TUI’s Island Escape (1982/40,132) is to be laid up from November to March 2012, with the company citing poor demand as the reason for the withdrawal of the ship, which caters specifically to the British market.
The 1,500-passenger vessel will return to service on 3 April 2012 on weekly itineraries from Palma. It had originally been planned to withdraw her from operation between January and March 2012, but this has been brought forward by a couple of months. Thomson Celebration will now undertake Island Escape’s previously planned cruises from Cyprus during November and December.
Island Escape was built by as Scandinavia for Scandinavian World Cruises, a subsidiary of DFDS Seaways, by the French shipyard of Dubigeon-Normandie, Nantes. In 1985, she sailed as Stardancer for Sundance Cruises. In 1990 she was renamed Viking Serenade.
