Wednesday, April 10, 2024

UK cruise ships scrapped in India's 'ship graveyard'

marco polo cruise ship

MS Marco Polo was built as "Aleksandr Pushkin" in 1965 by Mathias-Thesen Werft (East Germany) for Baltic Shipping Company (USSR-Soviet Union). From 1993 to 2008, after an intensive refit, the ship sailed as Marco Polo for Orient Lines. Currently, ms Marco Polo is owned by Global Maritime, under charter to CMV since January 2, 2010.

Sail in a great explorer’s wake

This British Woman Tried to Swim to Her Cruise Ship After It Left Port - Condé Nast Traveler

This British Woman Tried to Swim to Her Cruise Ship After It Left Port.

Posted: Tue, 29 Mar 2016 07:00:00 GMT [source]

With departure from six UK cities, afternoon tea service, an English-speaking staff, and pounds sterling as onboard currency, the cruise line attracts a predominantly unpretentious, British crowd. Some rooms are equipped with additional Pullman beds for a 3rd/4th passenger. Toiletries (unbranded bath products) are regularly replenished and include shower gel/shampoo (wall-mounted) and two soap bars.

Shipboard dining options - Food and Drinks

As a cruise line with a steady base of fans and growing steadily over the years, December 2019 saw the purchase of two new vessels. Mr Arggawal said they tried to find new work for the Marco Polo as a cruise ship or a hotel without success, before selling to "Indian interests". HighSeas Ltd said the cruise ship would be used as a floating hotel in Dubai. On this page you will find Marco Polo features, history, sister ships, and useful facts provided by Cruisedeckplans.com. Chief engineer Georgios Katsifarakis is a huge enthusiast for his ship describing her as ‘the last Rolls-Royce from the golden era of travelling at sea’. Due to the number of passengers and the small space the tables were both a little smaller and a bit closer together than was entirely comfortable, but once you got squeezed in you quickly forgot.

It’s Official: The Marco Polo Is Getting Scrapped

Due to the smaller size and lack of variety of restaurants and leisure facilities I don’t think I could see myself choosing MS Marco Polo for a full week long cruise, but I’d happily spend another weekend aboard. With just one night aboard we headed to the Marco Polo’s main dining room the ‘Waldorf Restaurant’. Our table ordered a very nice bottle of champagne and an equally pricy bottle of wine, taking the drinks menu at face value as per the other bars. So you can imagine our irritation when at the end of the meal we were presented with the drinks bill PLUS 20% VAT (around £25) added on top. Given the age and size of the ship we were pretty pleased with the size of the cabin – especially given that it was intended for three people.

CMV's Marco Polo to visit the Arctic Circle - Cruise Trade News

CMV's Marco Polo to visit the Arctic Circle.

Posted: Thu, 21 Jun 2018 07:00:00 GMT [source]

She will join three Fantasy-class vessels that were once part of Carnival Cruise Line and two former Royal Caribbean ships that were scrapped after Pullmantur went out of business. The vessel which was once a popular ocean liner arrived off the coast of Alang, India, and in the early hours of this morning, was finally beached. The ship will not sail again and over the coming months will be scrapped. After serving its original purpose until the 1970s, the vessel started to sail as a cruise ship under charter agreements. More days means more to discover, with extension packages you can add before or after your Viking cruise or cruisetour.

While the line had a steady client base for many years, it was to be one of the first victims in the cruise industry to succumb to the pandemic’s effects. UK shadow environment secretary Luke Pollard believes tighter, global regulation is needed to ensure that British-owned ships end up being recycled by approved ship-breaking yards. "If you have a vessel built in the 60s, it is likely there are larger amounts of asbestos on board. There's a ban on asbestos in Europe, but in India, it's freely being traded and sold and used as second-hand building materials." The ship was bought at auction for around £2m by offshore company Highseas Ltd. After the sale, it was released from UK waters on the condition it would be used for "further trading". Itinerary and shore excursions are subject to change and may vary by departure.

To find another option, begin your search

To learn more about each port of call and our included as well as optional excursions, click on the individual days below. The 100-page commemorative book plots the vessel’s 50 years in great detail and draws together a collection of historic and modern images of the ship. Although obviously dated she is being well maintained by the crew and at no point did we see anything that was obviously worn out, dirty or dangerous. I started dinner with a Seafood Gratin – served in a scallop shell which was a nice small portion but perfectly cooked. My partner Jimmy had a heritage tomato and mozzarella salad – he said it was delicious but wished there’d been more mozzarella. Whilst we enjoyed our drinks we found that many were made quite differently than we would expect.

marco polo cruise ship

The guest services manager was “unable to provide” the VAT receipt for our final bill, or any of our drinks orders. Something not quite right is going on aboard CMV’s Marco Polo – and it left an unpleasant taste in our mouths. We were asked over the PA system to go back to our cabins and collect our lifejackets and report to our muster stations, ours was Marco’s Bistro – the buffet restaurant. Be sure to alight at Portsmouth & Southsea, the station Portsmouth Harbour is actually further away from the cruise terminal. Both handicap cabins are with a convenient location near the ship’s elevators. Room service menu includes Caesar salad (GBP 8), soup (GBP 3,50), baguette with cheese and salad (GBP 7), burger with beef (GBP 13), homemade cake (GBP 6), beverages (tea-coffee GBP 1,80).

Why Viking

Marco's Bistro is an open-seating informal alternative dining venue on the pool deck and guests can eat outdoors, whenever the weather conditions permit so. The boat had 11 decks, of which 8 passenger-accessible and 7 with cabins. At the end of 2015, Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen (DSV), part of Damen Shiprepair & Conversion (DSC), said farewell to ms Marco Polo, which was in for her 10th special survey and general maintenance and refurbishment. These included an exterior repainting, interior repairs, and maintenance to bring her back up to her usual high standards.

It features two sittings, dinners are good and usually exceed expectations for the price level, prepared with much more finesse than breakfasts. Afternoon tea and late-night snacks are also offered on board according to cruising tradition. Cruise Hive first reported that the ship was set to be scrapped earlier in January. She had already set a course for the ship-breaking facility on January 4 and was scheduled to arrive on January 6. May we present you with a small selection of the wide range of cruises available on Cruise and Maritime Voyages' Marco Polo. A fan favorite, Cruise and Maritime Voyages catered mostly for the UK market, focusing on an older, mature crowd that enjoyed indulging in the classic cruise setup.

A year later an english business man, Gerry Herrod, bought her for intended use as a soft expedition cruise ship for his Orient Lines. The 820-passenger ship Marco Polo is among the top choices for small ship travel vacations out of the UK. Fellow passengers are affluent, middle-aged, well-travelled and mostly repeat guests.

From 1979 to 1984, Alexandr Pushkin served the German market and sailed for Transocean Cruises. After this, she was transferred to another Soviet shipping company, the Far Eastern shipping Company, with homeport Vladivostok. During her final days under the Soviet flag she was chartered to CTC Cruises, for whom she sailed out of Europe and Australia.

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