THOMSON WANTS TO PLAY WITH THE BIG BOYS!

Thomson Cruises has unveiled plans for its brand new ship, Thomson Discovery, which will include new dining options, a sleek new design as they look to modernise the fleet and the whole on board customer experience.

British customers do like Thomson. They like its laid back approach and the fact that gratuities are included so they know what they have paid includes everything.

They like the entertainment as it is geared to a British Audience so it will be interesting to see if the changes meet with the approval of the regular clients.

Thomson have announced that Peel Entertainment Group has been awarded the contract for on board entertainment on Discovery. PEEL has been the live entertainment partner since the launch of Thomson Cruises in 2003 and together with Thomson, they have grown the award-winning programme into a product which is much-loved by passengers.

The Apollo Group it has been announced will be running the Hotel side of the operations following their outstanding success with the take overs on Thomson Dream and Celebration which have seen Customer satisfaction ratings sky rocket over recent months.

The Discovery will be transferred from Royal Caribbean International next spring, as it is currently sailing as the Splendour of the Seas. It is to be hoped she will be having a full refit as I had some customers on Splendour in August this year and they were not impressed with the ship saying how tired and drab it was looking.

The ship’s exterior will also receive a brand new look and feel.

The Discovery will have eight dining venues, including two new signature restaurants – Snack Shack and Gallery 47 ˚.

What are they?

Located on the pool deck and themed around brightly coloured, iconic British beach huts, Snack Shack is a fun, ‘festival-style’ eatery serving grill foods such as quesadillas, and nachos during the day and popcorn and cocoa on film nights.

The second signature venue is Gallery 47˚, located in the upstairs of the main restaurant, this venue will serve contemporary Italian food, as voted for by over 4,000 customers.

Managing Director of Thomson Cruises, Helen Caron, said: “I’m really delighted to start unveiling our plans for Thomson Discovery as we are now just six months away from the launch. A big focus of our strategy is to modernise our on-board customer experience. On Discovery we’ll be offering our customers more choice and balance so they can really personalise their cruise with us.  I’m confident the new signature restaurants, together with other exciting on board features, will delight our current cruise customers while attracting new ones too, especially families.

“The contracts for both suppliers will also play a key role in delivering the modernisation and pushing the boundaries of the on board customer experience push the boundaries of the on-board experience, with agreements for new shows and modernising and making changes to food and beverage offering for customers to be announced as Thomson Cruises delivers its modernisation plans.”

Discovery will be based in Palma from June 2016, and will be the largest in the fleet with a capacity of 1,830 across 915 cabins – almost 40 percent of which will offer balconies, which is a welcome change for Thomson Customers who normally cannot get balconies or have to pay extortionate supplements to get them. It will be interesting to see how the prices will differ.

This ship is definitely Family friendly too as it will  have much more flexible  dining options, an outdoor movie screen, rock climbing wall and eight bars and lounges.

For more information

THOMSON DISCOVERY