Marella Cruises

Marella Cruises

Industry	Transport
Founded	1973
Key people	Richard Sofer [1] (Managing Director)
Products	Holidays, cruises
Parent	TUI Group
Website	www.tui.co.uk/cruise

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

Marella Cruises (formerly Thomson Cruises) is a British cruise line operated by TUI UK, offering cruise holidays around Europe, the Caribbean, and Asia.

On 9 October 2017, TUI Group 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 line's history.^[2]

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.^[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.

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.^[7][8]

Current

Ship	Built	Builder	Entered service with Thomson/Marella Cruises	Gross tonnage	Flag	Home Port (Winter 2017/2018	Notes	Image
Marella Spirit	1983	Chantiers de l'Atlantique	2003	33,930 tons	Malta	Dubrovnik,Croatia until end of October 2017, Limassol, Cyprus	Previously Nieuw Amsterdam, Patriot, Spirit, Thomson Spirit, Spirit - Chartered from Louis Cruises until October 2018.
Marella Celebration	1984	Chantiers de l'Atlantique	2005	33,960 tons	Malta	La Romana, Dominican Republic	Previously Noordam, Thomson Celebration. Renamed Marella Celebration in October 2017.
Marella Dream	1986	Meyer Werft	2010	54,763 tons	Malta	Tenerife, Canary Islands	Previously Homeric, Westerdam, Costa Europa, Thomson Dream. Renamed Marella Dream in October 2017.
Marella Discovery	1996	Chantiers de l'Atlantique	2016	69,130 tons	Malta	Palma de Mallorca, Spain until October 2017, then Bridgetown, Barbados	Previously Splendour of the Seas, TUI Discovery . Renamed Marella Discovery in October 2017.
Marella Discovery II	1995	Chantiers de l'Atlantique	2017	69,130 tons	Malta	Montego Bay, Jamaica	Previously Legend of the Seas, TUI Discovery II. Renamed Marella Discovery II in October 2017.
Marella Explorer[9]	1996	Meyer Werft	2018	76,522 tons	Malta	Palma, Majorca	previous Mein Schiff 1, she has been sold to Marella in 2018.

Future

Ship	Built	Builder	Enters service with Thomson	Gross Tonnage	Flag	Notes	Image
Marella Explorer II	1995	Meyer Werft	2019	71,545 tons	Malta	Currently sailing as SkySea Golden Era, she has been sold to Thomson for 2019 season. With SkySea Cruise Line closing she will sail in place of Mein Schiff 2 which will remain with TUI Cruises.[10][11]

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 27 October 2015,scrapped 2018.
Thomson Majesty	1992	Kvaerner Masa-Yards	2012-2015	40,876 tons	Transferred to Celestyal Cruises in October 2017.

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.^[12]

References