Resorts World Cruises (RWC), the Asia-focused cruise company formed in 2022 by Lim Kok Thay, the former majority shareholder of Genting Hong Kong, has added a second cruise ship to its fledgling fleet.
The 75,300-gt Explorer Dream (built 1999), a ship that last operated for Genting Hong Kong’s Dream Cruises brand, will begin sailing for RWC in February under the name Resorts World One, according to social media announcements made by the company over the weekend.
The ship will operate several cruises out of Singapore before being repositioned to Hong Kong.
A RWC spokesman told TradeWinds that the ship is being chartered from a "new owner" that acquired it as part of the Genting Hong Kong liquidation process.
The ship has been kept in warm lay-up off Port Klang since Genting’s collapse in early 2022.
Lim launched RWC in April 2022. There was widespread market speculation that the company would acquire Genting Hong Kong’s prime cruise ships assets and leave the liquidators to dispose of the rest.
RWC subsequently chartered the 150,700-gt Genting Dream (built 2017) from a special purpose leasing vehicle owned by four Chinese banks that bought the ship from Genting Hong Kong in January 2020 in a sale-and-leaseback deal valued at $900m.
RWC was also widely expected to attempt to buy the 150,700-gt World Dream (built 2017) when it was auctioned in Singapore on 23 December. So far the outcome of the auction has yet to be disclosed by the High Court of Singapore.
This article has been updated to include information provided by RWC.
