Dream Cruises' ship World Dream, which has been operating domestic sailings in Singapore, will cease operations when it returns to shore on 2 March 2022.
Following parent company Genting Hong Kong's liquidation in January 2022, World Dream's future had come under uncertainty when Dream Cruises suspended new bookings on the ship even though scheduled cruises continued to operate in the past weeks.
In its latest 28 February statement, Genting Hong Kong said, "Despite the continued efforts to source and introduce external funding, the group’s liquidity continues to deteriorate given the absence of sustainable operational income under current challenging circumstance and in the face of mounting creditor pressure which poses an immediate threat to the operation of the vessel."
As a result, the operator no longer has the financial capacity to continue the operation of World Dream, which will cease upon completion of its current sailing on 2 March 2022.
Adding that its cessation would cause concern various parties, in particular guests who paid the deposits for the scheduled sailings, the company is currently assessing the impact of the cessation of operation of the World Dream, in particular its ability to meet potential refund claims.
Affected guests are requested to submit their claims together with booking confirmation and payment records to ProjectGenting@alvarezandmarsal.com for assessment.
In the first year of the pandemic, World Dream and sister ship Explorer Dream were the first ships to respectively restart operations in Singapore and Taiwan with domestic sailings in 2020. Dream Cruises' third ship, Genting Dream, also resumed sailings in Hong Kong in 2021.
Notably, World Dream also achieved several significant firsts during its operations, including being the first ship in Asia to offer on-board halal offerings targeting Muslim guests.
Dream Cruises was also named the Best Cruise Line - Asia Pacific and Best Cruise Line - Sales and Services at Travel Weekly Asia's Readers' Choice Awards 2021 for the leading role it played in restarting Singapore’s fly-cruise sector.