It’s looking like Spanish-based Pullmantur Cruises, which is partly owned by Royal Caribbean, might be brought back to business with the help of two Celebrity Millennium-class cruise ships.
UPDATE: We’ve got an update on this after receiving a response from Celebrity Cruises, click here.
Pullmantur Cruises Making a Comeback
A new proposed corporation agreement has been accepted by the insolvency administrator of Pullmantur Cruises chaired by Francisco Vera. Royal Caribbean, a shareholder in the Spanish cruise line, is putting together a plan along with Pullmantur to bring it back to business.
This comes after the cruise line filed for a reorganization, according to Spanish law, a form of bankruptcy. This was due to the suspension of operations, which started in March 2020, and the global pandemic impacting travel. The cruise line was one of the first to go out of business.
With Royal Caribbean being one of the stronger and major cruise companies, thankfully, Pullmantur is being brought back to life.
New details are being drawn up so that kickstart operations can be started as soon as possible. Administrator Francisco Vera has already commented, “We believe in the potential of a shipping company with the size of Pullmantur Cruises, and we are working robustly on the Business Plan with the aim of betting on the viability of the company.”
Millenium-Class Ships to Transfer
So one of the main ways Pullmantur is being brought back to business is with two Millenium-class cruise ship from sister line Celebrity Cruises. These vessels would be more efficient to operate with more balconies and modern design.
Celebrity Cruises has suspended operations since March 2020 and transferring two ships to Pullmantur benefits them too as the restart of cruises in 2021 is set to be slow with only a limited number of ships.
There are four Millennium-class cruise ships that Celebrity operates, including Celebrity Millennium, which entered service in 2000 and is the first in her class; Celebrity Infinity, which made her debut in 2001; Celebrity Summit, which entered service also in 2001; and Celebrity Constellation is the newest in the class and entered service in 2002.
Celebrity Millennium and Summit were both upgraded in 2019 to bring them in-line with the newer Edge-class ships. Celebrity Infinity and Constellation were last upgraded in 2007, so they could likely be the ships to transfer to Pullmantur.
Pullmantur does not currently have any cruise ships as they were all sold off.
Royal Caribbean Supports Future Cruise Credit
Vera has also commented on Future Cruise Credits (FCC) as Royal Caribbean continues to offer compensation to those guests who were impacted by the cancellation of Pullmantur sailings. A 125% credit is being offered, and cruisers can use that to sail with Royal Caribbean International or Celebrity Cruises in the future.
Pullmantur Ships Being Scrapped
At the moment, Monarch and Sovereign, which were two cruise ships operated by Pullmantur, are being scrapped at the Aliaga shipbreaking facility in Turkey. Both ships were also operated by Royal Caribbean International, known as Monarch of the Seas and Sovereign of the Seas.
