Marella Cruises, the UK focused deep sea cruise lne in TUI AG group, plans to retire its two remaining 1980s built vessels within five years and replace them by newer ships, Cruise Critic reports

Chris Hackney, Managing Director, was quoted by Cruise Critic as saying: "They've been in the fleet a number of years and the next stage will be looking at replacement plans for when we retire those ships further down the line. I would say they will retire in the next five years.”

“That's realistically the timeline. We haven't got concrete plans for when they leave and what replacement options will be -- clearly we are in the market to grow and not shrink.”

The line still operates the 1984 built 33,930 gross ton Marella Celebration that started life as Noordam of Holland America Line and Marella Dream of 54,763 gross ton, which was built in 1986 as Homeric of the no longer extant Home Lines.

Marella Dream is heading for a two month dry docking in January 2020 that will see the ship undergo a complete refurbishment, the report said.

Marella Cruises introduced the 1995 built Marella Explorer 2 earlier this spring and TUI AG said a UK focused new venture called TUI River Cruises would commence operations in 2020 with three ships that the group had acquired.