Thomson Cruises, the UK based cruise brand in the TUI AG group, will receive Mein Schiff 1 and Mein Schiff 2 once the two 99,300 gross ton newbuildings ordered today will enter service, TUI Cruises said in a statement.
“The new builds planned for 2018 and 2019 will successively replace Mein Schiff 1 and Mein Schiff 2. The first two TUI Cruises ships will be passed on to Thomson Cruises within TUI Group,” the company said. It had indicated that this could happen earlier, but this is the first time it has confirmed the matter.
The two ships were built in the mid-1990s for Celebrity Cruises and both went through substantial refurbishment before joining the Hamburg based company that employs them at the moment.
Sebastian Ebel, responsible for the cruise activities on the Board of TUI Group said: “We regard the cruise market as a growth market for our Group. By expanding our activities in this segment we want to drive the planned revenue and earnings increases for the TUI Group and at the same time develop into one of Europe s leading cruise providers.”
Thomson Cruises will next year receive the 1995 built Splendour of the Seas from Royal Caribbean International to replace the 1982 built Island Escape. To be renamed Thomson Discovery, it will be owned and managed by TUI Cruises, which is 50/50 owned by TUI AG and Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd (RCCL), the world’s second largest cruise shipping group that also owns Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises.
Thomson Cruises operates five ships, all of which are built between1982 and 1992. It owns one of them, the 1986 built Thomson Dream.
TUI AG plans to replace the existing Thomson Cruises’ fleet with larger, owned tonnage.
