Tui Discovered The Splendour of the Seas

So Thomson did it again. Discovered another ship and made it one of their own. Ex-Royal Caribbean’s Splendour of the Seas is now owned by Thomson and is the new Tui Discovery.

I have to admit when I first learned this I thought Thomson had got this right as previous Costa ships etc were just like their typical fleet. This however with plenty of balcony cabins, seems like Thomson have themselves a proper ship. I personally think this will do very well with the loyal Thomson customers. I’ve encountered many of their customers over the years and simply won’t travel on another ship. This however may have them reconsider what else is out there on the market. Then it could also back fire on Thomson as they may want to explore what else Royal Caribbean has to offer if this is one of their reject ships. Makes you wonder. Will the loyal Tui faithful stick with Tui or perhaps look at other cruise lines if they experience this being a bigger ship than the usual Tui fleet?

I do think it will sell well and Thomson’s also have plans to introduce 3 more ships over the next few years so expect more rejected ships being sold off to Tui to transform. I do believe another of those will be again from Royal Caribbean. Did RCI see Thomson coming or will they make this pay? Time will tell.

So what did I think about the ship once on board? Well I’ll start with the cabins. Quite spacious, I only had an inside cabin. Thanks Thomson, after 9 years service a Balcony would have been nice but all the same a decent size cabin. However I do hope they sort out the plumbing because the shower was awful. Water didn’t flow smoothly, pressure was there but more like the water was spitting and spluttering and went all over the place. It was a fight to get in the shower and not flood the cabin. I’m sure it was a teething problem and I do hope for when customers get on board they don’t experience this as I’m sure they’ll be a few complaints. I have to say it was the whole ship like this and not just our cabin. Again, did RCI see Thomson coming? Hmm makes me wonder.

Spacious and plenty of wardrobe space with a decent amount of hangers, which on some cruises they just don’t supply enough. These things matter.

Royal Caribbean are known for the Americans to like their casino’s and the British market isn’t so into the gaming on board. Thomson have recognised this and have transformed much of what was the old casino on board and reduced it in size to allow more of a bar area. I can understand this and think that was a good thing to do.

With only a couple of tables and few machines there isn’t much choice but you can see why they have done this.

Thomson were having their managers conference on board whilst launching the Tui Discovery and also announced that 3 further ships will follow in the next few years.

The ship was nicely decorated and the bars and restaurants were furnished beautifully.

Thomson do like a celebrity, I remember some years ago at their roadshow we had Graham Norton presenting the awards and guest at the time were the pop group “Liberty X” So having a surprise guest for this launch had me wondering who this would be. It turned out to be Jess Glynne. Who? Some might ask. I have to be honest I’d never heard of her and didn’t recognise any of her songs. I obviously don’t get out much and or don’t listen to the radio enough as apparently she’s well known. Ok then, I’m afraid I couldn’t sing along to any of the 5 songs she sang. I took some stick not knowing how she was but I wasn’t alone. So Jess, Apologies but you need to get out there a bit more because I could have stood next to you in a bar or at Karaoke and would have been oblivious to you apparently being a star.

The launch celebration party on top deck was a good night. A large screen for those who couldn’t see Jess on stage. Personally I preferred the other acts like the dancers and even the opera singers who were within the audience and were just fantastic. Sorry Jess again but for me you didn’t steal the show.

All the same it was a good atmosphere and a pretty good way to have a launch party.

And for when the party wasn’t on you had me instead.

Overall this was a nice ship and most certainly the best Thomson have to date. A few teething problems but let’s be fair it happens to all cruise lines. Food wasn’t great. I was a fan of the food on a Thomson ship. The Thomson Dream with the exception of Azamara was probably the best food I’ve had on board. This was a let down. I admit we were there only for a few nights and you have to put aside teething problems but the food was nowhere near as good as it should be. The staff didn’t really know what they were doing and I felt it was all a bit of a mess really. I usually like to praise our hosts for having us on board but on this occasion I can’t. Organisation was just horrendous and with poor communication between the ship and check-in staff we even struggled to get food on arrival. I thought I was on a cruise where you couldn’t fail to get food. I think  Thomson on this occasion were too wrapped up in their own staff for their managers conference and any other 3rd party agent was just in the way. Perhaps it would have been better had they invited us on at a later date. So thumbs up to a new ship in the Thomson fleet but thumbs down to Thomson as hosts. I think you need to look at how great the likes of Princess Cruises are when they have agents on board. That was me discovering the new Tui Discovery and who Jess Glynne is!