Call it the ultimate holiday gift for cruise enthusiasts, whether it’s you, your spouse or a good friend.
In a relatively unusual turn of events, one of the world’s newest and largest cruise ships, the 150,695-tonne World Dream, will be auctioned off to the highest bidder at the sheriff’s auction on Tuesday. December 21st – and anyone can bid.
That means — with a high enough bid — you could own one of the world’s most modern cruise ships in time to visit it during the holiday week between Christmas and New Year.
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Not that you can do much with it – at least not at first. The 18-story tall vessel, currently moored off Singapore, is designed to operate with a crew of nearly 2,000, none of whom will purchase.
Originally built at a cost of nearly $1 billion for the now-defunct Asia-based Dream Cruises, the five-year-old vessel is being sold “as it is, where it is,” according to the document. Singapore police chief’s office. auction is underway. That means it won’t come with crew or official instructions on how to operate it.
Plus, you better be ready to pick it up.
World Dream has been under house arrest in Singapore since Dream Cruises and its parent company, Genting Hong Kong, went out of business earlier this year.
The auction of the ship is being conducted by the Singapore police chief under a court order to raise money to pay off the company’s debts.
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According to one sales announcement on a Singapore government website, anyone with a deposit of $50,000 can bid on the ship. If you don’t win the bid, you get $50,000 back.
Before you bid for just a few dollars, hoping for a bargain, know there’s a caveat to what you’ll pay: In addition to the winning bid, anyone who buys the vase will have to pay for things that have not been consumed. fuel left in the ship’s fuel tank, worth $1,175,887, according to the sheriff’s office.
If history is any guide, an existing yacht or ferry company looking to add to its fleet, or a company planning to enter the yacht or ferry business, may purchase that ship.
Just two weeks ago, Disney Cruise Line purchased another cruise ship under construction for Dream Cruises when the second line was shut down – the 208,000 ton Global Dream. In that case, the ship was sold by a liquidator to the shipyard that was building it. The German MV Werften shipyard is also owned by Genting Hong Kong and ceased operations at the same time as the parent company and Dream Cruises.
Disney plans to overhaul the Global Dream, which is now three-quarters complete, to give it Disney-themed features before putting it online in 2025.
Related: Disney will soon own one of the largest yachts in the world
An auction for one of the world’s newest and largest cruise ships is relatively rare. Built by the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany – known for work on ships operated by Norwegian Cruise LineDisney Cruise Line, Famous people and several other major lines — World Dream was one of the most advanced cruise lines in the world when it launched in 2017.
Built specifically to serve the Asian market, the ship features 35 restaurants and bars, galleries, a deck water park with six waterslides, multiple pools, a rope swing, a rock climbing wall and miniature golf course.
Designed to hold up to 5,000 passengers, World Dream is currently the 36th largest cruise ship in the world, although it ranked higher when it first launched. It is about the same size as the Norwegian Breakaway-class ships (Norwegian Breakaway and Norwegian Getaway), also built at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany.
Bids for the ship will be due at 3pm Singapore time on December 21; Bids must be enclosed in a sealed envelope marked “Bidding for DREAM WORLD” and sent to the sheriff’s office in Singapore. A draft from a local bank for a deposit of $50,000 addressed to the Singapore Police Chief must be enclosed in an envelope.
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