Transocean Tours has announced that the 18,591 GT, 500-berth Astoria will leave the fleet after her final world cruise for the company concludes in April 2009.
Built in 1981 as Astor and later named Arkona, the ship has been chartered by Transocean since 2002. Originally chartered from Sovcomflot, Astoria was sold to Club Cruise in 2007 as Sovcomflot divested itself of its passenger ships. Transocean stated that it was unable to reach an agreement with Club Cruise to continue the charter because of the ship’s high operating cost in relation to her small passenger capacity.
Transocean also charters the ship’s larger, newer near-sister, the 1987-built, 20,606 GT, 590-berth Astor from Premicon and beginning in April 2008 will charter the 1965-built, 22,080 GT, 850-berth Marco Polo. In a press statement, Transocean stated that it is looking to add another ship with 700 to 900 berths to its fleet to replace Astoria. The company also stressed that it will continue to operate Astor until at least 2013 and Marco Polo until at least 2012.
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