Silja Serenade interiors, 17 February 2014

I guess it's nescessary to start with the traditional apologies for the lack of updates recently. My goal was to update the blog once a week, starting from November, and there was a grand total of one entry in all of December. In addition to Christmas, I was busy working simultaneously with not just one but two issues of Ulkomatala (a  Christmas special, which you can read from the magazine's website - presuming that you speak Finnish - and the next proper issue, which will come out in two days). I'm not sure how regular updates will be in the future either, as I've received a research grant for a book on the history of Finnish shipbuilding and I'm starting as a regular contributor with Cruise Business Review. But weekly updates still remain the goal, and hopefully I'll also achive that somewhat more frequently.

Silja Serenade

IMO 8715259
Built 1990, Masa-Yards Turku New Shipyard, Finland
Tonnage 58 376 GT
Length 203,03 m
Width 31,93 m
Draught 7,12 m
Ice class 1A Super
2 852 passengers
3 001 berths
410 cars
1 600 lane metres
4 Wärtsilä-Vasa diesels, combined 32 580 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
1 stern thruster
Speed 21 knots

The Silja Serenade was at Rauma last November for a few weeks being refitted. These photos are not from that particular refit, but rather taken after her February 2014 refit, which started the current renewal cycle for the Silja Serenade and Silja Symphony. I did not post these here immediately after the refit, as shots from the session were featured both in my 2014 book, Silja Line from De Samseglande to Tallink, and in Ulkomatala. It's high time these get featured here, too. Most of the photos are of the refitted spaces and as such they are the current interiors of the ship.

All photos are from the press tour of the refitted ship on 17 February 2014. As per the usual, click on the images to see them in larger size.

Deck 13 houses the bridge as well as New York Club & Lounge, an observation lounge around the funnel.

Deck 12 has the main sun deck, and the Sunflower Oasis Sauna and pool complex around the base of the funnel.

Sunflower Oasis' pool area was one of the spaces completely refitted. Seen here is, according to the compamny, the largest jacuzzi on the Baltic.

I have to say I find the new interiors a bit blad, too much white and not enough colour. Sure, the original had terrible plexiglass rocks, but also some quite nice streamline moderne -inspired furnishings and teak furniture - I kind of miss those.

At least at the time the actual saunas, as well as the dressing rooms, were in original appearance. If I've understood correctly, the dressing rooms have since been rebuilt - which is a good thing, they rather clashed with the new look of the pool area.

Deck 11 is dedicated exclusively to cabins.

Deck 10 houses a dedicated Commodore Class lounge forward, alongside more cabins. The Silja Serenade was the second ship to introduce the "ship within a ship" class concept now popular wth cruise ships, and the first newbuilt ship to do so (the first was the Finnjet after her 1986 refit).

The redecorated Commodore Lounge. This was the first time the area was given a proper makeover - so after 24 years it was high time!

Deck 9 is, again, dedicated to cabins. Forward are three junior suites added in the 2014 refit, which replaced the conference suites previously located there.

If I remember correctly, the interior architect for the suites was Marjut Nousiainen. Each suite is themed; here is the bedroom of Spring...

...the sitting area of Summer...

...and the sitting area of Autumn. As you can see, the main differentiating factor is the colour of the upholstery and carpets.

Deck 8 has the upper storey of the Atlantis Palace showlounge complex forward, followed by more cabins.

Deck 7 is the ship's heart, with the promenade (horizontal atrium) running through it, lined by shops, restaurants and bars. The forward half of the promenade was rebuilt in the 2014 refit, with the aft parts following in 2015.

View of the promenade from the entrance to Atlantis Palace, facing aft.

The gift shop added in the 2014 refit.

Kids & Toys replaced the previous Trend Shop in the 2014 refit.

Deck 6 houses conference rooms forward, followed by the Tavolata Italian restaurant, the Tax Free Superstore and the Grande Buffet. Apart from the conference rooms, all spaces on this deck were rebuilt in the 2014 refit.

The conference area as it appeared in 2014. At least the conference lobby was completely rebuilt in the 2015 refit. I'm not sure if all conference rooms were given the same treatment.

I admit my first reaction to Tavolata was "not another Italian restaurant!", but the food surprised me very pleasantly. As for the interiors... well, I like subtle use of the colours of the Italian flag, but it does lack that something. Now sure what, but something.

The new Tax Free Superstore encompasses the old main tax-free shop, Orient Café and parts of Bistro Maxime.

The crew were still hard at work putting everything in the correct locations when we were onboard, normally there aren't piles of cardboard boxes laying around.

The new layout emulates that of airport duty free stores, which is a very nice change from the old grocery store -style layout. This is in part by nescessity, as the only route through deck six now passes through the tax free shop.

The buffet restaurant, aft on deck six, was completely rebuilt. The entrance, seen here, has been opened up beautifully.

The servery areas were rebuilt, but remain in the island-type arrangement, with the exception of the servery area for main courses. I'm somewhat surprised the latter wasn't extended, as it's long been the bottleneck of the whole space.

While the new look of the sitting areas has been criticized, I really very much like the vibrant colours and simple forms.

In fact, I like it so much that here's another photo.

At the time of this visit, Deck 5 housed a spa forward and cabins aft. In the 2015 refit, the spa was converted to a large children's playroom and ice cream bar.

Decks 3 & 4 house the ship's car deck and crew cabins.

Deck 2 has economy-class cabins forward and technical spaces aft.

Next time: probably the Princess Anastasia.

Magellan in Helsinki, 24 August 2015

Magellan

IMO 8217881
Name history: Holiday, Carnival Holiday, Grand Holiday, Magellan
Built 1985, Aalborg Værft, Denmark
Tonnage 46 052 GT
Length 221,57 m
Width 28,17 m
Draugth 7,77 m
1 250 passengers
2 Sulzer diesels, combined 23 520 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 21 knots

So, we're finally getting around to the new (second-hand) Cruise and Maritime Voyages ship that got people so excited earlier this year.

The Magellan started like in 1985 as the Holiday, the second-ever newbuilt ship for Carnival Cruise Line; she was essentially an enlarger version of the 1981-built Tropicale that was built by the same shipyard for Carnival. The Holiday went on to have a long and uneventful career with Carnival. Towards the last years of her career with them she came to be marketed as 'Carnival Holiday', but it appears her official name was not changed. In 2009 she was transferred within Carnival Corporation & PLC to the Spanish-market Iberocruceros brand as the Grand Holiday. Due to the Spanish cruise market facing adverse conditions as a result of the eurozone crisis, Carnival decided to close down the Iberocruceros brand effective 2014, with the Grand Holiday withdrawn. She was then sold to Greek owners, who chartered the ship to CMV as the Magellan. And this pretty much wraps up her history to date.

On a completely different tengent, I find the reaction amongst cruise ship and liner enthusiasts to the Magellan's CMV career very interesting. The Carnival Corporation, and in particular Carnival Cruise Line, is a company a certain breed of enthusiasts love to hate. These tend to be the same people who think any and all modern cruise ships are ugly. With CMV operating and having operated such classic ships as Ocean Countess, Marco Polo, Discovery and Azores, I fully expected there to be an outrage from these people when CMV opted for an old Carnival ship of the boxy type they love to hate. I was wrong. As soon as CMV became associated with the ship, she became a classic beauty worthy of preserving. This tells something very interesting about both the human mind and the way branding works. (And for the record, I think the Magellan is a fine-looking ship. But I also think many modern cruise ships are very attractive in terms of exterior design).

Anyway, onwards to the point. The photos below show the Magellan departing Helsinki Länsisatama (West Harbour) on her first call to the city on 24 August 2015. Photographed from Sisä-Hattu. As per the usual, click on the images to see them in larger size.

I find it interesting that Carnival apparently no longer demands the removal of their trademark funnel wings when a ship is sold outside the Carnival Corporation.

Water levels were unusually low, giving the chance for interesting photos like this one.

While I think the Magellan looks very swish in these colours, I'm slightly bothered by the lack of a unified colour scheme in the CMV fleet. Currently, all their ships have different hull colours, and the funnel colours aren't exactly unified either. Personally, I also think the funnel would look better if it was all-blue, with the CMV logo put on in white.

What must be said is that the Magellan did smoke quite heavily, as you can also see from the previous shots. This mild fog in this photo between the ship and shore appeared to consist almost entirely of the Magellan's exhaust fumes.

Next time: depending on how much time I have, either Silja Serenade interiors or Princess Anastasia exterior shots.

Silja Serenade in Helsinki, 23 November 2015

Silja Serenade

IMO 8715259
Built 1990, Masa-Yards Turku New Shipyard, Finland
Tonnage 58 376 GT
Length 203,03 m
Width 31,93 m
Draught 7,12 m
Ice class 1A Super
2 852 passengers
3 001 berths
410 cars
1 600 lane metres
4 Wärtsilä-Vasa diesels, combined 32 580 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
1 stern thruster
Speed 21 knots

The Silja Serenade returned from her most recent drydocking yesterday. In addition to changes to her interior (which were more extensive than the ones carried out on the Silja Symphony previously) the also received a new smiling seal logo on her funnel. While the old seal was painted on, the new one is made out of metal and has a rather attractice led lighting behind it, making it look very nice in the dark, as the following images, taken of the ship while moored at the Olympiaterminaali on the afternoon of 23 November 2015, show.

The new happy seal and a rather neat moon too, as photographed from Tähtitorninmäki.

Moving to Kauppatori, the Serenade is seen here with the local bunkering tanker Lotus.

Magazine cover potential here, methinks.

Another Serenade with a another ship shot, this time featuring the Suomenlinna ferry Suomenlinna II.

Next time: Magellan

Azamara Quest in Helsinki, 11 August 2015

Azamara Quest

IMO 9210218
Name history: R Seven, Delphin Renaissance, Blue Moon, Azamara Quest
Built 2000, Chantiers de l'Atlantique St. Nazaire, France
Tonnage 30 277 GT
Length 181,00 m
Width 25,46 m
Draugth 5,80 m
777 passengers (maximum)
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 13 500 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 18 knots

Finally this blog returns to the scheduled content. And equally finally we feature shots of the current Azamara Club Cruises livery in decent weather; the Azamara Quest was already featured in the current livery once (the entry also includes a history of the ship for those interested), but those shots were taken in pouring rain.

So, the photos below show the Azamara Quest departing from Helsinki Eteläsatama (South Harbour) in the afternoon of 11 August 2015, photographed from Kustaanmiekka. Click on the images to see them in larger size.

Foreground rowan!

A dark hull does make the ship look very good. She's look even better with a dark funnel, though - just take a look at this shot of her sister sailing as the Minerva II.

Posing for cruise ship passage in the foreground.

Azamara Quest passes a teen party.

Next time: As the Silja Serenade is currently in drydock for interior refreshment (and a slight adjustment of her livery), I think it's safe to say she will be the next ship featured. Whether it will be in the form of pictures is her current livery, the upcoming livery or even interiors... well, that remains to be seen.

Superstar in Tallinn, 11 March 2014

We continue the deviation from advertized programming due to yesterday's news that Tallink have sold the Superstar to Corsica Ferries, effective next month, but she will be chartered back to Tallink until the completion of the new, larger fast ferry from Turku at the beginning of 2017.

Superstar

IMO 9365398
Built 2008, Fincantieri Ancona, Italy
Tonnage 36 400 GT
Length 175,10 m
Width 27,60 m
Draugth 7,00 m
Ice class 1A
2 080 passengers
520 berths
665 cars
1 930 lanemeters
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 50 400 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 27,5 knots

So, with these changes it's maybe a good time to look at the brief history of the Superstar. She was ordered by Tallink from Fincantieri in August 2005, for delivery in spring 2008. The ship was based on the design of the Moby Wonder -class, which Fincantieri were heavily promoting at the time (they also negoatiated about building a ship of the same design for Viking Line). The Superstar was ordered at the same time as her eventual running mater Star, and originally both contacts included an option for a sister vessel. At the time there were plenty of rumours circulating around about the future deployment of the ships: the Star and her sister were expected to go to the Helsinki-Tallinn -line, while the Superstar and her potential sister were expected to open an Estonia-Germany service for Tallink. Other rumours suggested one pair would go on the Gothenburg-Frederikshavn route in competition with Stena Line. Tallink at the time also expressed interest in submitting a tender for the state-funded service between the island of Gotland and the Swedish mainland. In the end only the Germany service came true, by the virtue of Tallink buying Superfast Ferries' Baltic Sea operations. Neither sister ship option was taken up, and the somewhat mismatched pair of Star and Superstar took over Tallink's non-cruise Helsinki-Tallinn services.

The Superstar continued in service without incident for eight years. In late 2014 Tallink signed a memorandum of agreement to build a new, larger, LNG-powered fast ferry for the Helsinki-Tallinn route, which was confirmed as a firm order in February 2015. At the time the company reported no final decisions about the fate of the current Helsinki-Tallinn Shuttles had been made: the new ship could either replace one of them or join them as a fourth ship. However, in November a contact to sell the Superstar to Corsica Ferries was made public. She will change owners in December, but is chartered back to Tallink until the completion of the new ship from Turku. In early 2017, following delively of the as-of-yet unnamed new fast ferry, she will join Corsica Ferries' fleet as the Mega Express Six.

The photographs below show the Superstar arriving in Tallink on 11 March 2014. I did not publish these images at the time, keeping them under wraps for the Tallink – The First 25 Years book. Since the book is now out (and all of you should go and buy it), these photos will not spoil anything. As always, click on the images to see them in larger size.

Sisters are doing it for themselves: the inbound Superstar and the outbound Finlandia outside the harbour.

I'm really quite fond of the combination of the decaying concrete in the foreground.

Next time: Presumably, we'll hopefully finally get to the Azamara Quest.