We have now completed our 2015 cruise and we had the most fantastic time!

But we didn't like this....

Thomson Celebration Ship Judder

The Thomson Celebration being an old ship launched in 1984(?) has a very unpleasant judder to it. I was told it is caused by the revolutions of unbalanced electrical generators(?)

I did notice a slight judder on the Thomson Destiny back in 2011 on our first cruise
but this was only whilst  static in a port.

The Celebration has almost a constant judder all of the time and everyone was talking about it.
I thought that maybe it was something to do with the previous week's engine problems which caused the ship to spend an extra day in St Kitts and miss out on its Antigua visit. But I was told by an engineer I spoke to that it had been there since ever he joined the ship many years ago and nothing could be done to solve it.

It was most noticeable when Gillie and I got into bed at night as the judder rocked you back and forward approximately twice a second. It felt like you had run 5 miles flat out and your heart was frantically racing.

For the first few nights it was very difficult to get to sleep because of it. It was also very noticeable in the Broadway Show Lounge - especially if you were sitting in the middle of the theatre. Looking up you could see the stage lights moving.

When out on the Promenade deck you could also see its effects on the tummies of sunbathers as the larger ones would visibly wobble like a jelly! You could also see ripples in glasses of drink up on deck 9 in Horizons bar.

I took some video of the judder in our cabin and as you can see it is pretty prominent. I laid my phone charger cable over the settee to see if it would swing in sync. What actually happened was that the judder caused my hand to rock whilst holding the camera, and I thought that this was much more of a graphic demonstration.

Keith my drummer had a single cabin on deck 2 near the back of the ship. Keith will put up with an awful lot of discomfort before he complains, but he said the vibration was much worse down there with the engines being so close and the noise was unbearable. He tried using earplugs which didn't seem to make a great deal of difference. I went down there to listen and he wasn't exaggerating! There was also a smell of fumes too.

Without trying to spoil your enjoyment and alarm those of you who are looking forward to your forthcoming cruise, I would say that this is definitely a problem but one that you may probably get used to and not let it affect your enjoyment of your holiday. I certainly hope it doesn't.