The Ocean Dream is a cruise ship, built in 1981. The ship began sailing for Carnival Cruise Line as the Tropicale in 1982. The Tropicale was Carnival's first newly built ship, operating mainly in the Caribbean. She was transferred to the Costa fleet in July 2001 and renamed the Costa Tropicale. The Costa Tropicale was retired in 2005 and entered service for P&O Cruises Australia as the Pacific Star in December of that year. She was formerly Queensland’s latest cruise liner, based in Brisbane, performing cruises along the Tropical Queensland coast, to various islands in the South Pacific, New Caledonia, and to New Zealand. In March 2008, P&O Cruises Australia sold the Pacific Star to Pullmantur Cruises.
History
The vessel was constructed for Carnival Cruise Lines by DanishshipyardAalborg Vaerft, and when it launched in 1982, was the first cruise ship custom-built for the company, pioneering Carnival's characteristic winged funnel. As the company expanded and acquired larger ships, Carnival decided that Tropicale would be their 'test ship' for new cruises, and as such was the first Carnival ship to be based in San Juan, New Orleans, Alaska, and Tampa. In 1985 the vessel appeared in an episode of the A-Team called "Judgement Day ". The ship also appeared in a season four episode of Growing Pains. On September 19, 1999, the vessel's engine room caught fire en route from Cozumel to Tampa. While disabled in the Gulf of Mexico, the ship was struck by Tropical Storm Harvey. No crew or guests were injured during the two days the Tropicale spent without propulsion. The vessel was slated to replace the SS Dolphin IV of Cape Canaveral Cruise Linein 2001, but before Carnival Tropicale could enter service, the vessel was transferred to the fleet of Costa Cruises, where she was renamed Costa Tropicale. The vessel underwent refits in Genoa over the course of 2001 and 2002, redeveloping the vessel and customizing her for a European client base. Costa Tropicale served with the company until 2005, when replacement by larger, more modern cruise ships prompted a transfer to P&O Cruises Australia, where the vessel again underwent a major refit in Palermo, Italy and was renamed Pacific Star. In 2008 the Pacific Star was sold to Pullmantur Cruises and renamed Ocean Dream following a refit in Singapore. In June 2009, an outbreak of swine flu occurred about the Ocean Dream during a cruise around Central and South America. The ship docked in Margarita, Venezuela to allow its Venezuelan passengers to disembark, before heading to Aruba, where the remaining passengers were able to leave the ship. An earlier report had suggested that the ship had been placed in quarantine, however, the ship's owners Pullmantur later denied that this was the case. M/S Ocean Dream is now bare chartered to Peace Boat, the owners of the SS Oceanic and as of April 2012, has left the Pullmantur Cruises fleet.
