Pullmantur Cruises

Pullmantur Cruises

Headquarters	Madrid, Spain
Area served	Worldwide
Parent	Royal Caribbean
Website	http://www.pullmantur.es

MS Ocean Dream at Valletta in the current red-funneled Pullmantur livery.

Pullmantur Cruises is a cruise line headquartered in Spain. It began operations in the late 1990s as an offshoot of the Madrid-based travel agency Pullmantur. Pullmantur Cruises, through its parent company, was purchased by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. in 2006.^[1]

Overview

MS Blue Moon departing Helsinki, Finland, July 2007.

Pullmantur Cruises is the largest Spain-based cruise line. The company mainly markets to Spanish passengers, although cruises on Pullmantur ships are also sold by some travel operators outside the Spanish-speaking world. Most of the company's ships operate an "all-inclusive" product, where some extras, such as brand alcoholic beverages, are included in the cruise price.^[1]

Most Pullmantur ships do not operate cruises for the company during the northern hemisphere winter season. Instead, they are either laid up or under charter to other cruise lines, such as the Brazil-based Viagens CVC.^[1]

History

Pullmantur began cruise operations in the 1990s by initially selling cruises onboard SS SeaWind Crown in the Southern Caribbean from Premier Cruises and later also onboard Premier Cruises flagship the SS Rembrandt in the Mediterranean. After Premier Cruises changed their business plan in 1997 and decided to cancel their contracts with operators such as Pullmantur and their following collapse in 2000, Pullmantur acquired their SS Big Red Boat 1 and started their own cruise line, Pullmantur Cruises.^[1] The Big Red Boat 1 was reverted to her original name SS Oceanic, and begun cruising around the Mediterranean from Barcelona in May 2005.^[2] The Oceanic became hugely successful, and already in 2002 Pullmantur acquired a second ship, MS Pacific (formerly Princess Cruises' famous MS Pacific Princess that starred in The Love Boat TV series),^[1] and chartered the former Renaissance Cruises ship MS R Five from Cruiseinvest. The R Five was marketed under the name Blue Dream.^[3] Two more ships followed in 2003. Pullmantur acquired MS Superstar Aries from Star Cruises and renamed her MS Holiday Dream,^[1] while the R Five's sister ship MS R Six was chartered under the marketing name Blue Star.^[4]

In 2004 the R Five was chartered by her owners to Oceania Cruises.^[3] In 2005 Pullmantur purchased the R Six, confusingly renaming her MS Blue Dream. A third R-class ship followed in 2006 when Pullmantur bought the Delphin Renaissance and renamed her MS Blue Moon. Later the same year the Pullmantur fleet grew to six ships when the Pacific Sky was purchased from P&O Cruises Australia and renamed SS Sky Wonder. A few months after the purchase of the Sky Wonder the entire Pullmantur company was sold to Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.^[1]

Following the acquisition by Royal Caribbean several transfers were carried out between the Pullmantur fleet and those of other Royal Caribbean brands. In 2007 the Blue Dream and Blue Moon were transferred to Azamara Cruises, while MS Oceanic II and Celebrity Cruises's MS Zenith joined the Pullmantur fleet in their place^[1] (the Oceanic II only spent the 2007 summer season sailing for Pullmantur).^[5] In 2008 Pullmantur received Empress of the Seas from the fleet of Royal Caribbean International, and renamed her MS Empress.^[1]

SS Sky Wonder in the harbor of Villefranche-sur-Mer, in the blue-funneled Pullmantur colours.

More changes are due to follow in 2008. The Pacific and Holiday Dream leave the Pullmantur fleet in April/May for Quail Cruises and CDF Croisières de France, respectively.^[5][6] The former P&O Cruises Australia ship Pacific Star is due to enter service as MS Ocean Dream in May.^[1] A further new ship is set to join the Pullmantur fleet in late 2008, when RCI's MS Sovereign of the Seas will be transferred to Pullmantur as the Sovereign.^[7][8] In April 2008 Lloyd's List reported that Pullmantur were also in the process of purchasing MS Pride of Aloha from Norwegian Cruise Line's subsidiary NCL America.^[9] The deal fell through however, and the Pride of Aloha returned to the "normal" Norwegian Cruise Line fleet instead.^[10] In March 2009 the Oceanic was sold to Peace Boat and the Sky Wonder was renamed Atlantic Star in April 2009.^{[citation needed]}. In mid April 2009 the Island Star was transferred from Island Cruises to Pullmantur Cruises. It was announced on March 20, 2012 that Royal Caribbean International's Monarch of the Seas will be transferred to the fleet on April 1, 2013.^[11]

Logo and livery

Between 2001 and 2008 Pullmantur ships ran in a variety of liveries. All ships had Pullmantur's logo depicting arrows across a globe on their funnels and the company name and logo on their hulls, but the colours of the funnels and hulls varied from one ship to another. SS Oceanic, SS Sky Wonder, MS Oceanic II and MS Zenith were painted with a white hull and blue funnel,^[8][12] MS R Five, MS Blue Dream and MS Blue Moon with a black hull and white funnel, MS Pacific with a white hull and white funnel, and MS Holiday Dream with a white hull and blue funnel with red stripes.^[8]

As of 2008 the company is in the process of adapting a new logo, a white circle with a red letter ñ on it. Coinciding with this the ships are painted in a new livery with a red funnel and a white hull, with the word "Pullmantur" written on the hull towards the rear in small letters.^[8]

As of 2010 all their ships have the logo: a white circle with a red letter ñ and are painted in a new livery with a red funnel and a white hull, with the word "Pullmantur" written on the hull towards the rear in small letters. However, the MV Pacific Dream does not have the white circle with a red letter ñ but it does have everything else.

Fleet

Ship	Built	Entered service for Pullmantur	Capacity	Gross tonnage	Flag	Notes
MS Empress	1990	2008	2020	48,563 GT	Malta	Formerly Empress of the Seas for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines
MV Zenith	1992	2007	1774	47,255 GT	Malta	Formerly Zenith for Celebrity Cruises
MS Sovereign	1988	2008	2852	73,192 GT	Malta	Transferred from Royal Caribbean International in November 2008.

Future ships

Ship	Class	Delivery	Gross tonnage	Planned Flag	Notes
MS Monarch	Sovereign	April 2013	73,192 GT	Malta	Currently the Monarch of the Seas with RCI[11][13]

Former fleet

See also

• Air Pullmantur

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pullmantur Cruises ships

• Official web site