Pullmantur Cruises
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| Industry | Cruises |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Madrid, Spain |
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Area served
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Caribbean, Mediterranean and Northern Europe. |
| Owner |
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| Subsidiaries | CDF Croisières de France |
| Website | http://www.pullmantur.es |
Pullmantur Cruises S.L. is a cruise line headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It began operations in the late 1990s as an offshoot of the Madrid-based travel agency Pullmantur. In 2006, Pullmantur Cruises, through its parent company, was purchased by US-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., who sold a 51% stake to the Spain-based Springwater Capital in 2016.
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. However, as of October 2014, this is no longer the case as alcoholic beverage packages are now sold separately.
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.
Pullmantur began cruise operations in the 1990s by initially selling cruises onboard SS SeaWind Crown, founded by Anastasios Kyriakides (subsequently merged with Premier Cruises), 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. The Big Red Boat 1 was reverted to her original name SS Oceanic, and begun cruising around the Mediterranean from Barcelona in May 2005. 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), and chartered the former Renaissance Cruises ship MS R Five from Cruiseinvest. The R Five was marketed under the name Blue Dream. Two more ships followed in 2003. Pullmantur acquired MS Superstar Aries from Star Cruises and renamed her MS Holiday Dream, while the R Five's sister ship MS R Six was chartered under the marketing name Blue Star.
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