Marella Cruises has announced it will be retiring the 1986-built Marella Dream from its fleet after 10 years of service.
The TUI-owned cruise line had planned to retire the ship by 2024, but like Marella Celebration, Marella Dream will now face an early retirement due to the impact of COVID-19.
The ship will not re-enter service with Marella Cruises and guests with future bookings on Marella Dream will automatically have their cruise moved to Marella Discovery which is taking over sailings from Palma de Mallorca.
As a result, Marella Discovery’s Caribbean and USA sailings for 2021 and 2022 from Port Canaveral have been cancelled. Affected gusts will receive a 110% Future Cruise Credit or a full refund.
Chris Hackney, Managing Director of Marella Cruises said: “With the ongoing travel restrictions for UK cruise lines still in place, we’ve taken the difficult decision to reshape our cruise programme for the upcoming seasons. That means an early retirement for Marella Dream after ten years of service and the redeployment of Marella Discovery from the US to Europe.
“While the current circumstances have meant we’ve had to make changes to our programme, there’s still a range of amazing itineraries for customers to enjoy. We’ve been working hard to implement new health & safety measures to protect customers and crew while they’re sailing with us and we can’t wait to welcome our customers back onboard soon.”
Marella Cruises has not confirmed whether the ship has been sold for scrap or purchased by a new owner. Recently it was revealed Marella Celebration would head for the scrapyard after reportedly being handed over to Turkish crew.