A MAN who says his holiday became the “cruise from hell” thanks to an overpowering stench of sewage is furious at his compensation – a discount on another holiday.

Peter Lovesey and his wife Rachel were among the passengers who complained of soaking wet carpets and the smell of sewage when they boarded the Thomson Dream earlier this year.

The ship’s first Mediterranean cruise with Thomson has already featured on the BBC’s Watchdog.

Some passengers thought they were boarding a brand new ship, when the ship was only new to the Thomson fleet. A cruise director later told an undercover Watchdog researcher that there had been only 10 days between the company taking ownership and sailing the ship.

Mr and Mrs Lovesey flew from Bournemouth to Majorca to join the cruise. They boarded to find a letter saying there were “issues with the plumbing system”.

“The smell was absolutely horrific,” said Mr Lovesey. “People were queuing up and complaining.”

“It was a disaster. We slept two nights on deck due to the smell.

“We were eventually moved to another cabin, but that made no difference. It was the cruise from hell.”

He said they booked as many local tours as they could during the trip.

“We couldn’t wait to get off to do our tours – the thought of going back on the ship was depressing,” he said.

“We left most of our belongings on ship due to the smell getting into our clothes.”

After the trip, Mr Lovesey says he was eventually told to expect a cheque in compensation – but was sent a £100 voucher towards another Thomson holiday.

In a letter, the firm said it had been “confident” the ship would be ready for its first cruise.

“However, a number of factors which were outside of our control caused severe disruption to the plans we had in place to ensure we were totally ready for this date,” the letter said.

It added: “I’m sorry if you believed this was a brand new ship. It was never shown as such in our brochures or on our website. It is always referred to as a new ship, as it is new to us.”

Customer satisfaction questionnaires showed some aspects of the cruise were “performing above our expectations”.

In a statement to the Daily Echo, Thomson Cruises confirmed there had been “plumbing-related issues” on the cruise and staff had worked round the clock to fix them.

“We can confirm that these issues have been resolved and we would like to take this opportunity to apologise to Mr Lovesey should this have affected his holiday in any way,” it added.

A “gesture of goodwill” had been offered on board and the £100 voucher was a “final gesture of goodwill offer”.