Princess Anastasia in Helsinki, 5 August 2018

Today, I unexpectedly had some free time to go out for ship photographing purposes, and as my object I chose the Marella Discovery, which I have never encountered but which was in Helsinki today. But, much to my surprise, by the time I reached Vattuniemi in Lauttasaari, dark clouds had gathered and there was even a spot of rain. As this summer has been the warmest and sunniest in recorded history, this was unexpected to say at least. Thanks to the clouds, the photos of the Marella Discovery turned out far less well than expected. But then something magical happened: the rain front with the dark clouds passed around me, and by the time the Princess Anastasia departed, the views were extremely dramatic, as you can see below.

Princess Anastasia

IMO 8414582
Name history: Olympia, Pride of Bilbao, Bilbao, SPL Princess Anastasia, Princess Anastasia
Built 1986, Wärtsilä Turku New Shipyard, Finland
Tonnage 37 583 GT
Length 176,82 m
Width 28,40 m
Draught 6,71 m
Ice class 1A Super
2 500 passengers
2 447 berths
580 cars
1 115 lane metres
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 22 988 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 22 knots

Since it's been a while since the history of the Princess Anastasia was covered here, and there have been further developments, I guess this is as good a time as any to look at it again.

The Princess Anastasia was originally built as the Olympia for Rederi AB Slite for use on Viking Line's Helsinki-Stockholm service. Somewhat unusually Rederi AB Slite had purchased the plans of their fellow Viking Line member SF Line's Helsinki-Stockholm newbuilding Mariella instead of opting for a design of their own. The Olympia was delivered in April 1986 and replaced Rederi Ab Sally's Viking Saga on the Helsinki-Stockholm route (the Viking Saga survives today in drastically rebuilt form as Celestyal Cruises' Celestyal Crystal). The Mariella and Olympia served together on the capital cities service for seven years.

The plan for Slite was for the Olympia to be replaced by the new Europa in 1993, and the Olympia was chartered to P&O Ferries in preparation for this (a charter to Euroway, a company funded by the same bank as Slite was also considered, but never happened). However, just days later Rederi AB Slite was declared bankrupt (see this entry on Silja Europa for details on the bankruptcy). In May 1993, the ship was renamed Pride of Bilbao and placed on P&O Ferries' Portsmouth-Bilbao and Portmouth-Cherbourg services. Later during the year the ship was sold to Irish Ferries, who continued chartering her to P&O.

Pride of Bilbao remained on the Portsmouth-Bilbao -route until 2010, when P&O Ferries closed the service down. In September 2010 she was laid up at Falmouth and subsequently her name was shortened to Bilbao. In December of the same year she was then taken over by St. Peter Line on a sale/charter agreement. Between January and March 2011 the ship was rebuilt at Klaipeda and renamed SPL Princess Anastasia. Entering service with St. Peter Line in March 2011, the SPL Princess Anastasia was initially used on St. Petersburg-Stockholm and St. Petersburg-Stockholm-Tallinn-St. Petersburg -routes, but these were later altered to four-night St. Petersburg-Helsinki-Stockholm-Tallinn-St. Petersburg cruises.

St. Peter Line's services were not a tremendous long-run success, and in 2016 St. Peter Line begun a cooperation with Moby Lines. Moby took over both of the company's ships, with the Princess Maria tranferred to Moby's own route network, while the SPL Princess Anastasia stayed on the Baltic, but now under the Italian flag and her name changed to Princess Anastasia, without the unseemly prefix. Painted with a new, unusual combined Moby/SPL livery during a lengthy refit, the Princess Anastasia re-entered service in spring 2017, now sailing for Moby SPL, a joint venture between Moby and SPL, with both owning 50% of the company. The ship now has a somewhat complex weekly itinerary, combining the four-night cruises it did before with the two-night Helsinki-St. Petersburg cruises previously operated by the Princess Maria.

The photographs below show the Princess Anastasia departing Helsinki Länsisatama (West Harbour) on the evening of 5 August 2018. Photographed from Sisä-Hattu. As per the usual, click on the images to see them in larger size.

Big cloud, small ship.

A more close-up view, showing the livery with a Russian landscape of sorts. The other side has Moby markings and an Italian landscape in similar style.

Passing Pihlajasaari has never looked so dramatic.

The should repaint the back of the funnel. Maybe black, so they wouldn't need to repaint it again.

Although it doesn't look it from the photo, the weather was more than warm enough for SUP-boarding.

Next time: Unless I have a chance to go out for newer photos, the Star, photographed some minutes after the Princess Anastasia.

Princess Anastasia in Helsinki, 3 August 2013

Before we get on today's photographs, a little piece of advertising: the new issue of the Ulkomatala web magazine is out (and indeed has been for a few days now), and the magazine's new website finally up and running. So if you're fortunate enough to understand Finnish, go and check it out.

Princess Anastasia

IMO 8414582
Name history: Olympia, Pride of Bilbao, Bilbao, SPL Princess Anastasia
Built 1986, Wärtsilä Turku New Shipyard, Finland
Tonnage 37 583 GT
Length 176,82 m
Width 28,40 m
Draught 6,71 m
Ice class 1A Super
2 500 passengers
2 447 berths
580 cars
1 115 lane metres
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 22 988 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 22 knots

For a history of the Princess Anastasia, see this entry. The photos below show the Princess Anastasia departing from Helsinki West Harbour in the afternoon of 3 August 2013, photographed from Sisä-Hattu. Click on the images to see them in larger size.

Last summer was maybe a bit dry, considering how withered the rowan in the foreground looks. Though the fact it grows on rock might have something to do with it.

Speaking of rock, it endlessly puzzles me that the English language doesn't have a separate word for the kind of rock you see here. It's very difficult when movable, loose rocks are referred to with the same word as the kind of rock that makes up entire islands.

The ship is maybe a bit overexposed... but it works nicely with the photo, so I'm not complaining.

Next time: AIDAbella

Princess Anastasia interiors, 27-30 May 2013

Princess Anastasia

IMO 8414582
Name history: Olympia, Pride of Bilbao, Bilbao, SPL Princess Anastasia
Built 1986, Wärtsilä Turku New Shipyard, Finland
Tonnage 37 583 GT
Length 176,82 m
Width 28,40 m
Draught 6,71 m
Ice class 1A Super
2 500 passengers
2 447 berths
580 cars
1 115 lane metres
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 22 988 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 22 knots

For a history of the Princess Anastasia, see this entry. Today we will be looking at interiors of the ship, with photos taken during my Princess Anastasia cruise in May this year. If you want to read a full cruise report, I wrote one for MaritimeMatters and you can read it on that website: Cruising Russian Style on the Princess Anastasia Part 1 and Part 2. A Finnish-language trip report will be published in the next issue of Ulkomatala. Now, onwards to the images.

Deck 11 contains the navigation bridge and sun deck.

Lovely retro bench.

Deck 10 has crew spaces and more sun deck space.

Deck 9 is entirely given to crew spaces.

Deck 8 has a VIP lounge forward, followed by a cinema and casino (all of these are in the area of the original extensive conference facilities). These are followed by the atrium which is flanked by a fashion shop and the Night Rabbit Bar discotheque. Aft there are more crew spaces and a sun deck with the outdoors Drunk Rabbit Bar.

Atrium sculpture, looking down from deck eight to decks seven and six.

The Night Rabbit Bar discotheoque's list of enertainment includes a stripper in the evening.

Night rabbit bar again.

Aft outer deck, with the Drunk Rabbit Bar on the right.

Deck 7 is the restaurant deck, with Seven Seas buffet forward, followed by the atrium, Rabbit Bar, and then the Kampai Sushi Bar, New York and Napoli Mia restaurants. Right aft is the Columbus Night Club, the main entertainment venue.

Seven Seas buffet.

Atrium on deck 7, almost entirely unaltered from the ship's original 1986 appearance.

Atrium tables with sea views.

Original 1986 wall clock, with different hour hands for Finnish and Swedish time.

The starboard side has an arcade connecting the atrium to Columbus Night Club aft, with all other spaces on the deck accessible from the arcade. This view is forward from Columbus entrance.

The Rabbit Bar, taking the place of the original pub. Although the details are not visible in this image, all decor is rabbit-related.

Rabbit Bar, with mrs Id modelling.

More Rabbit Bar.

Kampai Sushi Bar. This dining option was relatively expensive and not very popular.

New York restaurant, with mrs Id again modelling.

New York restaurant again.

Napoli Mia restaurant.

The Columbus Night club was given a thorough renovation before the ship entered service as the Princess Anastasia and looks superb.

More Columbus Night Club, facing aft.

Columbus Night Club, facing port.

Deck 6 has passenger cabins fore and aft. Amidships is the atrium with the main entrance (that cannot actually be used in her current service, as all terminals only have passenger gangways linking to deck 4), Bake & Coffee cafeteria, the tax-free shop and a large children's playroom.

P&O Ferries signage in the forward staircase.

Atrium, facing forward and port from the (unused) main entrance.

Atrium, facing aft from the frward staircase.

Bake & Coffee cafeteria, located on the port side next to the atrium.

Arcade connecting the atrium and aft staircase, facing forward. The tax-free shop is to the left (port) and children's playroom (originally the perfumery) to the right (starboard).

A2 class cabin, with mrs Id perusing SPL's uninformative brochure.

The wonder of Finnish ship design: the cabin corridor with a sea view that can be found on both the Mariella and the Princess Anastasia. Why this part hasn't been fixed on either ship and turned into outside cabins is a constant source of puzzlement to me.

Deck 5 is given over entirely to cabins.

Deck 4 is also entirely passenger cabins, with the current main entrance next to the forward staircase.

Deck 3C is the hoistable car platform.

Deck 3 is the main car deck.

Deck 2 has the sauna and fitness center forward, followed by cabins and then engines and other technical spaces aft.

The dressing room of the men's sauna (I was the only one there, hence I dared to take a photo). The suanas has been recently renovated, but although they looked fine there were several problems and oddities below the surface.

The main pool. Notice the sloping wall to the left; deck 2 is at the waterline and the pool is in the forward part of the ship.

Next time: Romantika

Princess Anastasia in Helsinki, 21 October 2011

Princess Anastasia

IMO 8414582
Former names: Olympia, Pride of Bilbao, Bilbao
Built 1986, Wärtsilä Turku New Shipyard, Finland
Tonnage 37 583 GT
Length 176,82 m
Width 28,40 m
Draught 6,71 m
Ice class 1A Super
2 500 passengers
2 447 berths
580 cars
1 115 lane metres
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 22 988 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 22 knots

For a history of the Princess Anastasia (or SPL Princess Anastasia, as her registered name goes), see this entry. For once I've decided to go with the marketing name over the official one as SPL Princess Anastasia just sounds stupid), see the first entry on the ship.

The photographs here were a part of my attempts last autumn to photographs ships and the autumn foliage - though here I was already a bit too late as many of the trees at least in Suomenlinna were leafless. Anyway, the photographs show the Princess Anastasia passing through the Kustaanmiekka strait (you know the drill), photographed from Kustaanmiekka. Click on the images to view them in larger size.

Shy Anastasia, hiding behind the island.

You know how much I like panoramic photos. ;)

This photo illustrates particularly well the problem with the Princess Anastasia's current livery (which is of course the same as her latter P&O Ferries livey, except with a white funnel in place of a blue one): the overall shape of the ship is very boxlike and the vast expanse of white on the side accentuates this further. The ship would really benifit from a racing stripes -livery similar to that of the Princess Maria. Or at least having the hull colour extend higher, a la her sister Mariella.

Autumnal Suomenlinna and departing Anastasia. Nowadays the sPL ships have moved to sail from the West Harbour, hence no more chances of photographing the Anastasia at Kustaanmiekka. On the other hand she will probably be around a lot when I try to photographs cruise ships in the West Harbour next summer...

Look at that magnificient shade of blue on the hull the setting sun and my camera produced. We need more ships with hues as nautical as that.

Stockholm-bound.

It was already getting a bit nippy in October, though the latter part of the year was much warmer than usual.

Princess Anastasia, 6 May 2011

Princess Anastasia

IMO 8414582
Built 1986, Wärtsilä Turku New Shipyard, Finland
Tonnage 37 583 GT
Length 176,82 m
Width 28,40 m
Draught 6,71 m
Ice class 1A Super
2 500 passengers
2 447 berths
580 cars
1 115 lane metres
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 22 988 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 22 knots

SPL Princess Anastasia, as her official name goes, made a second cruise call to Helsinki this spring just a week after the first one. As before, she used the Kanavaterminaali quay normally used by her fleetmate Princess Maria. It seems possible that St. Peter Line ships' Helsinki visits will become a lot rarer in the future, as the city of Helsinki doesn't allow SPL's ships to load cars at South Harbour - to be able to transport freight the company would need to relocate to the Vuosaari freight hourbour which would be an economic suicide for the passenger services. Furthermore the two other shipping companies operating from South Harbour can load cars and other cargo at the harbour (though at least in the case of Viking Line the number of ships they can operate out of the harbour is also restricted). As a result of this unfair treatment SPL have sued the Port of Helsinki, but due to the good start of the St. Petersburg-Stockholm service they are reportedly also considering closing down the Helsinki-St. Petersburg service and concentrating on the Stockholm line. If things come to this it would be a real shame, as in my experience St. Peter Line offers a very good product that is refreshingly different from that of other Baltic Sea cruiseferry operators. I for one would like to be able to continue sailing on their delightful ships from Finland in the future.

But onwards from the semi-rant to the pictures. Princess Anastasia in Helsinki South Harbour (Eteläsatama) on 6 May 2011 during one of her St. Petersburg-Helsinki-Stockholm-Tallinn-St. Petersburg spring cruises. Photographed from Kaivopuisto. Click on the images to view larger size.

In the harbour pool ahortly after leaving the quay (the yellow building on the left is, incidentally, the Finnish presidential palace).

On Kruunuvuorenselkä bound for the Kustaanmiekka strait, with the now-disused Laajasalo oil harbour on the left.

Princess Anastasia, 29 April 2011

Yesterday was the beginning of this summer's cruise season in Helsinki, with Hurtigruten's Fram once again as the year's first visitor. Unfortunately I missed the season opener this time around, as I was at the University at my thesis seminar all day. However, today saw the arrival of this summer's second "cruise guest", St. Peter Line's cruiseferry Princess Anastasia, that is making two four-night cruises from St. Petersburg this spring. So let us look a little at the history os that ship before getting to the pictures of her first visit to Helsinki under that name.

Princess Anastasia

IMO 8414582
Built 1986, Wärtsilä Turku New Shipyard, Finland
Tonnage 37 583 GT
Length 176,82 m
Width 28,40 m
Draught 6,71 m
Ice class 1A Super
2 500 passengers
2 447 berths
580 cars
1 115 lane metres
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 22 988 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 22 knots

The Princess Anastasia was originally built as the Olympia for Rederi AB Slite for use on Viking Line's Helsinki-Stockholm service. Somewhat unusually Rederi AB Slite had purchased the plans of their fellow Viking Line member SF Line's Helsinki-Stockholm newbuilding Mariella instead of opting for a design of their own. The Olympia was delivered in April 1986 and replaced Rederi Ab Sally's Viking Saga on the Helsinki-Stockholm route (the Viking Saga survives today in drastically rebuilt form as Louis Cruise Lines' Cristal). The Mariella and Olympia served alongside on the capital cities service for seven years. Rederi AB Slite was going to take delivery of a new ship, Europa, in 1993, which was to replace the Olympia.

Rederi AB Slite planned on selling the Olympia to Euroway, a company operating between Malmö and Lübeck (which coincidentally was funded by the same Swedish bank as RAB Slite). This came to nothing and instead the Olympia was chartered to P&O Ferries in April 1993. However, just days later Rederi AB Slite was declared bankrupt (see this entry on Silja Europa for details on the bankruptcy). In May 1993 the ship was renamed Pride of Bilbao and placed on P&O Ferries' Portsmouth-Bilbao and Portmouth-Cherbourg services. Later during the year the ship was sold to Irish Ferries, who continued chartering her to P&O.

Pride of Bilbao remained on the Portsmouth-Bilbao -route until 2010, when P&O Ferries closed the service down. In September 2010 she was laid up at Falmouth and subsequently her name was shortened to Bilbao. In December of the same year she was then taken over by St. Peter Line on a sale/charter agreement. St. Peter Line are chartered her from Irish Ferries, but each payment contributes to SPL taking ownership of the ship and in 2016 she will be owned by St. Peter Line. Between January and March 2011 the ship was rebuilt at Klaipeda and renamed Princess Anastasia (though the name on her hull is in fact SPL Princess Anastasia). During the layup she had been repainted with an all-blue hull, but during the refit it was changed back to P&O-style half-blue half-white, but with SPL hull markings (making her livery completely dissimilar to that of her fleetmate Princess Maria).

At the end of March 2011 the Princess Anastasia entered service on St. Peter Line's St. Petersburg-Stockholm and St. Petersburg-Stockholm-Tallinn-St. Petersburg -routes. In late April/early May she also made two St. Petersburg-Helsinki-Stockholm-Tallinn-St. Petersburg cruises.

The photographs below show the Princess Anastasia departing Helsinki on 29 April 2011, her first visit to the city under that name. She was in port at the same time as her sister Mariella, but sadly I could not find a suitable location from which to take good photographs showing both sisters. The photographs below were taken, as per the usual, from Kustaanmiekka.

Click on the individual images to view larger size.

Who would have thought, 18 years ago, that the ex-Olympia would one day return to the Baltic, calling at Helsinki and sailing regularly to Stockholm?

It's interesting how much bulkier the more white-heavy livery makes the Princess Anastasia compared to the Mariella. I was oping the Anastasia would recieve a livery similar to that of the Princess Maria (which IMO would have looked very good) but SPL clearly decided otherwise.

Interestingly, the Olympia was built one meter longer than the Mariella, apparently to give her the title of the biggest ship on the Baltic. However, due to structural differences the Olympia was (and Princess Anastasia is) in fact smaller than her sister in terms of gross tonnage (volume).

Tricks of the light make the ground look exotically red in this pic. In reality it was brown, as grass hasn't really started growing yet after the long, cold winter.

Notice that the ship has an aft radar on the port side. This seems to be a P&O-era addition, and the Mariella doesn't have one.

Onwards through Kustaanmiekka to Stockholm, just like old times. Except this time around the ship was filled with russian tourists, definately something that wasn't around back in the 80s or early 90s.