CDF Croisières de France, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises, has announced that it has sold the 1981-built, 750-passenger Bleu De France (ex-Holiday Dream, Europa) which it will continue to operate under lease for a period of 12 months. Pullmantur will subsequently redeploy the 1990-built, 1,354-passenger Pacific Dream (ex-Horizon) to CDF in the spring of 2012. The sale provides additional liquidity to Royal Caribbean of approximately $55 million. The buyer was not identified.

Cruise Industry News has learned that the Bleu De France was sold by Royal Caribbean Cruises to Saga, where it will start service in early 2012.