Cabin and Galley Refurbishment for Explorer Dream by ALMACO Group

ALMACO excels when projects are complex. The rapidly upcoming project to convert SuperStar Virgo into Explorer Dream as she transfers from Star Cruises to the Dream Cruises fleet in early 2019 included extensive refurbishment on the ship’s accommodations and catering areas, and ALMACO had only two weeks to get back to our close partner, Genting Cruise Lines, with a quote. Not only did our team deliver a prompt turnaround for the quote, but we had the organization, logistics and project management skills to take on the project with only two months from the signature of the contract to the start of the project. ALMACO has the expertise to deliver an extremely face-paced project that involves building, converting and refurbishing cabins, public areas and galleys in an extremely short order-to-delivery time. The project will take place during sailing and in Sembawang Shipyard in Singapore. 

The scope of work in the cabin areas includes refurbishing the wall paper, carpet, artwork, curtains and other soft goods for 543 cabins; building two brand new Palace suites of 90m2; and converting 44 passenger cabins into 22 Bay suites. Because of ALMACO’s complete interior capabilities, our team will also build and modernize 150 meters of corridors and build a new VIP galley of 80m2 on deck 10.

One of the most complex aspects of this project was the logistics of sourcing material and labor and handling the transportation for a docking taking place in Singapore. Jean-Pierre Lepage, ALMACO’s President of the Service division serving as Project Manager for the catering areas in this project states, “with only two months between the order being placed and the initiation of the project, ALMACO’s project management and purchasing department achieved once more the utmost levels of efficiency to transport 160 tons of materials via air freight, utilizing one complete cargo plane (100 tons)  booked by ALMACO to transport materials from Europe to Singapore.” 

ALMACO’s Project Manager for the accommodations part, Tommi Virta, states: “We are proud to be able to work with the Genting team once more after the success of Crystal Serenity and utilize our efficiencies in engineering, logistics and project management to reach the extremely tight deadlines.”

ALMACO Group is a strong partner for Genting Cruise Lines going back to the early 2000s when we refurbished the cabins onboard Superstar Europa. Since then, ALMACO has not only refurbished the brand’s fleet but has also built in 2016 and 2017 the complete catering areas including galleys, provision stores and refrigeration machinery, onboard the newest Dream Cruises ships, Genting Dream and World Dream, at Meyer Werft. Our history with Superstar Virgo goes back to 2012 in Singapore when we modernized 63 cabins,18 suites and public areas including the Mediterranean Buffet, the Bella Vista dining room, the Galaxy of the Stars night club and the Noble House restaurant.

We are excited to continue being part of the journey of SuperStar Virgo on her journey to becoming the new Explorer Dream and becoming the first vessel in the Dream Cruises fleet to sail outside of Asian waters by homeporting in Sydney, Australia, and Auckland, New Zealand.