A cruise ship that sailed for Costa Cruises and Holland America Line in the past will be broken up for scrap in the next weeks and months.
The 1995-built Marella Dream, which had been docked in Greece since the start of the pandemic, has arrived in the Aliaga yard in Turkey, the end-station for several cruise ships in recent years.
Marella Dream, MS Homeric when built, was the first cruise ship made by the world-famous Meyer Werft, which since has created some of the most iconic cruise ships in the world.
During her illustrious history, Marella Dream sailed as Westerdam for Holland America Line and Costa Europa for Costa Cruises.
Marella Dream Arrives for Scrapping
On June 15, Marella Dream finally departed Eleusis Bay in Greece after remaining there for a year and a half. Hooked up on the tugboat Christos LXI, the Marella Dream arrived at the shipbreaking yard in Aliaga, Turkey, today June 18.
It now means that the once-popular vessel, will be beached in the coming days and scrapping will commence.
It comes as no surprise the vessel is being scrapped after the cruise line announced the ship was returning from the Marella fleet in November 2020.
First Meyer Werft Ship
Built by the Meyer Werft in Papenburg, Germany, in 1986 as the ms Homeric, the vessel was the first-ever cruise liner built by the world-famous shipbuilding yard.
MS Homeric set the tone for many famous cruise ships that would follow in her footsteps. Ships such as Quantum of the Seas, Disney Wish, Norwegian Epic, Norwegian Breakaway, and next year, Carnival Jubilee.
Built for the Italian shipping company Home Lines, MS Homeric only sailed under that name for three years. In 1988, Home Lines merged with Holland America Line around the same time Carnival Corporation purchased Holland America.
As part of that deal, the ship returned to the Meyer Werft, was lengthened from 204 meters to 243.20 meters in late 1989 / early 1990, and was renamed MS Westerdam.
The vessel sailed for Holland America through 2002 when she was transferred to Costa Cruises and renamed Costa Europa.
After an accident in Sharm El Sheikh that killed three people and injured another four, the vessel was sold by Carnival Corporation to a UK-based cruise operator, Thomson Cruises, in 2010.
From April 2010, the ship sailed as Thomson Dream and was renamed again when Thomson was renamed Marella Cruises.
In October 2020, the vessel was laid up in Greece and later decommissioned and sold as scrap metal.
End of Time for Less Efficient Cruise Ships
The pandemic has brought two things to light. The cruise industry needed to offload older, polluting, and expensive-to-run cruise ships and follow a much more green, environmentally conscious route.
Several companies have been doing just that. Since the start of the pandemic, many cruise ships have been scrapped, while the cruise lines have been introducing several initiatives that consider the environmental impact ships can have.
Just in the last few weeks, a former Norwegian Cruise Line ship, more recently known as Superstar Libra, was beached; Carnival Sensation was beached, and Carnival Cruise Line has started preparations for the departure of Carnival Ecstacy.
However, while the beaching of all these ships would be bad news on a sentimental level for some, what is sure is that it has been good news for the cruise industry.
With environmentally conscious ships such as Carnival Corporation’s Excellence-class cruise ships, the World-class ships from MSC, and the Icon-Class ships from Royal Caribbean, the cruise industry is making serious inroads towards a much greener future.
