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Meanwhile, Island Escape will be leaving the fleet.
Of course, the ship will be familiar to UK cruisers as her sister, the Legend was based in Southampton for a few summer seasons about 10 years ago.
From Travel Mole this morning.
quote: Thomson Cruises adds Royal Caribbean ship to its fleetThomson Cruises has bought Royal Caribbean's International's Splendour of the Seas to become the largest ship in its fleet.The renamed 1,830 capacity ship will replace Island Escape, currently operated by Thomson Cruises' sister company Island Cruises.The sale was through the newly merged parent company TUI Group's subsidiary TUI Cruises, a joint venture between TUI Group and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.The ship will begin operation from summer 2016, with its programme going on sale at the end of April 2015.Sebastian Ebel, CEO of strategic platforms for TUI Group, said: "TUI Group is pleased to have been able to secure the purchase of this ship."Following the recent announcement of our purchase of luxury cruise ship EUROPA 2 for Hapag-Lloyd Kreuzfahrten, this continues to demonstrate our long term strategy of investing in our cruise operations as one of our key product areas."Monday, March 2, 2015
Thomson Cruises has bought Royal Caribbean's International's Splendour of the Seas to become the largest ship in its fleet.
The renamed 1,830 capacity ship will replace Island Escape, currently operated by Thomson Cruises' sister company Island Cruises.
The sale was through the newly merged parent company TUI Group's subsidiary TUI Cruises, a joint venture between TUI Group and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
The ship will begin operation from summer 2016, with its programme going on sale at the end of April 2015.
Sebastian Ebel, CEO of strategic platforms for TUI Group, said: "TUI Group is pleased to have been able to secure the purchase of this ship.
"Following the recent announcement of our purchase of luxury cruise ship EUROPA 2 for Hapag-Lloyd Kreuzfahrten, this continues to demonstrate our long term strategy of investing in our cruise operations as one of our key product areas."Monday, March 2, 2015
I don't see how there is consistency in a fleet and on-board product when you've got Spirit/Celebration alongside Splendour of the Seas.
Splendour is not that old of a vessel, I guess they are making way for Anthem and Harmony.
I wonder if TUI or Thomson can fill a vessel that large, the market must be strong to support this kind of purchase, and shuffle the older tonnage to other lines.
Isn't that an almost double occupancy purchase, than the ships they are filling now, at smaller size?
[ 03-02-2015: Message edited by: jeremya ]
With the P&O brand becoming more disconnected from what it was - I see an opportunity for Thomson in this space. They and Airtours's Sun Cruises capitalised around 1999 when P&O went more upmarket and some passengers migrated to those brands.
Now that P&O is coming down in the market chain, with better hardware like Splendour - they could just find a good niche.
I do wonder though, if they will keep the Island cruises brand. I'd demote the ex HAL sisters to that brand, known for all inclusive cruises.
Now that bigger ships are coming out of the main lines - I wonder where FOCL will get ships from and what they'll get. I sailed Boudicca in 2008 and that was starting to look worn out in the cabins and bathrooms. The rest of the ship is fine, I guess. But now that Thomson and challengers CMV have new ships... will they get left behind?
Also the Splendor was the first of the class to be updated a few years back and Royal Caribbean learned and improved on those updates on the later ships of the class.
Speaking with one of the people who supervised the modernizations for this class of ships he says Splendour was in good mechanical condition and needed only minimal structural work at the last major overhaul -- the same for Legend. They are both Finish built and of course they have a good track record. So his feeling was that it was only an issue of position of the ships and a timing question as to which one to sell.
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