Sovereign

From Sovereign of the Seas to Pullmantur Sovereign

Sovereign was a cruise ship whose history began under the name Sovereign of the Seas. CruiseMapper’s ship history dates its launch to 1987. After around two decades in service with Royal Caribbean, it transferred to Pullmantur Cruises in November 2008 and was renamed MS Sovereign. The name change also marked its transition from Royal Caribbean service to operations with the Spanish company Pullmantur.

Service with Pullmantur

With Pullmantur, the ship sailed in a variety of regions. The company deployed it in the Mediterranean on itineraries departing, among other ports, from Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Málaga and Civitavecchia. In winter, voyages from Santos, Brazil, were planned, with Rio de Janeiro as another possible port of departure. According to the surviving fleet history, the 2019/2020 season was already Sovereign’s eleventh consecutive season in South America.

End of service

The voyages planned for 2020/2021 were canceled amid Pullmantur’s crisis. In July 2020, Sovereign left Malta bound for Aliaga in Turkey; on July 23, it was beached at a ship-recycling facility there. This marked the end of its service as a cruise ship. Pullmantur itself was not liquidated by its insolvency administrators until July 2021. The end of the company and the end of the ship therefore occurred at different times: Sovereign had already been taken to Aliaga for recycling a year earlier.