A mega cruise liner that used to be operated by Genting Cruise Lines via Dream Cruises (GHK/Genting Hong Kong-owned company) is due to sail from June 15, 2022, under a new brand named Resorts World Cruises.
The company was established by Malaysian tycoon Lim Kok Thay, chairman and board executive of Genting Group. "Resorts World Cruises" was registered on March 9, less than 2 months after Genting filed to wind up the company after failing to secure funding to pay debts.
Dream Cruises ran 3 cruise ships - Explorer Dream, World Dream, and Genting Dream. Resorts World Cruises has taken over MS Genting Dream and is in negotiations with banks and interested parties to acquire the other 2 vessels.
World Dream, which offered cruises to nowhere from Singapore, stopped taking bookings after its parent company (Genting Cruise Lines) ran into trouble. The 2017-built liner ceased operations on March 2.
On Wednesday, May 18, Resorts World Cruises announced it would offer complimentary FCCs/future cruise credits of “equivalent value” for paid affected passengers by World Dream’s cancellations in Singapore between March 2 and August 31, 2022, as a “gesture of goodwill”. The credits are valid from June 15 to end-March 2023. At a news conference, the company said this would only be applicable to affected World Dream clients who had yet to receive any refund from the original booking source.
Although the new brand has taken over Genting Dream, it maintains that Resorts World Cruises is separate from GHK.
According to Resorts World Cruises’ CEO and executive director Colin Au (formerly deputy CEO of GHK), the provisional liquidator could not revive the (Dream Cruises) brand and so, they had worked with the Chinese lessors who were the owners of the ship and had decided to restart operations under the Resorts World brand.
“This new brand has got nothing to do with Genting Hong Kong, it’s a new cruise brand,” he added.