Cruise & Maritime Voyages Fleet Scenario for Operations Pause

Magellan

The Cruise & Maritime Voyages fleet is being recalled to Northern Europe for the company’s voluntary pause of operations.

“All six ocean vessels will be heading back to Northern Europe,” said Chris Coates, group commercial director, in an email to Cruise Industry News.

The Magellan, Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Astoria are set to stay in Tilbury.

The Marco Polo will layover in Bristol Avonmouth and the Astor will dock in Bremerhaven.

The present plan is for a vast majority of the crew to remain onboard, Coates said.

The company plans to resumes operations on April 24.

Cruise & Maritime Voyages expands fleet

Cruise & Maritime Voyages will add the Grand Holiday cruise ship to its fleet next spring and will change the vessel’s name to Magellan.

The 29-year-old ship currently sails for Ibero Cruises, a line owned by Carnival Corp. It entered service in 1985 as the Carnival Holiday.

At 1,250 passengers, Magellan will become Cruise & Maritime Voyages’ largest ship. It will operate adults-only cruises (age 16 and over), its first being a 12-night sailing to Iceland and the Faroes from the Port of Tilbury near London on March 15.

U.K.-based Cruise & Maritime Voyages currently has two ships, the 800-passenger Marco Polo and the 600-pasenger Astor. The 550-passenger Azores also will join the fleet in 2015.

John Dennis, the cruise line’s vice president of sales and marketing, said the Magellan “will be very well suited to our U.S. and Canadian guests sailing from the U.K. throughout Northern Europe.”

“Having already sold 65% of capacity for next year, we remain confident that Magellan will help satisfy the growing demand for our product,” he said.