The first cruise ship built by Meyer Werft in Germany has arrived for scrapping in Turkey after being laid up for about two years, media reports say.

The 54,760 gross ton Marella Dream was taken out of service by the UK based Marella Cruises at the start of the pandemic. It has remained in lay up in Greece until its recent arrival at Aliaga.

The ship started life as Homeric of the now defunct Home Lines in 1986 - it was the last of the only three newbuildings the Switzerland based company had commissioned. The first one of these was the Italian built oceanic of 1965 that was the first ship to feature a magrodome, a sliding glass roof over the pool area.

Holland America Line acquired Homeric in 1989 and lengthened the vessel by 40 metres to 244 metres, which increased its gross tonnage to 54,760 from 42,092. The ship also sailed for Costa Crociere before joining Thomson Cruises in 2010 that was renamed Marella Cruises seven years later.

Like many ships of this era, Marella Dream did not have any balcony cabins as built and only a few suites added in the lengthening work featured them.

Meyer Werft had built a series of 4,000 to 5,000 gross register ton - as the measurement was then called - ferries  to various operators in the early to mid-1970s. These small but well designed vessels, many of which were operated by Viking Line between Finland and Sweden, had laid the foundation for the yard's passenger ship building business.