EasyCruise put its flagship vessel on the block, and the line will look to purchase a larger replacement.
EasyCruise Chairman Stelios Haji-Ioannou said the listed sale price for the 232-passenger EasyCruiseOne is $20.3 million.
Haji-Ioannou said EasyCruise would look to replace EasyCruiseOne with a ship similar to the 500-passenger EasyCruise Life, a 12,711-ton ship built in 1981. That vessel was purchased five months ago from Arab Ship Management, a Jordanian company. EasyCruise Life is set to make its debut in April.
Despite what has been described as a shortage of midsize cruise ships on the current market, Haji-Ioannou said that EasyCruise's desired ship size is common among ferries, which the line would remodel.
“EasyCruise Life represents the ideal size of ship for EasyCruise, being small enough to visit off-the-beaten-track Greek islands yet big enough to offer more accommodation options, including suites, and a better restaurant, lounge, pool, spa and other facilities,” said Paul Ellerby, the line’s sales and marketing director. “So we hope to find another similar ship and offer our customers two ships again in 2009.”
The EasyCruiseOne will continue to operate under the EasyCruise brand in the Aegean and Ionian seas through October 2008, Ellerby said. He added that the EasyCruiseOne is doing well, and that its itineraries are almost completely booked through April.
In its short existence, EasyCruise has changed its fleet plans frequently. In 2006, EasyCruise said that it would grow by entering into franchise agreements along with building new ships. It entered into an franchise agreement with Cyprus-based Louis Cruises to increase the EasyCruise fleet to eight vessels by 2011, as part of the line’s previously announced agreement with Greek shipyard Neorion Holdings.
When the EasyCruise Life was acquired, Haji-Ioannou said that those deals were off the table due to not being able to agree on a price with the shipyard. A river cruise vessel, EasyCruiseTwo, had also operated as a franchise of EasyCruise for about one year before ceasing operations. EasyCruise now says it will grow through ship acquisitions.
The EasyCruiseOne was originally built for Renaissance Cruises as the Renaissance II in 1990. In 1998, it was sold and renamed the Neptune II, operating as a gambling ship out of Singapore. EasyCruise purchased the vessel in 2004, gave it an extensive retrofit and launched it in 2005.