The TUI AG-owned and TUI UK-managed Marella Cruises is launching its 5th ship - Marella Voyager, on Saturday, June 3rd as she begins Mediterranean operations.
Originally named Mercury and operated as Celebrity Mercury by Celebrity Cruises (1997-2009), the liner was named "Mein Schiff Herz" (2019-2023) serving the German market as part of TUI's Mein Schiff fleet. The shipowner TUI Cruises Group is jointly owned by TUI AG and RCG-Royal Caribbean Group.
Marella Cruises' fleet includes two other vessels that were previously part of Celebrity's Century class, while the remaining two ships were acquired from RCI-Royal Caribbean International and were also built in the mid-1990s.
According to Chris Hackney (Marella's Managing Director), the company’s sales for the rest of 2023 and the winter 2023-2024 season were higher than the comparable period in 2019-2020. He added they were in a strong place for bookings for this year and the winter.
The company decided to operate Marella Discovery on a series of voyages from Singapore in the coming winter and these have been Marella’s bestselling itineraries.