Thomson Cruises

Thomson Cruises

Industry	Transport
Founded	1973
Key people	David Burling Managing Director
Products	Holidays, cruises
Parent	TUI Group
Website	www.thomson.co.uk/cruise

MS Thomson Spirit in harbour in the Canary Islands in April 2005

Thomson Cruises is a British cruise line operated by Thomson, that offers cruises around Europe with ships from Louis Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean International and Holland America Line.

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.

Thomson Cruises holds approximately a 1% market share of the worldwide cruise industry.^[1]

Future

On April 13, 2016, 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.^[2][3]

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.^[4] 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.^[5]

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.^[6]

In October 2015, the Island Cruise brand was discontinued after the sole ship Island Escape completed her last scheduled cruise with Thomson Cruises.

Current

Ship	Built	Builder	Entered service with Thomson	Gross tonnage	Flag	Home Port	Notes	Image
Thomson Spirit	1983	Chantiers de l'Atlantique	2003	33,930 tons	Malta	Malaga, Spain until end of October 2016	Previously Nieuw Amsterdam, Patriot, Spirit - Chartered from Louis Cruises until 2017.
Thomson Celebration	1984	Chantiers de l'Atlantique	2005	33,960 tons	Malta	Dubrovnik, Croatia until end of October 2016 . For Winter 2016/17 She will be based out of Dubai,UAE	Previously Noordam.
Thomson Dream	1986	Meyer Werft	2010	54,763 tons	Malta	Corfu, Greece until end of October 2016	Previously Homeric, Westerdam, Costa Europa.
Thomson Majesty	1992	Kvaerner Masa-Yards	2012	40,876 tons	Malta	Palma, Majorca until end of October 2016	Previously Royal Majesty, Norwegian Majesty, Louis Majesty - Chartered from Louis Cruises until 2017.
TUI Discovery	1996	Chantiers de l'Atlantique	2016	69,130 tons	Malta	Palma de Mallorca, Spain until October 2016	Previously Splendour of the Seas.

Future

Ship	Built	Builder	Enters service with Thomson	Gross Tonnage	Flag	Notes	Image
TUI Discovery 2	1995	Chantiers de l'Atlantique	2017	69,130 tons	Malta	Currently sailing as the Legend of the Seas, she has been sold to Thomson for 2017 season along with Mein Schiff 1 and Mein Schiff 2 to replace the Thomson Spirit & Thomson Majesty.[7][8] It was announced on 29 June 2016 that the TUI Discovery 2 will be home ported in Malaga, Spain in the Summer season and Tenerife during the winter season. Also she will be sailing from [Montego_Bay] from November 2017[9]
Unnamed	1996	Meyer Werft	2018	76,522 tons	Malta	Currently sailing as Mein Schiff 1, she has been sold to Thomson for 2018 season along with Legend of the Seas and Mein Schiff 2 to replace the Thomson Spirit & Thomson Majesty.
Unnamed	1997	Meyer Werft	2019	77,713 tons	Malta	Currently sailing as Mein Schiff 2, she has been sold to Thomson for 2019 season along with Legend of the Seas and Mein Schiff 1 to replace the Thomson Spirit & Thomson Majesty.

Former

Ship	Built	Builder	In service with Thomson	Gross Tonnage	Notes	Image
SS Ithaca	1956	Deutsche Werft	1973– 1976	8,977 tons	scrapped 2003
SS Calypso	1955	Harland & Wolff	1975–1976	20,204 tons	scrapped 2004
SS Island Breeze	1962	John Brown & Co.	1996–1998	26,632 tons	scrapped 2003
MS Sapphire	1967	Cantieri Navale Felszegi	1996–2002	12,263 tons	scrapped 2012
SS The Topaz	1956	Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering	1997–2003	25,516 tons	scrapped 2008
SS The Emerald	1958	Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock	1997–2008	26,431 tons	scrapped 2012
The Calypso	1967	Fincantieri	2006–2009	11,162 tons	scrapped 2013
Thomson Destiny	1982	Wärtsilä Hietalahti shipyard	2005–2012	37,584 tons	Currently operating on 3/4-day cruises from Greece.
Island Escape	1982	Dubigeon-Normandie S.A	2009–2015	40,132 tons	Departed fleet on October 27, 2015.

Accidents and incidents

• On 9 February 2013, five crewmen of MS Thomson Majesty were killed in Gran Canaria whilst checking a lifeboat. The lifeboat ropes snapped and plunged 65ft 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.^[10]

References