Following the 2017 renaming of Thomson Cruises to Marella Cruises, TUI Group also changed the ship's name to Marella Dream. She was retired from Marella Cruises in November 2020 and was sold,[2] then broken up in 2022.
Home Lines planned Homeric during the first half of the 1980s as a replacement for their aging .[3] Meyer Werft in Papenburg, West Germany was chosen as the shipyard to build her. The ship was named in honour of the company's earlier, a popular ship that had been destroyed by a fire in 1973.[4] The new Homeric was launched on 28 September 1985, and was the largest cruise liner to be launched sideways from a slipway. She performed her sea trials between 26 and 30 December 1985, but was not delivered to Home Lines until 6 May 1986.
Following the sale of the ship to Holland America Line (and the sale of HAL itself to the Carnival Corporation), the ship was renamed Westerdam, and returned to Meyer Werft on 30 October 1989 for a $84 million refit. The ship was lengthened by 36.9m (121.1feet) and many of her interiors were rebuilt. The refit, one of the most extensive ever performed on a passenger ship, was completed on 12 March 1990.
In 2002, prior to entering service as Costa Europa for Costa Cruises, the ship received a £5 million refit, with some of the public rooms redecorated and six balcony suites added.
During her service with Home Lines the Homeric was used for cruises from New York to Bermuda during the northern hemisphere summer season and cruises in the Caribbean during the rest of the year. While popular, especially with Home Lines' loyal base of repeat passengers, the ultimate success of the Homeric in service with the historic company has been questioned. One author described her in summation as the "giant swan song" of the company. Certainly, times were changing and the end of the company reflected trends in the quickly evolving cruise market. Home Lines was finally purchased by the Holland America Line in 1988.
In November 1988 the Homeric joined the fleet of Holland America Line and was renamed Westerdam (different sites state different dates for her transfer to the HAL fleet). In service with her new owners, the Westerdam cruised to Alaska during the summer season, returning to the Caribbean for the winter. Soon after Home Lines had been purchased by Holland America, HAL itself was purchased by the Carnival Corporation. HAL's new owners decided to invest heavily in the fairly new Westerdam, and between October 1989 and March 1990 she was extensively rebuilt and enlarged at Meyer Werft. When the Westerdam entered service for HAL, she was registered in The Bahamas, but in 1996 she was re-registered to the Netherlands.
In 2002, following the delivery of several newbuilds for Holland America Line, the Westerdam was transferred to the fleet of Costa Cruises.
Following the transfer to Costa Cruises in April 2002, the Westerdam was renamed Costa Europa and re-registered in Italy. On 27 April 2002 she started on her first cruise for her new owners from Genoa, subsequently being used for cruises around Europe.
Costa Europa left the fleet of Costa Cruises in April 2010, being bareboat chartered to the United Kingdom-based Thomson Cruises for ten years. The charter agreement also included an option for Thomson Cruises to buy the ship after five years. The ship was renamed Thomson Dream for her service with Thomson.[5] Thomson Dream received a refurbishment at the end of 2012 and introduced into the Platinum collection of cruises.[6]
The ship served as Marella Dream for cruises with the newly rebranded Marella Cruises, previously known as Thomson Cruises, until 1 October 2020, when Marella announced that she would be retired and all her summer sailings would be transferred to Marella Discovery.[7] Afterwards, the ship was sold to Turkish shipbreakers and laid up at Perama, Greece, along with other cruise ships and drillships, awaiting capacity at the Turkish yard.[8] In 2021 the ship was renamed Ella and on 18 June 2022 arrived in tow at Aliaga for demolition.[9] [10]
In February 2009, Costa Europa had engine trouble on an Indian Ocean cruise and passengers mutinied after scheduled stops were cancelled.[11]
On 26 February 2010, Costa Europa collided with a dock at Sharm al-Sheikh in Egypt, after attempting to dock in bad weather. The collision killed three crew members and injured at least four other people, three of them passengers. The incident tore a wide hole in the hull, and the ship was listed to port to lift the damaged area clear of the water.[12] [13] The report into the incident, to be handled by the Italian maritime authorities based in Genoa, had still not been handed to the IMO in January 2012.[14]
On 2020.03.27, a 48-year-old Indonesian crew member of MS Marella Dream died on board the ship with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 while the ship was anchored near Gibraltar.[15] [16] A spokesperson for owner TUI Group stated that "[t]he crew member had underlying health issues and had not tested positive for Covid-19 and there are no positive cases of Covid-19 on board the ship", leading sources to conclude that either he had not been tested,[17] [18] or that he had died of the virus.[19] Gibraltar officials refused permission for the disembarkation of the body, asked the ship to leave British Gibraltar Territorial Waters,[20] and stated that any inquiry into the death of the crew member was the responsibility of Malta, the ship's flag state. Marella Dream later docked in Málaga, Spain, on 28 March 2020, to disembark the deceased crew member.
The Homeric was built with a terraced forward and rear superstructure, with lifeboats placed fairly high. She had a relatively large funnel, with a large arch behind it to deflect some soot away from the rear decks. In original Home Lines livery she had a white hull and superstructure, with a blue decorative riband separating them. Her funnel and radar mast, the structures immediately below them and the cranes on her forward deck were painted yellow. The ship's name was painted in tall letters on the side of the superstructure below the radar mast.
On entering service with Holland America Line, the Westerdam received HAL's dark blue hull colours, with her funnel and radar mast painted white. The 1989–90 lengthening altered her exterior appearance somewhat. The windows of the added section are larger than those forward and aft.
As Costa Europa, the ship was painted all-white, with a yellow funnel and a small flag of the EU painted on the side of the superstructure.
As Thomson Dream the ship retains an all-white livery, but with a blue funnel bearing the TUI/Thomson group logo.
Unusually for a cruise ship of her time, the Homeric was built with a somewhat ocean liner-like layout, with her dining room in particular reflecting liner-like design, being located on a lower deck. She was also built with a sizeable promenade deck and a one-deck-high theatre. She was built with two swimming pools, one to the rear of the ship and another amidship which was covered with a magrodome.
During the 1989–90 refit, two lounges in the forward section of the ship were combined to create a large two-level theatre, with the original theatre retained as a cinema. In HAL service, she was decorated with artworks drawing on the history of the Dutch Empire. On entering service with Costa Cruises, the ship was refurbished, with some of the interior decorations changed to brighter and more southern / Pan-European style. The original theatre was built in with six balcony suites, and a new ballroom with a hardwood dance floor replaced an earlier lounge. Despite the refit, most of the ship's decorations have been retained from the HAL days, resulting in the Costa Europa having somewhat different interior decorations from her "Italian-style" fleetmates.
MS Westerdam was featured in the 1997 comedy film Out to Sea with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.
The ship appeared on BBC One's Watchdog during an investigation into customer complaints. The report found broken air conditioning units and sewage and plumbing problems during the first few voyages with Thomson. The company were also criticised for broadcasting "misleading" advertisements, claiming the ship was "luxury, brand new and 5*" when in fact it was over 24 years old.[22]