Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV), the expanding UK based cruise shipping company, remains tight lipped over its future plans after the 20,636 gross ton Discovery will exit its three ship fleet later this year, but says its 2015 programme will be released soon.

All Leisure group that owns the 600 passenger Discovery that was built in 1972 said the ship was taken out of service in the winter of 2012-13 and after a period of technical upgrade and refit was chartered to CMV who operated the vessel in a joint venture with the Group for 242 days. "A similar arrangement for 257 days is planned in 2014, after which the joint venture will cease," All Leisure group ceo Ian Smith said in a statement issued today.

Meanwhile, on 13 February CMV confirmed that the Discovery Summer 2014 cruise programme will operate as scheduled with the 20,000 passenger capacity ex-UK regional programme already 70% sold. "With offices in the UK, Australia, North America and now Germany, the CMV Group will carry in excess of 70,000 ocean and river cruise passengers during 2014," the company said.

Chris Coates, CMV’s Commercial Director commented, “Having contributed the vast majority of business for Discovery, we are pleased with the results we have achieved from our side. We look forward to working with All Leisure Holidays, our joint venture partners during the 2014 season and will shortly be releasing full details of our 2015 programme.”

CMV currently operates a fleet of three small to medium sized 600-800 traditional ocean passenger vessels; the Marco Polo, Discovery & Astor plus the Vienna I river ship and recently announced the take over-over of German based TransOcean Kreuzfahrten and entry into Europe’s second largest cruise market.

All Leisure group booked a £6.7 million impairment charge against Discovery in its financial year 2013 results, saying that the value of mature cruise ships had fallen markedly in recent times and that it would put the ship up for sale after the end of its current published schedules.