''World Dream'' is a

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...

that most recently operated for

Dream Cruises Genting Hong Kong Limited ( zh, 雲頂香港有限公司) was a holding company that operated cruise and resort businesses. It was headquartered in (海洋中心), Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (). It was p ...

. She was initially ordered under the same name for

Star Cruises Star Cruises was a cruise line headquartered in Hong Kong and operating in the Asia-Pacific market. The company was owned by Genting Hong Kong. It was the eighteenth largest cruise line in the world after Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribb ...

. The ship was designed for the Asian cruise market and has a large number of restaurants together with a casino and specially designed cabins. She was formally named on 17 November 2017 by Cecilia Lim, wife of Genting CEO

Lim Kok Thay Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay (; born 16 August 1951) is a Malaysian Chinese billionaire businessman. He is the chairman of Genting Group, a casinos, resorts and palm oil conglomerate with a market capitalization of almost MYR40 billion, and the secon ...

, who became godmother of the ship. On 16 November 2017, Dream Cruises created an

Lego Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocking ...

model of the ship, the largest such model of a cruise ship, which is on permanent display at the

Kai Tak Cruise Terminal Kai Tak Cruise Terminal is a cruise ship terminal on the former Kai Tak Airport runway in Hong Kong. Its completion date was delayed into 2013 due to re-tendering. Following an international competition, Foster + Partners was chosen to d ...

in Hong Kong. The ship was originally designed and ordered for

, but she was transferred to Dream Cruises during construction. On 1 March 2022, Dream Cruises announced its World Dream Vessel to cease operations on 2 March 2022 after its last sailing return to shores on the 2nd of March.

History

Construction and service

''World Dream'' was ordered in February 2014 for Star Cruises and was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

on 29 July 2015. In November 2015, she was transferred to sister brand Dream Cruises. She was launched on 26 August 2017 and completed on 26 October 2017. ''World Dream'' measures at 150,695

gross tons Gross tonnage (GT, G.T. or gt) is a nonlinear measure of a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage. Neither gross tonnage nor gross register tonnage should be confused with measures of mass or weig ...

and is long with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of . ''World Dream'' entered service for

in November 2017. Following the collapse of parent company ''Genting Hong Kong'' and subsequently ''Dream Cruises'', ''World Dream'' has been laid up in Singapore since March 2022, and is set to be sold at auction with sealed bids due by 21 December 2022. As for the rest of the fleet, World Dream's sister ship,

Genting Dream ''Genting Dream'' is a cruise ship of ''Resorts World Cruises''. The ship has a length of , a width of , a size of , and a top speed of over . The construction of ''Genting Dream'', the first ship of the cruise brand, Dream Cruises, was completed ...

has been charted out to ''Resorts World Cruises''.

Explorer Dream ''Explorer Dream'' is a ''Leo'' class cruise ship that most recently operated with Dream Cruises. She was built in 1999 by the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany as ''SuperStar Virgo''. Concept and construction ''SuperStar Virgo'' was ord ...

awaits its fate, from the creditors that own the vessel and Global Dream was sold to

Disney Cruise Line Disney Cruise Line is a cruise line operation that is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. The company was incorporated in 1996 as Magical Cruise Company Limited, through the first vessel, ''Disney Magic'' and is domiciled in London, England ...

Coronavirus quarantine

Three passengers aboard ''World Dream'' during 19–24 January 2020 were confirmed to have been infected by

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On 5 February 2020, all 3,800 ''World Dream'' passengers and crew were put under quarantine on board the ship at Hong Kong's

after Taiwan blocked its port of call in

Kaohsiung Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...

. , checks of those on board were ongoing. The quarantine was lifted on 9 February 2020 after all 1,800 crew members were tested negative of the virus. The majority of the passengers were not tested as they had had no contact with the infected Chinese passengers who had been on the ship during 19–24 January. On 26 February the Indonesian Government evacuated their 188 citizens from ''World Dream'' using the

hospital ship A hospital ship is a ship designated for primary function as a floating medical treatment facility or hospital. Most are operated by the military forces (mostly navies) of various countries, as they are intended to be used in or near war zones. ...

KRI ''dr. Soeharso''. All Indonesians that were aboard the cruise ship were taken to Sebaru Kecil Island which is part of the

Thousand Islands The Thousand Islands (french: Mille-Îles) constitute a North American archipelago of 1,864 islands that straddles the Canada–US border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. They stretch for abo ...

Regency in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

. After that, they underwent 14 days of quarantine and observation.

References

External links

''World Dream'' cruise ship's page
at Dream Cruises {{Breakaway class 2017 ships Ships of the Dream Cruises Cruise ships involved in the COVID-19 pandemic