On Board Cinemas

Watergypsy · 08-30-2007, 06:33 AM

For the first time this year, we decided to try the onboard cinema onboard Thomson Spirit late one afternoon whilst at sea, and found ourseves watching a film more suited to our five year old grandaughter, than the mature adults (mainly 50 plus years of age) that this cruises passengers consisted of , as this was an 'adult only' sailing for this voyage.
The seating and surroundings although somewhat smaller than you would find in a local cinema, were very comfortable and well aranged,but out of a fourteen night cruise up to the North Cape, non of the films shown were aimed at an adult only audience, or even a catagory ment to be shown to persons over 12 years of age. Most of the titles were also fairly old releases, the sort of thing that would be stocked in the bargain area of your local video store.

Given that some evenings the main entertainment did not include a 'Showtime'
event, I was rather dissapointed with this, especially as on one night of the cruise the entire lido area was closed to passengers so that the crew could have a staff party, which went on till the early hours of the morning.

In general I felt that the quality of the Thomson cruise experiance had taken a downward turn from that we had experianced on similar cruises with them, and that is why the next cruise we booked on returning home was with P&O, athough we do have one long standing booking with them remaining for May08onboard the Calypso.

J&B

**Ally** · 08-30-2007, 06:44 AM

J&B, it does seem very strange that the films shown were not age appropriate considering the cruise was adult only. The staff party would have annoyed me being in a public area, on Braemar in March/April on my Transatlantic, one of the girls from the spa turned 21 and they had a huge party for her down in the crew mess area. From what she said, it was fantastic, lasted well into the early hours and as it was 'behind closed doors' of the crew areas, none of the passengers were aware of the party nor did it affect access to any part of the ship. I find the use of public areas as party venues for crew is a bit much, as we passengers have paid to be there and should have access whenever possible.

Which P&O cruise have you booked next? I am trying P&O again after some 30 years...my last trip was aboard Canberra and earlier still was aboard the original Oriana (showing the age here

)

Watergypsy · 08-30-2007, 07:19 AM

Hi Alli, we are booked on the Arcadia sailing out of Southampton at the end of September 08, for 23 nights to the Carribbean, via Vigo on the westbound and Madiera on the eastbound, so no long haul flights involved for us!

J&B

Ps, just to add that by Thomsons closing the lido on the area during their staff party, they effectively closed down all the outside seating areas to passengers, as after around 8pm, all the relaxer chairs and sunbeds that were available to passengers along the side decks and the top decks during the day, were stacked up, and stowed away under tarpalines for the night, just leaving the Lido area as tables/seating, and this was during the time of 24hour fine weather and sunshine, at the land of the Midnight Sun. The captain also asked passengers over the pa system to keep away from the area to 'give the hard working crew some privacy'

as far as we know, they were not celebrating anything special.

**Ally** · 08-30-2007, 07:22 AM

The Arcadia cruise sounds superb, J&B

I am doing Artemis Transcanal in November 2008

As for telling passengers to give the hard working crew privacy...that would infuriate me, I'm afraid. The crew has more than adequate crew mess areas down below decks where they can hold their parties. I have never heard of such behaviour before...sorry but I find that deplorable that the captain sanctioned the use of public areas just so his crew could have a party..I would not be a happy person if that happened on a cruise that I had paid good money to be on.

Watergypsy · 08-30-2007, 07:37 AM

Well as the ship was sailing with nearly full capacity, it did make the seating situation rather tight around all the inside bar areas, and prevented passengers in the smaller entertainment area at the stern of the ship from using the patio doors to go outside for a breath of air.
We managed to get a seat in the piano bar at the Bow, which is adjacent to the cinema, and stayed there for the rest of the evening, but we did see some quite elderly passengers who were regular faces around the Lido area in the evenings, returning to their cabins for an early night, rather than battle to find a seat.

J&B

**Ally** · 08-30-2007, 07:41 AM

I find that dreadful and I would make my feelings known had I been onboard. The elderly passengers love to sit out on the fantail in the evening before bed cos it is so sheltered from the breezes. It's a lovely place to be during the evening for all passengers really. If the crew had to have a party, and had to use the public areas, then they should have done it during the day when the ship was in port and the bulk of passengers were off the ship, but there is no reason to effectively close down a well liked and well used area of the ship like that.