The Marco Polo, the former Orient Line ship, will be used to launch a U.K.-based, adults-only cruise line called Cruise & Maritime Voyages.
U.K.-based Cruise & Maritime Services, which brokers, markets and manages cruise ship charters, said that it decided to start a company based on the success the Marco Polo has had in the U.K. market with its current owners, Germany's Transocean Tours. CMS has been the U.K. sales agent for Transocean and was encouraged by the vessel's high satisfaction rating in the U.K. market.
A Greek company bought the 820-passenger, 22,000-ton Marco Polo from Star Cruises in 2007, after Norwegian Cruise Line shut down Orient Line. The vessel was chartered to Transocean in March 2008.
CMS finalized a five-year charter agreement with the ship's current owner, Marco Polo Chartering Co.
"We will continue our unique and successful distribution strategy of marketing the program via a select group of firmly established British tour operating partners and the retail travel trade," Chris Coates, director of CMS, said in a statement.
Following a short refurbishment in the U.K., the Marco Polo will re-enter service on Jan. 2 with a winter program out of London.
The ship will offer 24 cruises to the Amazon, Orinoco and West Indies during the winter months, followed by a season of Nordic cruises to Scandinavia, the Baltic and Russia, Iceland, the British Isles, the Mediterranean and Canary Islands.