HAMBURG, Germany -- The 342-meter Global Dream was to inaugurate a new "mega" era for Asian cruising with debut sailings from China last year as the world's highest capacity liner.
But that plan was made before COVID. Now the $1.8 billion ship sits three-quarters built at a shipyard in Wismar, Germany with no clear prospect that the Global Dream will ever be finished -- let alone three planned sister vessels -- amid a heated financing dispute between the federal government and Malaysia gambling tycoon Lim Kok Thay.