| IMO | 9733117 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 150,695 GT |
| Length | 335.2 m |
| Beam | 39.75 m |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 3376 |
| Builder | Meyer Werft |
| Hull number | S.712 |
| Launched | 2017 |
| Maiden voyage | 2017 |
| Class | Genting-class cruise ship |
| Operator | Aroya Cruises |
| Status | Active |
| All names | Manara; World Dream |
Overview
The ship formerly listed here under the name Manara was built by Meyer Werft at Papenburg, Germany, as World Dream for Dream Cruises, and entered service in November 2017. She was the second and last of the Genting-class pair built for Genting Hong Kong's Asian brands. Her early career was dramatic: she was quarantined in Hong Kong in the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, lost her operator when Genting Hong Kong collapsed in 2022, and was sold at auction in Singapore. Bought by Cruise Saudi in 2023 and renamed Manara, she was then renamed again, in July 2024, becoming Aroya, the first ship of Aroya Cruises, Saudi Arabia's first domestic cruise brand. She is that ship — the Manara name was carried only briefly, between the 2023 purchase and the 2024 rebrand — and she remains in service under the Aroya name.
Key specifications
As built, the ship measures 150,695 GT, is 335.2 metres long with a waterline beam of 39.75 metres (44.35 metres maximum), a draught of about 8.6 metres and a height of 61 metres, across 18 decks. Propulsion is by two ABB Azipods fed by a MAN diesel plant, giving a speed of 22.55 knots. As World Dream she was arranged for the Asian market with a large number of cabins — 1,678 staterooms after her Saudi refit, with a lower-berth capacity of 3,362 guests and a crew of more than 1,600. Her IMO number, 9733117, has remained constant through every rename. She is registered at Valletta, Malta.
Design and construction
The ship was ordered on 10 February 2014 by Star Cruises, Genting Hong Kong's established Asian brand, and laid down at Meyer Werft on 29 July 2015 as yard number S.712. Construction began in February 2016. She was designed specifically for the Asian cruise market, with a heavy emphasis on dining choice, a large casino and cabin types tailored to Asian family travel — a quite different internal balance from a ship designed for North America or Europe. In November 2015, while still building, she was transferred to Genting's new premium brand, Dream Cruises, following her sister Genting Dream into that fleet.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
She was launched at Papenburg on 26 August 2017 and completed on 26 October 2017. She was formally named World Dream on 17 November 2017 in Hong Kong by her godmother Cecilia Lim, wife of Genting chief executive Lim Kok Thay, and made her maiden voyage on 19 November 2017. A footnote of the launch: on 16 November 2017 Dream Cruises unveiled an 8.44-metre LEGO model of the ship at Hong Kong's Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, then the largest LEGO model of a cruise ship ever made.
Career by operator
| Years | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2017–2022 | World Dream | Dream Cruises |
| 2022–2023 | World Dream | Laid up, Singapore (under sale process) |
| 2023–2024 | Manara | Cruise Saudi (refit; not in service) |
| 2024–present | Aroya | Aroya Cruises |
Ordered for Star Cruises but completed for Dream Cruises, she served that line from 2017 until the collapse of Genting Hong Kong ended operations on 2 March 2022. Sold to Cruise Saudi in March 2023 and renamed Manara, she went to Germany for an extensive refit. In July 2024 her operator-to-be, Aroya Cruises, renamed her Aroya — a blend of "Arabian" and roya, "vision" or "dream" — and she began commercial service under that name in December 2024.
Onboard character
As World Dream, the ship embodied Genting's idea of an Asian floating resort: many restaurants rather than a few large ones, a major casino at the heart of the ship, and accommodation designed for multi-generational family groups as much as for couples. The Saudi refit of 2023–24 reworked that inheritance for a different culture and market — the same big-ship resort bones, re-dressed for Arabian guests, with the public rooms comprehensively rebuilt. The hull that resulted is a study in how a modern mega-ship can be re-charactered for a new civilisation of cruising without structural change.
Major refits and incidents
Two episodes define her record. In February 2020, after three passengers from a 19–24 January sailing were confirmed with COVID-19, the ship was quarantined at Hong Kong's Kai Tak Cruise Terminal from 5 February with some 3,800 passengers and crew aboard; the quarantine was lifted on 9 February after all 1,800 crew tested negative, and Indonesian crew were later evacuated by the hospital ship KRI dr. Soeharso for quarantine ashore. Then came corporate failure rather than accident: after Genting Hong Kong's insolvency, Dream Cruises ceased operations on 2 March 2022, and the ship was laid up in Singapore and sold by sealed-bid auction (bids due 21 December 2022), reportedly for about US$355 million. Her major refit followed in 2023–24 at the Bredo yard in Bremerhaven, with Meyer Werft involved in the modification, converting her from World Dream into the Aroya Cruises flagship.
Sister ships and class
She is one of the two-ship Genting class built by Meyer Werft for Genting Hong Kong: Genting Dream (2016) and this ship as World Dream (2017). Genting Dream survived the group collapse under new ownership and continues in service; the pair are near-identical in dimensions and plant.
Fate and where she is now
The ship is in active service — not as Manara, the brief transitional name under which this page is filed, but as Aroya, flagship and only ship of Aroya Cruises, the Saudi Arabian brand owned by Cruise Saudi. The Manara name survives in some commercial listings in the compound form "Aroya Manara."
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aroya_(ship)