THOMSON CRUISES RING THE CHANGES FOR WINTER 2017

Seismic changes are afoot over at Thomson Cruises for the winter of 2017-18. In a long expected move, both Thomson Majesty and Thomson Spirit will return to original parent company, Celestyal Cruises, and resume service for them, most likely from Malaga and Limassol, respectively.

In parallel with these changes, long term stalwart, Thomson Dream, will reposition to the Canary Islands, spending that same winter sailing seven night cruises that allow for the embarkation of passengers in both Gran Canaria and Tenerife.

But the real shift in emphasis is to the Caribbean; no less than three ships will redeploy to the region, with recent ex Royal Caribbean acquisitions, TUI Discovery and TUI Discovery 2 commencing winter cruises from Bridgetown, Barbados and Montego Bay, Jamaica, respectively. The third ship- the much smaller Thomson Celebration- will begin cruises from a new home port at La Romana in the Dominican Republic.

From a British passenger's point of view, Thomson Cruises offers a number of unique selling points. All passengers on board are from the UK, and the line offers a number of connecting flights, via it's own airline, from several airports across the country. Once the baggage is checked, passengers do not see it again until it arrives outside their cabins on board ship.

This is especially popular on the Caribbean cruises, where flights from regional airports are often on the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Passengers are directly transferred from the airport to check in on the ship, with their luggage arriving separately. Similarly, check in for the flight home is done on the ship, the luggage travels to the airport in advance, and passengers simply go straight to the departure lounge before boarding the homeward flight.

It's a smart, seamless operation, too. However, not all regional airports offer flights every week, so some allow only the option of combining two cruises to form an expanded, fourteen night holiday, Inevitably, larger airports such as Manchester and London Gatwick will offer more flexibility in terms of flight availability,

It will also be interesting to see how many Thomson passengers prefer the smaller Thomson Celebration to the larger ships. Both TUI Discovery and Discovery 2 are twice as large, with many more larger cabins, and are far more amenity laden. For many, I suspect it might come down to itineraries, price points, and flight availability.

Interesting times over at Thomson Cruises, then. And with more newly reconditioned ships still to come, it seems that the sky is the limit for the future.