Cruise & Maritime Voyages today confirmed it purchased the Pacific Dawn and Pacific Aria from Carnival Corporation.
A sales price for the 1994-built Pacific Aria, with capacity for 1,258 guests, and the 1991-built Pacific Dawn, with capacity for 2,020 guests, was not announced.
The ships will join the Pacific Eden, the Aria’s sister, at CMV, along with other ex-Carnival Corp. vessels the Columbus and the Magellan.
CMV will take delivery of P&O Australia’s Pacific Dawn and Pacific Aria in Singapore on the March 2 and May 2, 2021 respectively, increasing lower bed fleet capacity to 9,000 berths and passenger capacity by 30 percent in 2021.
The duo will be officially re-named in summer 2021 following a drydocking, some minor upgrade and re-livery works in Singapore before embarking on CMV maiden positioning voyages via the Suez Canal to Northern Europe.
The Pacific Dawn will be deployed for the UK market year-round from Tilbury, while the Pacific Area will sail for the TransOcean brand targeting the German market, cruising alongside the Vasco da Gama (the former Pacific Eden) and replacing the 580 passenger Astor. She is being re-named Jules Verne and will be re-deployed to the French market in May 2021.
Christian Verhounig, CEO commented: “The introduction of two more ships to the global ocean fleet is the next exciting chapter of our strategic growth objectives. This will enable us to service increasing market demand for our traditional brand of cruising generated by our expanding international network of in-house sales offices and developing source markets. We have now acquired five cruise ships in just five years and are firmly on course in carrying 200,000 passengers in 2021.”
Chris Coates, Group Commercial Director added, “As the CMV brand continues to evolve, the growing popularity of our traditional product, classic ships and destination focused cruise programs has encouraged us to accelerate plans to add capacity to the two top European cruise markets in the UK and Germany, which represent 85 percent of our business.
“These two fine cruise ships perfectly complement our existing fleet providing trade partners and consumers alike with much needed extra capacity. For 2020, we expect close to 70 percent of capacity to be sold by the year end, in line with expectations. This provides an ideal platform for the early introduction of new tonnage and opportunities for summer 2021 with the focus very much on higher yield business.”
