TUI Launches River Cruising Brand

So the well known TUI who most know as Thomson have now decided to launch into the River cruising Market.  They will have three ships in Summer 2020. The brand will be known under TUI and their ocean cruises will continue with the new name Marella which they have had for a while.  The river cruising market has really grown over the last few years and so I think this is a good move for TUI.   From Summer 2020 they will be offering a choice of itineraries and covering most of the European Waterways. Itineraries will include Dutch & Belgian Waterways, the Rhine, Main, Moselle and the Danube. TUI will be offering direct flights from the UK and the flight options and airports will vary with the itineraries.  This is a plus as lots of River Lines have a lot of indirect flight options depending on which airports you are looking at.  TUI will straight away go in with three vessels and each ship taking about 155 passengers.  The ships will be adult only.  The vessels will have standard cabins, french balconies and single cabins too.  Tui are giving all guests 1GB of free wi-fi and £120 each excursion credit.   You can look forward to receiving tea and coffee with breakfast as standard and house wines, beers and soft drinks with lunch and dinner.  You can though also purchase a drinks package to include draught beers, branded spirits, cocktails and premium coffee.  This will be bookable at £100pp.  The cabins will be on a guarantee basis unless you pay to pre book a cabin number which is the same as Marella Cruises.  The three ships will be moving over to the TUI brand and will be named TUI Maya, TUI Isla and TUI Skyla.  Prices start at £1099pp for a 7 night sailing.  I think this is such a good move for the brand as River cruising is going so well.  It will be interesting to see how well they sell and what reviews they get once they are sailing.