Two vessels of the Miami-based cruise shipowner SunStone Ships Inc have been laid up at the request of the charterer.
According to Niels- Erik Lund (SunStone's founder and chairman), Vantage Travel had canceled the next voyages and had requested that they lay up the vessels. They had been positioned at Port Caen (France) and laid up.
At this time SunStone has no further comments.
The two vessels in question are the 8500 GT-ton sisterships (of SunStone's Infinity class) Ocean Explorer and Ocean Odyssey.
According to American media reports, the Boston-based company Vantage Travel Service Inc was facing financial problems.
Launched in 2021 and 2022, Ocean Explorer and Ocean Odyssey are ice-strengthened (polar class 1A / PC6) expedition vessels owned by the Danish company SunStone Maritime Group (via its USA-based subsidiary SunStone Ships Inc) and operated under charter by Vantage Cruise Line - subsidiary and brand owned by Vantage Travel Service Inc (brand name "Vantage Deluxe World Travel").