The 2015 cruise season starts in April but already there may be one economic casualty for Falmouth with news that the German cruise ship Deutschland is up for sale.

German operated ships will once again dominate the year with nine ships bringing thousands of passengers to Cornwall. The ships, Hamburg, Astor, AIDAcara, Deutschland and Europa, will make eight calls between them.

Whether or not the Deutschland will call here in August remains to be seen with her sale being watched closely by the cruise industry. Her owners MS Deutschland Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH filed for bankruptcy last November and as yet the ship remains unsold. 

A regular visitor to Falmouth, the 22,500 ton Deutschland, which has no cabins with balconies, was built for a specific market and as such will prove a difficult ship to sell, especially to those companies specialising in the luxury end of the market. The cruise industry is rife with speculation surrounding her sale although it was widely reported that Crystal Cruises, a subsidiary of NYK, had bought the ship but this proved to be untrue.

The only existing cruise operator that has shown a keen interest in the Deutschland so far is Germany’s FTI Touristik. The ship is worth about $50 million.

This company owns and operates the 9,600-gt cruise ship Berlin which was the flagship of the Deilmann fleet before the Deutschland entered service in 1998.