At roughly the moment as I was writing a note to Elaine at RBI's search2cruise.com website, explaining that Orient Lines is effectively no more because it has no ship - Star Cruises sold its one ship, Marco Polo, to a Greek company and it is now operating cruises from Tilbury for Transocean Tours - Cruise Critic runs a story that the line is back in business.
As mentioned in an earlier blog, the Orient Lines' brand was recently acquired by Wayne Heller, the American founder of Orlando-based travel agency Cruises Only, and he has now bought a ship and is back in business.
The ship is the Maxim Gorki, a 40-year-old 24,981-ton vessel with capacity for 650 passengers that is currently operating for Phoenix Seereisen, a Germany-based tour company.
It leaves Phoenix in November for a major refit so it can meet tough new SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) standards effective from 2010 and will then be renamed Marco Polo II and start sailing again in spring 2009, starting with Med cruises from Barcelona before the ship sails north for itineraries visiting London and Scotland.
That doesn't sound too exploration-like - the style of cruising for which the original Orient Lines was famed - but apparently more out of the way places, Antarctica included, will follow.
Jane Archer
