On 12th February came the news that the classic Portuguese 9,563gt/1961 built cruise ship Funchal had had her 2015 cruise schedule cancelled by her owners, Madeira based Pearl Cruises.

The ship’s owner said that the operating company, Portuscale Cruises, had failed to meet the conditions for ensuring the operation of cruises for the 2015 season. The Funchal is now laid up pending a new charter and had been berthed at the Rocha do Conde de Óbidos cruise terminal in Lisbon since the 2nd January when she returned from a New Year cruise to Madeira and Porto Santo. The 5,888gt/1965 built Porto still awaits a charter following her refurbishment whilst the 16,144gt/1948 built Azores is chartered to CMV for 2015, but what then?

With this situation it was perhaps unsurprising that on 27th February came the sad news that the part-refurbished 16,531gt/1955 built Lisboa (the former Princess Danae) had been sold for scrap and was destined to leave for Aliaga on 15th March. The ship was originally built for Port Line, along with the Princess Daphne, as a cargo ship plying between the UK and Australia. Both were converted to cruise ships in the 1970s. The Princess Daphne met her end when beached at Alang in June 2014 after prolonged lay-up in Greece.