Thomson Cruises

Thomson Cruises

Industry	Transport
Founded	1973
Key people	Richard Sofer [1] (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, 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.

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.^[2]

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.^[3][4]

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.^[5] 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.^[6]

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.^[7]

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 April 18 and then based in Malaga from May 2018 with her last cruise being on the 21st October 2018

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	Dubrovnik,Croatia until end of October 2017, Limassol, Cyprus for Winter 2017/18	Previously Nieuw Amsterdam, Patriot, Spirit - Chartered from Louis Cruises until October 2018
Thomson Celebration	1984	Chantiers de l'Atlantique	2005	33,960 tons	Malta	Newcastle, United Kingdom until end of September 2017 . For Winter 2017/18 She will be based out of La Romana, Dominican Republic	Previously Noordam.
Thomson Dream	1986	Meyer Werft	2010	54,763 tons	Malta	Corfu, Greece until end of October 2017. For winter 2017/18 she will be based in Tenerife, Canary Islands	Previously Homeric, Westerdam, Costa Europa.
Thomson Majesty	1992	Kvaerner Masa-Yards	2012	40,876 tons	Malta	Palma, Majorca until end of October 2017, with her departing the fleet in October 17	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 2017, and will be based out of Bridgetown, Barbados for the Winter 2017/18 Season	Previously Splendour of the Seas.
TUI Discovery II	1995	Chantiers de l'Atlantique	2017	69,130 tons	Malta	Malaga, Spain until September 2017, In Winter 2017/18 she will be based in Tenerife, Canary Islands til November 2017 before she takes her place in Montego Bay, Jamaica	Previously Legend of the Seas.

Future

Ship	Built	Builder	Enters service with Thomson	Gross Tonnage	Flag	Notes	Image
TUI Explorer[8]	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.
TUI Explorer 2	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 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.^[9]

References