Marella Cruises….

So you may of all heard that Thomson are changing to TUI, the German group TUI is ditching the 50 year old Thomson name as part of plans to change the brand’s perception and introduce a wide range of holidays. The cruise part of the business has always had the name Thomson Cruises, this is now going to be named Marella Cruises and will still be part of the world of TUI.

The name is very different and not something i would of expected and more than likely will take time to get used to for a lot of people as the Thomson Cruise brand is massive. However it will still carry the TUI logo but also a brand new Marella logo alongside it. The name Marella in Celtic means ‘shining sea’ and was giving the name to stand out in the cruise market and give it it’s own identity from the company’s European cruise market TUI Cruises.

The brand will still offer the great same services but with the following changes to the ship names –

• Marella Explorer
• Marella Discovery 2
• Marella Discovery
• Marella Dream
• Marella Celebration

The other two ships, the Spirit and the Majesty will remain under the same name until there last voyage with the fleet, which for the Majesty will be the 19th November 2017 and for the Spirit the last voyage will be the 21st October 2018.

Marella Cruises offers fly cruise programmes linking 22 regional UK airports, as well as a wide Cruise & Stay programme that combines a cruise holiday with a stay at one of more than 140 hotels across 10 destinations worldwide.

More excitingly from winter 2018, the Marella Discovery will have a new home-port in Asia, customers will be able to sail from Lankawi and Bangkok to 18 new ports of call on 14 new itineraries which will be adults only and all inclusive and most will be offering over night stays in some ports! Also for winter 2018 TUI are going to base the Marella Explorer which is the new ship and also the Marella Celebration out of Barbados.

All in all Thomson or should i say Marella cruises will still be offering the same great standard and service but just with a new name. But what are your thoughts? Do you think this is a good move? Or do you think it may put people off? I’d love to hear your view so feel free to leave your comments below.

Trudy x