Royal Caribbean has announced that, as indicated by the 2008 Pullmantur advance brochure released last week (click here to download pdf), Sovereign of the Seas will be leaving the Royal Caribbean fleet to join Spanish sister company Pullmantur.
The ship, currently based in Port Canaveral, Florida on 3- and 4-night cruises, will leave the Royal Caribbean fleet in November. Pullmantur has not yet announced when the ship will enter its fleet or what itineraries it will operate.
Sovereign of the Seas will be replaced on its current itinerary by its newer sister ship Monarch of the Seas, which is currently based in Los Angeles. No replacement for Monarch of the Seas has been announced.
Built in 1987, the 2,292-berth, 73,192 GT Sovereign of the Seas was a seminal ship for the cruise industry. The largest passenger ship in service when built (though not the largest ever built, a record then still held by Cunard’s 1938-built Queen Elizabeth, which burned in Hong Kong harbor as Seawise University in 1972), she was also more than 50% larger than any other purpose-built cruise ship of the time. Only NCL’s converted ocean liner Norway was in the same realm. Sovereign re-established the then-struggling Royal Caribbean as a leader in the cruise industry and spawned the dozens of mega-ships that have entered service in the 20 years after her introduction.
Click here for a press release from Royal Caribbean.
1 Comment
Saturday, 13 October 2007 at 3:42 pm
We are really going to miss her here. I do hope they do not give up this market. They have a wonderful product and great staff.
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