Concept and construction Dreamward was the first in a pair of two identical cruise ships ordered by
Kloster Cruise for
Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) from
Chantiers de l'Atlantique. The sisters were planned with a
gross tonnage of approximately 40,000, and maximum passenger capacity of 1,246 persons. The lengthening was eventually carried out in March–May 1998 at
Lloyd Werft in
Bremerhaven,
Germany, where the ship was cut in half and a new midsection was inserted. In addition to the lengthening, the ship's
funnel and
radar mast were adapted so that they could be folded down, allowing her to pass under the bridges of the
Kiel Canal. Coinciding with the lengthening,
Dreamward was renamed
Norwegian Dream.
Service history Dreamward was delivered on 4 November 1992. She was named on 5 December 1992 at
Port Everglades,
Florida, and started on her first cruise to
Bermuda the following day. Originally both
Dreamward and
Windward carried the early-1990s NCL livery with a white funnel and red and blue decorative stripes on the hull. Sometime before 1998 they received the new NCL livery with a dark blue funnel and an all-white hull. The ship had a scerial funnel to pass the Kiel Canal, you can see on the pictures at the left. Afterwards, she was also used for cruising around Europe. states that the weather at the time was good with a slight sea and good visibility.
Ever Decent was severely damaged, eventually listing 40 degrees to port. As a result of the collision
Ever Decent caught fire and a toxic plume formed. The cargo her included all IMO hazmat classes except explosives, in particular, two containers of
cyanide were a concern. Following the incident,
Norwegian Dream was repaired at Lloyd Werft. On 23 April 2008 Star Cruises entered an agreement to sell
Norwegian Dream, as well as her fleet mate , to the
Cyprus-based
Louis Cruise Lines, which was reportedly willing to pay
$218 million for the ship.
International Shipping Partners was also interested in
Norwegian Dream. Louis was supposed to pay the entire $218 million upon the ship's delivery, The deal for
Norwegian Majesty, however, was completed in July. The refurbished
SuperStar Gemini now housed new onboard facilities including restaurants of Chinese, Asian and international cuisines, open-deck barbecue, show lounge, karaoke, spa & health club, beauty salon, children's playroom and swimming pool. With a passenger capacity of 1,532, the vessel houses 766 guest cabins in a variety of layouts including ergonomic oceanview rooms, junior suites and deluxe executive suites. The estimated cost of this refurbishment was US$50 million. On 27 November 2016, while cruising to Penang,
CCTV footage on
SuperStar Gemini showed that a Singaporean man fell overboard off Pulau Besar and off
Tanjung Kling. He was reported missing after he failed to respond to the ship's announcements before the ship docked in Georgetown, Penang. In April 2022, it was announced that
SuperStar Gemini along with
SuperStar Aquarius and
Star Pisces were all sold for scrap, following the collapse of Star Cruises' parent company, Genting Hong Kong. On 29 May 2022, the ship departed from Penang as
Gem with flag
Saint Kitts and Nevis for scrap in
India. == References ==