HISTORY

The ship began operation in 1972 with Flagship Cruises, under the name Island Venture. In 1974, she was sold to P&O's Princess Cruises along with sister ship Sea Venture. The pair were renamed Island Princess and Pacific Princess, the latter, laid up since 2008 at the San Giorgio del Porto shipyard in Genoa, Italy, and as of early 2013 apparently destined for scrapping at Aliaga, Turkey. Both appeared in the 1970s television sitcom The Love Boat, although the Pacific Princess was the main feature of the show. The Island Princess operated as part of the Princess fleet until 1999, when she was sold on to Hyundai Merchant Marine of South Korea. Renamed Hyundai Pungak her role was to transport South Korean pilgrims to religious sites in North Korea

After a brief stint as the Platinum, the ship went through a major refit between 2001 and 2003. Since then, the vessel has been sailing as Discovery under the care of the cruise company Voyages of Discovery (part of the All Leisure Group Plc) cruising out of Harwich and Liverpool in England. Voyages of Discovery sells these cruises predominately to the British, American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and South African markets.

For the most part Discovery could be found in the Baltic, Scandinavia, the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea, and North Africa, in the months April–September (Spring and Summer in the Northern Hemisphere), and in South America, Antarctica, the Indian Ocean, India, and the Mediterranean, in the months October–March (Spring and Summer in the Southern Hemisphere).

In Feb 2013, for 249 days, the Discovery began sailing for Cruise & Maritime Voyages following a joint agreement with All Leisure Group, where both companies will operate the ship.

In 2012/13 the owners of "Discovery" replaced her under their Voyages of Discovery brand with the refurbished ship, "mv Voyager".

In late October / early November 2014 the ship was taken out of service by parent company All Leisure Group due to losses in operating. In mid September, Discovery was sold by All Leisure Group "as is" for $5 million and her service with Cruise Maritime Voyages terminated two cruises early. For October she was replaced by Portuscale Cruises' mv Funchal and in 2015 was replaced by mv Azores, which is currently being refitted in Lisbon for this future charter. Discovery departed Bristol, Avonmouth for the final time on October 9th bound to anchor off Falmouth for a few hours the day after. Following her brief anchorage off Falmouth, she sailed south to the Strait of Gibraltar. Upon entering the Mediterranean she was reported to be renamed "AMEN" and flagged in St. Kitts and Nevis. She sailed directly towards Port Said and days later transited the Suez Canal. It is believed she like her sister Pacific (ACIF demolished in Aliaga in 2013) will be broken up but in Alang India. Beached in December 2014.