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McCue Crafted Fit wins first cruise upgrade for Thomson duo

McCue Crafted Fit wins first cruise upgrade for Thomson duo
McCue Crafted Fit, which announced its entry to the cruise and ferry refurbishment market at Cruise Shipping Miami 2014, has secured its first marine work: two contracts with Thomson Cruises.

Upgrades on Thomson Celebration and Thomson Dream will involve refreshing of furnishings with designer touches in public areas and includes work in speciality restaurants, bars and lounges. 

Thomson’s design brief evolved around rich colours, touchable textiles and mood lighting to set the scene and provide a much more modern, contemporary look to the vessels.

McCue brought onboard design practise Leisure Concepts from Kenilworth, England, to work up a design with layouts, mood boards, colour schemes and visuals for various areas on each ship whilst McCue maintained a close eye on meeting marine regulations and ensuring that the tender would remain competitive.

McCue has a strong track record in delivering land-based retail and hospitality projects in the UK, Ireland and Europe. It also has its own manufacturing facility in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland.

Both ships will see the creation of a new Asian-themed a la carte restaurant Kora La offering Indian and Chinese cuisine. Thomson Dream will also add The Explorers Lounge and The Coffee Port which will have a duel function of high street coffee shop with cakes and ice cream by day and transformed by night into an elegant cocktail lounge with pianist.

Thomson Celebration will have its Liberties lounge refurbished with new finishes and the adjoining external deck will see the creation of a new permanent bar facility, prefabricated in McCue’s 60,000sq ft joinery facility close to Belfast.

Thomson Celebration will be the first ship to be refurbished quayside in Limassol, Cyprus at the end of October. Thomson Dream will sail to Gibraltar to have its refit completed at the end of November.

Les McCracken, McCue’s managing director commented, ‘We realise that we are new to this sector, however our land-based experience, coupled with our team ethos on quality and on-time delivery, should allow us to gain a foothold in this market.’

Speaking about the projects, Helen Caron, managing director of Thomson Cruises, said:  ‘Listening to our customers is at the heart of all our planning, which is why we are investing further in both Thomson Dream and Celebration to give passengers an even better experience on-board. ‘