World Dream, a cruise ship that was only completed in 2017, will be going up for auction on December 21. The cruise ship was ordered by Genting Hong Kong in 2015 for Star Cruises before being turned over to the company’s new cruise line, Dream Cruises.
Interested parties can place a sealed bid to the Singapore Sheriff’s office with a $50,000 downpayment. The auction resulted from a court order which followed the parent company Genting Hong Kong’s bankruptcy. The cruise ship was placed under arrest by a German bank earlier this year and has since been sitting at anchor outside Singapore.
World Dream is to be Sold in December
The former assets of Genting Cruises are being sold off at a record pace. A few weeks ago, Disney Cruise Line bought the unfinished 9000-maximum capacity Global Dream. This week, the Sherrif’s office in Singapore announced that the World Dream would be sold by sealed-bid auction on December 21.
Interested parties will need to place a bid by sending a $50,000 downpayment, together with their offer, before 3 PM on December 21. Although she has not sailed for the majority of 2022, the vessel is in excellent condition, having been anchored off the coast of Singapore.
The value of the World Dream is unknown. Several factors play into this: Genting Hong Kong built the vessel with the Chinese market in mind. If a US-based or European-based cruise line purchased the ship, it would need significant modifications to make it suitable for Western tastes.
Also important, Global Dream, the largest cruise ship by passenger numbers in the world, sat unsold for months. A fate that could befall World Dream.
Although Disney Cruise Line purchased Global Dream for a fraction of the construction price, Disney paid a reported $41 million versus a 1.8 billion construction price; it will need to make considerable investments to prepare it for guests. Whether many cruise lines are willing to invest in the World Dream in financially uncertain times remains to be seen.
World Dream was built at the Meyer Werft in Papenburg, Germany. The 150,695 gross-ton cruise ship has space for some 5,000 guests at full occupancy and 3,376 at double occupancy. Initially ordered for Genting Hong Kong’s cruise brand Star Cruises, the vessel was transferred to sister-brand Dream Cruises.
Dream Cruises Was Once a Cruise Giant in the Making
Dream Cruises was first unveiled in 2015 as a reaction from parent company Genting Hong Kong to the burgeoning cruise market in China. The company already operated Star Cruises and had also purchased the ultra-luxury cruise line Crystal Cruises earlier that year.
The sister ship to World Dream, Genting Dream, entered service in 2016, and World Dream followed in 2017. In 2019, an older Star Cruises ship, the ex-Superstar Virgo Explorer Dream, joined the fleet. In 2018 and 2019, construction started on two of the largest cruise ships ever built, the 208,000 gross-tons Global Dream I and II.
While everything seemed to be going well for Dream Cruises and Genting Hong Kong, behind the scenes, the financial situation painted a very different picture. That came to light during the pandemic’s start when Genting Hong Kong submitted a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange suspending all payments to creditors, while the company tried to come to grips with 3,8 billion dollars of debt.
What followed was a cruise company that unraveled at a record pace. By the end of January 2022, Genting Hong Kong had filed for insolvency. Crystal Cruises was sold to Abercrombie & Kent, Genting Dream is under charter to Resorts World Cruises, and Global Dream I was sold to Disney Cruise Line. Global Dream II is likely to be sold as scrap metal.
