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. |
Really glad to see the ship again, first time I saw her photographed since joining new owners, this ship was very familiar for me having sailed about 20 times from Southampton to Bilbao, she had a very nautical atmosphere inside and a reading/observation lounge just below the bridge, a must, agree with you in terms of livery, shame
ReplyDeleteAll the best
I'm really looking forward to sailing on this ship at some point in the future - she does an interesting four-night cruise circuit St. Petersburg-Helsinki-Stockholm-Tallinn-St. Petersburg and I'm really eager to see the observation lounge you mentioned, as the sister Mariella (on which I've been dozens of times) doesn't have one. SPL have also redone much of the interior and i'm rather eager to see what the ship looks like.
ReplyDelete