TUI to retire Marella Celebration as more cruise and beach holidays cancelled

Monday, 29 Apr, 2020 0

TUI has extended the cancellations of its beach holidays until June 11 and all cruises until June 30. It has also announced today that its smallest cruise ship Marella Celebration will be retired from the fleet.

It said all customers are being notified.

"Rolling cancelations have been put in place to ensure customer service teams can support those impacted by the cancelations in date order," said a spokeswoman.

In total TUI UK has now cancelled holidays for nearly 900,000 customers.

Marella Celebration has been retired at least a year earlier than planned. TUI said the ship, built in 1984, is ‘one of the longest standing and most loved ships in the Marella Cruises fleet’.

"She’s sailed with the cruise line for 15 years, carrying almost half a million passengers," it added. A spokesman said the company was still working through the detail of its sailings for the rest of 2020 and summer 2021.

Celebration was due to homeport in Dubrovnik in summer ’20 and summer ’21 and Cyprus and Dubai for the winter season.

TUI has also extended its flexible amends programme for all holdiays booked until July 11, so customers with bookings between June 12 and July 11 can amend to another date for free.

All TUI customers whose bookings are cancelled will receive a 20% booking incentive when accepting a refund credit to move to another date, or can request a cash refund, said TUI.

The operator said it is taking about 28 days for a cash refunds to be processed.

"We would like to thank customers for their patience and understanding, especially given the scale of people we are trying to help," it added.

Linsey McNeill

Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk

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