Rising from the ashes of Genting Hong Kong, a new cruise line owned by Malaysian tycoon Lim Kok Thay will set sail from its homeport in Singapore next month.
Resorts World Cruises will deploy Genting Dream, a ship once operated by the Genting HK-owned Dream Cruises. Controlled by the Lim family, Genting Hong Kong went into liquidation earlier this year.
The new line is an extension of the hotel group Resorts World, also controlled by the Lim family. Resorts World operates 46 properties in 8 countries. The latest Resorts World property, the $4.3 billion Resorts World Las Vegas, opened in June 2021. Resorts World is also invested in the Bimini Beach Club in Bimini, Bahamas.
Genting Dream has been owned by a group of Chinese banks since 2020 and was being leased back to Dream Cruises. That’s how it avoided being part of the Genting Hong Kong collapse, which resulted in Dream Cruises, Star Cruises, and Crystal Cruises going into liquidation.
As Cruise Radio recently reported, both the Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity have officially gone up for auction as part of the liquidation of their parent company.
The final twist in a saga saw the ships avoid seizure by heading for the Bahamas rather than returning to Florida back in January. At the time, Genting owed approximately $4.6 million in unpaid fuel bills.
The new Resorts World Cruises will launch on June 15 from Marina Bay in Singapore. From June through September the ship will offer two- and three-night cruises to nowhere. Soon after, the cruise line hopes to add longer cruises with port calls in places including Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. This will be dependent on Asian cruise ports reopening.
Delivered in 2016, Genting Dream is an 18-deck, 150,695 gross ton ship, with a capacity for 3,348 passengers and 1,700 crew. Seventy percent of staterooms feature balconies. Designed for the Asian market, the ship features 35 restaurants and bars, a top-deck pool, and a waterslide park with six different rides.
‘The Palace’ is a luxury ship-within-a-ship with 142 suites on the top deck served by butlers. It comes complete with an exclusive restaurant, bar, sundeck, spa, gym, and other facilities.
Among the new cruise brand players are Lim Kok Thay as executive chairman, along with Resorts World Cruises’ CEO and executive director Colin Au and Michael Goh, president and head of international sales of Resorts World Cruises.
Resorts World Cruises is reportedly offering a cruise credit to customers whose World Dream sailings were canceled effective March 2, provided they have not yet received a refund via their original booking source.
