Marella Discovery
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History | |
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Name: |
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Owner: | 1996–2016 Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. |
Operator: |
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Port of registry: | |
Route: | Palma De Mallorca, Spain And Bridgetown, Barbados |
Builder: | |
Yard number: | B31 |
Launched: | June 17, 1995 |
Christened: | March 1996 |
Maiden voyage: | March 31, 1996 |
In service: |
March 31, 1996 (as Splendour of the Seas) June 11, 2016 (as TUI Discovery) |
Identification: |
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Status: | In service |
Notes: | Identical sister to Legend of the Seas |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | Vision-class cruise ship |
Tonnage: | 69,130 GT |
Displacement: | 35,396 tonnes (34,837 long tons; 39,017 short tons) |
Length: | 264 metres (866 ft) length overall |
Beam: | 32 metres (105 ft) |
Height: | 50 metres (160 ft) air draft |
Draft: | 25.9 feet (7.9 m) |
Decks: | 11 |
Installed power: |
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Propulsion: | 2 5.8-metre (19 ft) diameter, fixed pitch propellers |
Speed: | 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) |
Capacity: | 2,076 passengers in 902 staterooms |
Crew: | 720-750 crew |
March 31, 1996 (as Splendour of the Seas)
Marella Discovery is a Vision-class cruise ship which sails for Marella Cruises. Prior to April 2016, she was operated by Royal Caribbean International as Splendour of the Seas. The second in the line of the Vision-class ships, she features a seven-story lobby, rock-climbing wall, and an 9-hole miniature golf course.
Following the announcement on the 9th October 2017, that Thomson Cruises would be renamed Marella Cruises, TUI Group also announced that TUI Discovery would adopt the name Marella Discovery at the end of October 2017, and also that she would become the first ship in the Thomson fleet to be based in Asia, home porting Malaysia in Autumn 2018, following the end of her UK debut season.
Marella Discovery was built for Royal Caribbean International as Splendour of the Seas by Chantiers de l'Atlantique at their shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France. The ship was assigned the yard number "B31", and was launched on June 17, 1995 by Lisa Wilhelmsen. The ship is registered to the port of Nassau, in the Bahamas. Maiden voyage for Splendour of the Seas commenced on March 31, 1996.
On 31 October 2011, Royal Caribbean and Spanish shipyard Navantia signed a contract for Splendour of the Seas to receive structural modifications, maintenance to the propellers, propeller shafts and rudder, and interior upgrades, including new dining and public areas, 124 new balconies, and improvements to staterooms. The work was expected to take about five weeks to complete.
Until April 2016, Splendour of the Seas was based in Brazil during the southern hemisphere summer, doing a series of itineraries from three to twelve nights throughout South America, and is based out of Venice, Italy during the northern hemisphere summer, sailing seven night cruises to the Eastern Mediterranean.
In March 2015, Royal Caribbean sold Splendour of the Seas to TUI Cruises who was then sub-chartered to Thomson Cruises, with the final sailing for Royal Caribbean departing on April 4, 2016. The ship was renamed TUI Discovery and was based in Palma, Mallorca and Bridgetown, Barbados starting in June 2016 after refurbishment. She was originally going to be renamed Thomson Discovery, but they changed it to TUI Discovery as part of their rebranding.