Relatively unknown until being purchased by Royal Caribbean in 2006, Pullmantur Cruises are Spain’s number one cruise line. That said, due to their low pricing and more active marketing they are now seeing more passengers than ever from the UK.
Pullmantur Cruises are a three star cruise line, a similar standard to P&O Cruises’ Ocean Village and Royal Caribbean’s other three star line Island Cruises. Though unlike these two, they are not as big in the UK.
Anyone who has cruised with Celebrity Cruises or Royal Caribbean before will be interested to know that two older ships are now in the hands of Pullmantur; these are the old Celebrity Zenith and Royal’s Empress of the Seas. However to make way for these two ships Pullmantur Cruises have lost two remarkable ships the old Renaissance Cruise Lines ships R6 and R7. R6 was known as Blue Dream while R7 was christened Blue Moon; they now operate for Azamara Cruises, as Azamara Journey and Azamara Quest.
In a bid to increase its capacity, Pullmantur Cruises have purchased P&O Cruises Australia’s Pacific Sun which was previously known as Costa Tropicale for Costa Cruises and Tropicale for Carnival Cruise Line. The ship entered service in 2008 as did Empress of the Seas. The purchase of Pacific Sun was the first time Carnival and Royal Caribbean have taken part in some form of bartering.
The ships tend to be older than most cruise lines and by modern standards smaller; their largest ship being the Empress of the Seas at 48,563 tons and 1,602 passengers however Pullmantur Cruises are a great value cruise line.