The Halifax cruise season is winding down with only four more ships scheduled over the next eight days. Today (October 31) a first timer arrived on a sort of "gap filler" cruise of fourteen days marketed as an East Coast Adventure. The ship is the Marella Discovery operated by Marella Cruises (formerly Thomson Cruises) part of TUI UK.
With ships arriving and sailing in the dark at this time of year, it is difficult get underway photos. When ships are tied up there is inevitably some obstruction in the background.
Built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint Nazaire in 1996, it is a 69,472 gt ship with a passenger capacity of 1830 and a crew of 720 to 750. It sailed for Royal Caribbean as the Splendour of the Seas until 2016. It then moved to TUI cruises, named TUI Discovery for only a year, becoming Marella Discovery in 2017 as part of a rebranding. The parent company TUI is based in Germany, and is publicly traded. A sizeable number of the shares were held by a sanctioned Russian oligarch and his family, however that interest was diluted by increased share sales to exsting investors. After huge losses due to COVID, TUI may sell off Marella.
A handsome looking ship, it did not need the blue swoosh" to enhance its appearance in my opinion.
The ship has been operating out of Cape Canaveral on Caribbean cruises, but on October 22 it sailed for Newport, RI for October 25; Portland, ME October 27; Saint John, NB October 28; bypassing Halifax October 29; and calling in Sydney, NS yesterday, October 30. From here it will sail to Boston and back to Port Canaveral. This winter it is to be based in Bridgetown, Barbados and is headed for the Aegean in May 2024. It is scheduled to remain in that area through to at least November of 2024, so we don't expect to see this ship in Halifax any time soon.(Easterm Mediterraean and Aegean schedules may change depending on events however.)
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