The history of Orient Lines began in 1991 when Shipping & General Ltd, owned by Gerry Herrod, acquired the cruise ship
Alexandr Pushkin from
Far Eastern Shipping Company. During the next two and a half years the
Alexandr Pushkin was almost entirely rebuilt and emerged in 1993 as the
Marco Polo for the new Orient Lines brand, embarking on a varied program with cruises all around the world. In 1998,
Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) acquired the brand. In 1999, NCL itself was acquired by
Star Cruises. Following this, NCL's
Norwegian Crown joined the Orient Lines fleet in May 2000 under the name
Crown Odyssey. In March 2001 Star Cruises announced that their
SuperStar Aries would be joining the Orient Lines fleet in mid-2002 as the
Ocean Voyager. This plan was shelved however, On 27 June 2008, Star Cruises sold the Orient Line brand to Origin Cruise Group, owned by Wayne Heller. The new owners stated they would be restarting operations with several second-hand ships with a capacity of 600 to 800 passengers. The
Maxim Gorkiy was due to enter service with Orient Lines in April 2009 as SS
Marco Polo II. On 19 November 2008 Wayne Heller stated that due to the
Great Recession of 2008, the relaunch of the Orient Lines brand was delayed indefinitely. The
Maxim Gorkiy never was refitted and renamed
Marco Polo II. The ship was sold for scrap in January 2009. No further announcements have been made regarding the future of the Orient Lines, though the trademarks are still owned by Origin Cruise Group. In 2019, the abandoned website was taken down due to the domain expiring. ==Former Ships==