Marella Cruises (formerly Thomson Cruises) is a British cruise line, operated by TUI UK, offering cruise holidays around Europe, the Caribbean, and Asia. Thomson Cruises uses ships once used by Louis Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean International and Holland America Line.
On 9 October 2017, TUI announced that Thomson Cruises would be rebranded in late October 2017 as Marella Cruises, with all of the existing Thomson fleet adopting the name change either from Thomson or TUI to Marella (except Thomson Spirit which will be renamed Spirit and Thomson Majesty which will be transferred to Celestyal Cruises). The line also announced that it would base TUI Discovery in Asia for the Winter season of 2018, with the ship being based out of Malaysia, the first in the lines history.
Video Marella Cruises
History
The company had initially entered the cruise market in 1973, but due to rising fuel costs the venture was terminated in 1976. In 1995, Thomson restarted their cruise line after their competitor Airtours had made a successful entry in the cruise business under their Sun Cruises brand.
Marella Cruises holds approximately a 1% market share of the worldwide cruise industry.
Maps Marella Cruises
Future
On 13 April 2016, Marella Cruises (then Thomson Cruises) announced the next addition to its fleet, the former MS Splendour of the Seas, would be named TUI Discovery as part of the re-brand which will see the whole of Thomson transition to TUI over the next eighteen months. TUI Discovery will be the first of the Thomson Cruises fleet to offer an all-inclusive drinks package as standard.
Fleet
MS Island Escape was added to the Thomson fleet in April 2009, as a result of parent company TUI's acquisition of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.'s share in Island Cruises that took place in 2008. As of March 2013, Thomson operates the Island Escape under its all-inclusive Island Cruises brand.
In March 2015, Royal Caribbean International announced that they had agreed to sell Splendour of the Seas to TUI Cruises in the second quarter of 2016, and that TUI would lease the ship to Thomson Cruises to replace the Island Escape.
In May 2015, TUI Group announced that as part of their modernization strategy, TUI Cruises' Mein Schiff 1 and Mein Schiff 2 would be transferred to Thomson Cruises over the next few years.
In October 2015, the Island Cruise brand was discontinued after the sole ship Island Escape completed her last scheduled cruise with Thomson Cruises.
In March 2017, it was announced that Mein Schiff 1 would join the fleet in May 2018, and would become the TUI Explorer.
In July 2017, Thomson had announced that they would be extending the Thomson Spirit Lease until October 2018, and she will be based out of Palma for 18 April and then based in Malaga from May 2018 with her last cruise being on 21 October 2018.
In March 2018, it was announced that Royal Caribbean Cruises and Ctrip were to close the SkySea Cruise Line brand and that the line's sole ship SkySea Golden Era would join the Marella fleet in place of Mein Schiff 2 which would stay with TUI Cruises.
Current
Future
Former
Accidents and incidents
- On 9 February 2013, five crewmen of MS Thomson Majesty were killed in Santa Cruz de La Palma whilst checking a lifeboat. The lifeboat ropes snapped and plunged 65 ft from the upper deck into the sea. It overturned as it hit the water, trapping them underneath. Three crewmen were taken to hospital, but five others - three Indonesians, one Filipino and one Ghanaian - drowned as rescue attempts were made.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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