, a bit dirty and smelly (not what I expected). Oh and lunch was rubbish.We did a cycle tour of Toulon and enjoyed this very much though there were some hairy moments in the traffic! We also did the Gaudi tour in Barcelona but the guide was not great and we left this early. Barcelona is terrific though as is the Sagrada Familia.To the authors of the negative reviews, I offer my sympathies because there is little wrong with the Thomson Dream and I can only conclude they must have some personal issues that therapy might help.