Colbrit

TUI are in the process of moving their Shore Excursions onto a new booking system. Summer 18 is bookable on the old supplier system - though Winter 18/19 will be on the new one so no sales will be done on the old one. The information is that this month will be the launch of the new system and excursions will be bookable.

If Celebration will be in Barbados and Discovery 2 in Jamaica, following the pattern of new ships spending their inaugural winter in the Caribbean can we guess Explorer 2 will also be in Barbados?

That leaves Dream, Discovery and Explorer. One for Canaries, one for Asia? What about the last ship - another incursion into the Dubai area?

Change of heart by the company. Announced on our company intranet that it will be renamed as Marella Spirit for the final season and showing on the website already.

So jealous that you've booked - I will be on a waiting game due to several reasons.

The excursions look fantastic and reasonably priced too - I hope to book Enchanting Far East 1 for March 2019 and already have the leave booked at work.

I really hope that these cruises sell well - I wouldn't want the programme to disappear like the ex- Dubai ones last winter.

All flying will be done by TUI Airways - scheduled flying isn't part of the business model. It will be similar to the ex- Dubai ones last winter - specific cruise flights only.

All the flights for these cruises - including the once from Europe will be from Birmingham Machester and Gatwick.

The flights will be into Malaga- Naples-Aqaba-Dubai-Muscat-Cochin-Langkawi-Bangkok. With the repositionals being sold in mostly 14night sections - the Europe section will be sold as either 7 night or 14 nights.

As far as I know the flying will be with TUI Airways Dreamliners for the Asia ones and the longest flight is the Langkawi which is down as 11hrs 3/4. The Asia flights will be overnight ones - first day will be Gatwick & Birmingham and second day Manchester. There will be an overnight onboard at the start/end of most cruises to allow for the flying - at the beginning for LGW & BHX and at the end of the cruise for MAN.

I hope that the visa information is clear - TUI regularly go to Goa so an erratum (important information) tick box should be set up at the end of the booking page to inform customers - like the Russian information was in when we booked Baltic Classics this year.

I for one will be booking an Asian one for next March hopefully the last sailing before it starts the repositionals.

We did this cruise last year on Spirit, great itinerary.

Malaga - if you have time it's easy to walk to the quayside shopping area and there is also a noddy train that you can use to travel the whole length.

Portimao - Thomson put on a shuttle which was payable on board the ship which stops at the town and the beach. People were also walking.

Gibraltar - There are local shuttles which are payable which run up to the centre of town. You can also walk in 10-15mins. Half day tours are available either locally or through Thomson we did one and they can drop you off in the centre for shopping if you want.

Lisbon - We did a Thomson half day tour but then went out by ourselves in the afternoon. Hop on Hop Off buses are available, the walk to one of the main plazas is an easy 10 minutes walk.

Casablanca - we did a ship tour again for half a day. The port is industrial - though there are taxis there I saw.

Cadiz - Having been to Seville before we did the trip to Jerez and the sherry bodegas for some tasting. Then back for something to eat and then off again to explore Cadiz. Easy to walk to the old town from the port again a short walk.

I have a feeling of new destination - on Facebook they were saying some captains spoke of Asia? That ties in with a winter destination for one of the ships - think of those Repositionals.

I have read online on the Facebook groups that it's at the end of October- 27/28th approximately.

Hello - Thomson sometimes sell a "departure" excursion which will take you on an excursion and then onto the airport for the flight. I did one in Barbados and then wanted to do one for Tenerife however this one was cancelled due to lack of numbers.

Have you thought of contacting the Cuban Embassy/Consulate in London for advice?

Great news I thought it would be strange that they would dump ex-UK sailings. How long do we have to wait until Summer 2018 is launched? Lol

Here are the itineraries written out as you might not be able to see the pics in a good enough resultion

 

So here we go ;

 

Seven Isles - On the TUI Discovery :- departs 10/12/17 , 7/1 , 4/2 , 4/3 & 1/4/18

 

Day 1 Sunday : Depart Bridgetown - Barbados At 20:00

Day 2 Monday : Castries - St Lucia (08:00 - 18:00)

Day 3 Tuesday : Pionte a Piere - Guadeloupe (08:00 - 15:00)

Day 4 Wednesday : St Thomas - USVI (08:00 - 23:00)

Day 5 Thursday : San Juan - Puerto Rico (07:00 - 18:00)

Day 6 Friday : Roseau - Dominica (13:00 - 18:00)

Day 7 Saturday : St Georges - Grenada (08:00 - 17:00)

Day 8 Sunday : Bridgetown - Barbados Arrive at 7AM

 

Paradise Islands - On the TUI Discovery :- Departs 19/11 , 03/12 , 17/12 & 31/12/17 , 14/1 , 28/1 , 11/2 , 25/2 , 11/3 , 25/3 & 8/4/2018

 

Day 1 Sunday : Depart Bridgetown At 20:00

Day 2 Monday : Ship At Sea

Day 3 Tuesday : Phillipsberg - St Maarten (08:00 - 18:00)

Day 4 Wednesday : Road Town - BVI (08:00 - 18:00) (Tender Shore)

Day 5 Thursday : Basseterre - St Kitts (08:00 - 18:00)

Day 6 Friday : St John's - Antigua (08:00 - 18:00)

Day 7 Saturday : Kingstown - St Vincent + Grenadines (09:00 - 18:00)

Day 8 Sunday : Birdgetown - Barbados Arrive at 7AM

 

TUI Discovery Transatlantic 4/11/2017

 

Day 1 Saturday : Depart Palma At 23:00

Day 2 Sunday : Cartagena - Spain (10:00 - 18:00)

Day 3 Monday : Malaga - Spain (09:00 - 18:00)

Day 4 Tuesday : Ship At Sea

Day 5 Wednesday : Funchal - Maderia (08:00 - 17:00)

Day 6 Thursday : At Sea

Day 7 Friday : At Sea

Day 8 Saturday : At Sea

Day 9 Sunday : At Sea

Day 10 Monday : At Sea

Day 11 Tuesday : St Johns - Antigua (09:00 - 18:00)

Day 12 Wednesday : St Thomas - USVI (06:00 - 19:00)

Day 13 Thursday : San Juan - Puerto Rico (06:00 - 19:00)

Day 14 Friday : Basseterre - St Kitts (09:00 - 18:00)

Day 15 Saturday : Castries - St Lucia (08:00 - 18:00)

Day 16 Sunday : Bridgetown - Barbados Arrive at 7AM

No sea days on the Seven Isles one? What a great itinerary Id love to do that one just for Guadaloupe Puerto Rico and USVI not done those islands.

Would that mean no more ex-UK sailings? I've got my eye on next year's ones but the prices may be too high for me at the moment so was hoping to do one for summer 2018.

I work for a travel company from how it works here- in laymans terms as I'm no IT person. We have the selling system which has the most up to date prices and the website which is linked to it and what the customer sees, at the time of confirming the selling system will tell the website the prices are ok.

The website here is updated every morning. So, if you have a holiday that has had a change in price later on in the day- because it's been selling well and so that pushes the price up, the website will not display that until the time it comes to "talk" to the selling system - at this point the selling system will tell the website the price has changed. Frustrating but you will find that it happens with websites such as Expedia and Opodo too.

They already use other carriers especially from Scotland. We've been on flights with Monarch, JetAirFly, EuropeAirPost, BA, Titan and others whose names I've forgotten! All on Thomson cruises. They also use Germania and others which we've not been on.......yet!

 

 

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These flights have all been charter flights - where Thomson charters the whole aircraft - the 3rd party flying they recently announced was with scheduled airlines where they would purchase the seats as and when a customer books a holiday with them / they announced that city breaks to Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok etc which may tie in with the Asian planned cruises or they could set up their own charters like with the Dubai cruises this winter. Lots to look forward to when the brochure launches next month.

Presumably that would mean chartered flights with other carriers to meet the logistical requirements of flying that number of passengers from the UK to and from South East Asia ?

Me thinks it would tie in with the announcement made in the summer of Thomson selling city breaks with third party flying which was meant to go on sale very soon.

Am on the Spirit at the moment. At Gatwick they had common checkin for all flights except Malaga which was seperate. At the end of the queue there was a stand and two people asking if we were on a cruise. As we were we gave them our surname and they had our baggage tags with the cabin number on them ( we don't pre-book so first time we saw which cabin we had) On a sticker on the tag was a note: Don't forget to pick up your bags in Malaga airport - something which they also told us verbally.

I'm looking forward to it too- let's hope the number crunchers approve it at Thomson. A link to the new Vietnamese destination & Phukhet flights to have the hotel add on pre-post cruise?

So exciting - worth the long haul flight for totally new destinations.

I wouldn't be happy with those ports- just because they'd be duplicated with the Bridgetown cruises. A lot of overlap in destinations which is happening with the Med ones too- come on Thomson us regulars want new destinations to explore.

http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articles/63476/tui-adds-long-haul-packages-to-vietnam

Confirmed that Celebration will be in La Romana next winter with the TUI Discoverys in the other Caribbean ports and pulling out of ex- Dubai cruising. Can't wait for new destinations- already have done 2 of the Bridgetown Caribbean cruises and destinations.

Surprised about the dropping of the ex-Dubai ones- missed out on them as I have holiday embargos at work during winter and had hoped to do one of these next winter.

Seems to be variations as per it airport travelled from? I use Gatwick and all of my cruises Destiny, Dream, Spirit and Celebration whether unbounded or not - we had some one come and provide the coloured luggage tags with cabin numbers on, I don't pre-book my cabins. They are also the one that can give you incorrect information ie. No you don't need to pick up your luggage at Malaga airport - Yes you do as we found out last November 😀

I thought it was only bonded luggage going to Caribbean and Dubrovnik that had cabin numbers put on at airport. All other cruises get their cabin labels when they reach the port before boarding bus for ship.

 

We go to Dubrovnik in two weeks time and it states on our eticket that we have to go to the Cruise Stand to have our luggage sealed and cabin number put on before dropping off at check-in.

 

Have they changed the procedure and made it for all cruises now?

At the airport in the queues there will be a Thomson Cruise representative who should give you your luggage tags with your cabin number on. These should be attached before checking the suitcases in. This happens for all cruises as it helps the crew deliver your bags to your cabin.

Should you be on a bonded flight - Dubrovnik & Bridgetown in my personal experience - then you do not need to pick up your luggage at the arrival airport as they will be delivered straight to the ship and to your cabin. If you are arriving at a non- bonded destination, you need to pick up you cases and take it to your transfer coach. On arrival at the port you usually need to take the luggage to a designated area - Thomson use colours- so if your tag is pink you drop the luggage in the pink area which will be signposted. Then the crew will load the luggage on and deliver later to your cabin.

Hope this helps.

They're available to book online on the Thomson Cruises website.