Malch_uk Posted November 13, 2012 #26 Share Posted November 13, 2012 I saw this article today - http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/2012/11/12/42259/uae+changes+visa+rules+for+cruise+passengers.html Obviously a mistake? Be nice if it was true.:cool: M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davecttr Posted November 13, 2012 #27 Share Posted November 13, 2012 Be nice if it was true.:cool: M. further reading makes it look as if it is TUI with MeinSchiffs rather than Thomson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailaway487 Posted November 18, 2012 Author #28 Share Posted November 18, 2012 Galaxy meant to ask, do you know if Thomson Celebration has been booked into any Icelandic ports for 2014? Been looking at when they could be doing the Fire & Ice in 2014, but can't find which dates it might be for. Thanks. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailaway487 Posted December 2, 2012 Author #29 Share Posted December 2, 2012 An update on summer 2014 itineraries. Thomson Dream is now definitely going to be doing departures from Palma in May-June, Corfu July-August and Palma again September-October. Thomson Dream has been booked into Split, Croatia on 01 Jul, 22 Jul, 05 Aug, 12 Aug and 26 Aug. My favourite itinerary - Adriatic Explorer My favourite ship - Thomson Dream My favourite time of year to sail - end of June/beginning of July. Well, looks like I've got my perfect cruise booked for 2014!!! :D I think this will be a VERY popular cruise this one. A good decision in my opinion to swap the ships. Gives a bit more variety, and will be nice to see the Dream doing a Venice sail-in. Majesty has put me off looking at Corfu sailings for next year, so I'm very pleased by this move. One thing I have noticed from the dates is that there's a 3 week gap between the cruises in July. Usually, they make sure that they do the Adriatic Explorer every other week, but here it seems not. Could this be the Black Sea Odyssey two week cruise in July? :confused: Ellacott had said that Rovinj was being looked at for 2014, but they didn't go for it as the ship would have been too big. Thomson Dream would be too big for Rovinj I think, so it all does tie up. Only Thomson Dream has been booked in for 2014, so it looks like Thomson Majesty will be going elsewhere for the rest of the season. Zadar had been mentioned by Ellacott, so I guess it will probably dock in there instead, as both are quiet close. Will keep updating if I find out anymore. Going now to save up ready for my 2014 cruise! ;) :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
campolady Posted December 2, 2012 #30 Share Posted December 2, 2012 Oh how I wish Thomson would do somecruises from Malaga! There is a new ´State of the Art´ cruise terminal there and so many flights to the local Airport from the UK and the rest of Europe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davecttr Posted December 2, 2012 #31 Share Posted December 2, 2012 An update on summer 2014 itineraries. Thomson Dream is now definitely going to be doing departures from Palma in May-June, Corfu July-August and Palma again September-October. Thomson Dream has been booked into Split, Croatia on 01 Jul, 22 Jul, 05 Aug, 12 Aug and 26 Aug. My favourite itinerary - Adriatic Explorer My favourite ship - Thomson Dream My favourite time of year to sail - end of June/beginning of July. Well, looks like I've got my perfect cruise booked for 2014!!! :D I think this will be a VERY popular cruise this one. A good decision in my opinion to swap the ships. Gives a bit more variety, and will be nice to see the Dream doing a Venice sail-in. Majesty has put me off looking at Corfu sailings for next year, so I'm very pleased by this move. One thing I have noticed from the dates is that there's a 3 week gap between the cruises in July. Usually, they make sure that they do the Adriatic Explorer every other week, but here it seems not. Could this be the Black Sea Odyssey two week cruise in July? :confused: Ellacott had said that Rovinj was being looked at for 2014, but they didn't go for it as the ship would have been too big. Thomson Dream would be too big for Rovinj I think, so it all does tie up. Only Thomson Dream has been booked in for 2014, so it looks like Thomson Majesty will be going elsewhere for the rest of the season. Zadar had been mentioned by Ellacott, so I guess it will probably dock in there instead, as both are quiet close. Will keep updating if I find out anymore. Going now to save up ready for my 2014 cruise! ;) :D they arn't going to miss out on the Palma departures in mid summer, especially for 8 weeks as it would destroy the cruise and stay market :eek: my guess is that majesty will move there as a replacement they won't base Dream in corfu. the greek unions won't allow it. why bother with all this confusion i don't know, just let majesty do the split calls. It is not as if they can't fill her with happy passengers. look at ellisons reply viz the passenger surveys and the prices they can charge for her itineries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailaway487 Posted December 2, 2012 Author #32 Share Posted December 2, 2012 they arn't going to miss out on the Palma departures in mid summer, especially for 8 weeks as it would destroy the cruise and stay market :eek: my guess is that majesty will move there as a replacement they won't base Dream in corfu. the greek unions won't allow it. why bother with all this confusion i don't know, just let majesty do the split calls. It is not as if they can't fill her with happy passengers. look at ellisons reply viz the passenger surveys and the prices they can charge for her itineries. Majesty will be replacing Dream in Palma in July and August. I wonder if as Dream is going to be homeporting in Corfu for only two months, they can in some way get around the unions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
okavango Posted December 2, 2012 #33 Share Posted December 2, 2012 they won't base Dream in corfu. the greek unions won't allow it. ???? why ????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailaway487 Posted December 2, 2012 Author #34 Share Posted December 2, 2012 ???? why ????? Not too sure on the exact specifics, but I think that if a ship is homeporting in Greece and is not owned by a Greek company, by Greek law they have to have a certain number of Greek staff onboard, thus not the usual crew. In 2009, Thomson Celebration homeported in Corfu, and it caused a lot of problems with crewing, to the point where Thomson were considering swapping Celebration and Spirit over. The good thing with Spirit and Majesty is, being owned by Louis, they can homeport without a problem. Whether they can get away from this by only homeporting Thomson Dream for two months, I'm not sure, but it seems that it might be the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davecttr Posted December 2, 2012 #35 Share Posted December 2, 2012 Not too sure on the exact specifics, but I think that if a ship is homeporting in Greece and is not owned by a Greek company, by Greek law they have to have a certain number of Greek staff onboard, thus not the usual crew. In 2009, Thomson Celebration homeported in Corfu, and it caused a lot of problems with crewing, to the point where Thomson were considering swapping Celebration and Spirit over. The good thing with Spirit and Majesty is, being owned by Louis, they can homeport without a problem. Whether they can get away from this by only homeporting Thomson Dream for two months, I'm not sure, but it seems that it might be the case. The Celebration incident was a shambles. they had to terminate existing crews contracts at short notice and send them home. the replacement greek crew were a disaster, apparently they did not want to be there and were to say the least inefficient. Thomson solved the problem by rebasing Celebration in Marmaris. The Turks, with a lot more common sense, were happy to have them. Thomson used to have a ship homeporting in Thessalonika, which is in Greece. the Emerald I think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailaway487 Posted December 2, 2012 Author #36 Share Posted December 2, 2012 The Celebration incident was a shambles. they had to terminate existing crews contracts at short notice and send them home. the replacement greek crew were a disaster, apparently they did not want to be there and were to say the least inefficient. Thomson solved the problem by rebasing Celebration in Marmaris. The Turks, with a lot more common sense, were happy to have them. Thomson used to have a ship homeporting in Thessalonika, which is in Greece. the Emerald I think? I sailed on Celebration out of Corfu in 2009, and definitely noticed the difference. The crew just didn't have the same enthusiasm as the usual. The Calypso used to do the Thessalonika sailings, again owned by Louis. Before 2009, they always had The Emerald in Corfu, so never had any problems with this crewing situation. If Thomson get a newer and larger ship than Dream at some point, they are going to have a lot of problems in choosing a ship for Corfu. The natural ship would be Dream, but don't think they'd want to do that again. Perhaps we'll see more repositionings halfway through a season like 2014. Still don't know for sure if Spirit will be in Marmaris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
okavango Posted December 2, 2012 #37 Share Posted December 2, 2012 Not too sure on the exact specifics, but I think that if a ship is homeporting in Greece and is not owned by a Greek company, by Greek law they have to have a certain number of Greek staff onboard, thus not the usual crew. In 2009, Thomson Celebration homeported in Corfu, and it caused a lot of problems with crewing, to the point where Thomson were considering swapping Celebration and Spirit over. The good thing with Spirit and Majesty is, being owned by Louis, they can homeport without a problem. Whether they can get away from this by only homeporting Thomson Dream for two months, I'm not sure, but it seems that it might be the case. in 2010/11 spirit also had to take on some greeks ,not sure what % its got to be but its at every level of staff, the top end dept (bridge) is not really affected as there are usually a few around anyway, in mid management i recall the asst bar manager was a take on ,creepy git and not liked by his staff, also on better wages than his boss ivan, i think most of the blue collar ones were kept a bit out of the way and not well liked by the regulars as they had to be paid about 2-3 times their wages, had a greek cabin steward in 2010 ,did his work ok but was a miserable sod, didnt even raise a smile when he got his tip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailaway487 Posted January 3, 2013 Author #38 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Thomson Celebration Now listed to call in at Orkney on 21 May and 22 August 2014, confirming that it will definitely be Celebration to operate ex-UK for summer 2014, and not Thomson Spirit. :) If you haven't read it yet, I've done a piece on my blog summarising the current info regarding summer 2014 itineraries: http://sailawaysblog.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/more-variety-for-thomson-cruises-summer-2014-sailings/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galaxy Posted January 3, 2013 #39 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Galaxy meant to ask, do you know if Thomson Celebration has been booked into any Icelandic ports for 2014? Been looking at when they could be doing the Fire & Ice in 2014, but can't find which dates it might be for. Thanks. :) Hello and Happy new year,Sailaway487 and to all users of the forum. At the moment i dont know if she is booked in Iceland,but as soon i know anything i will let you know :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtt Posted January 6, 2013 #40 Share Posted January 6, 2013 can't see the april sails for the spirit next year they are in the brochure but nothing online Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davecttr Posted January 6, 2013 #41 Share Posted January 6, 2013 can't see the april sails for the spirit next year they are in the brochure but nothing online They are there under fly cruises as she is still in the med until late april Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtt Posted January 6, 2013 #42 Share Posted January 6, 2013 They are there under fly cruises as she is still in the med until late april tried a few searches can't find anything Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailaway487 Posted January 6, 2013 Author #43 Share Posted January 6, 2013 Hello and Happy new year,Sailaway487 and to all users of the forum. At the moment i dont know if she is booked in Iceland,but as soon i know anything i will let you know :) Thanks Galaxy, and happy new year to you too! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailaway487 Posted January 6, 2013 Author #44 Share Posted January 6, 2013 can't see the april sails for the spirit next year they are in the brochure but nothing online The April 2014 ones? I can't find them either. They're in the new brochure (Pharaohs & the Promise Land and Aegean Discovery), but only Dream, Majesty and Celebration are showing up. They're not on Cruise Deals either. Either the website isn't working, their not releasing them yet or they're not going to be operating. I think they might not be releasing them yet, as IE should be cruising in April too but they haven't released these itineraries. I wonder that as these are the first cruises of the year for both ships, they might let them go on sale when they release summer 2014? Either that or they've pulled Spirit. :confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtt Posted January 6, 2013 #45 Share Posted January 6, 2013 The April 2014 ones? I can't find them either. They're in the new brochure (Pharaohs & the Promise Land and Aegean Discovery), but only Dream, Majesty and Celebration are showing up. They're not on Cruise Deals either. Either the website isn't working, their not releasing them yet or they're not going to be operating. I think they might not be releasing them yet, as IE should be cruising in April too but they haven't released these itineraries. I wonder that as these are the first cruises of the year for both ships, they might let them go on sale when they release summer 2014? Either that or they've pulled Spirit. :confused: gonna call my ta tomorrow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailaway487 Posted January 6, 2013 Author #46 Share Posted January 6, 2013 gonna call my ta tomorrow Let us know what you find out, as I wouldn't mind having a look at the Aegean Discovery one if it is a good price. Especially if it is going to be Spirit's last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtt Posted January 6, 2013 #47 Share Posted January 6, 2013 Let us know what you find out, as I wouldn't mind having a look at the Aegean Discovery one if it is a good price. Especially if it is going to be Spirit's last year. We are doing that this year, but not all the family, maybe the pharrohs next april or this again with other family members, we like the spirit richard grey is back on as cd this year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davecttr Posted January 6, 2013 #48 Share Posted January 6, 2013 Sorry i was searching 2013 :o no spirit for 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtt Posted January 7, 2013 #49 Share Posted January 7, 2013 Let us know what you find out, as I wouldn't mind having a look at the Aegean Discovery one if it is a good price. Especially if it is going to be Spirit's last year. my ta couldn't see any cruise on his system, s gonna call thomson and let me know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtt Posted January 7, 2013 #50 Share Posted January 7, 2013 my ta just called back, theres a bar on all april 2014 cruises on the spirit for the shops, hes not been able to find out why, but is gonna let me know when he knows something Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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