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Displaying items by tag: Car Ferry to Cruise Ship

#Ferry2Cruise – A cruiseship with an unconventional background called into Dublin Port this morning, Ocean Majesty, which in another guise was a car ferry built fifty years ago to serve Spanish island services, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The veteran vessel, an increasing rarity these days in the cruise industry, was the former side-loading car ferry, Juan March launched in 1966 to operate Mediterranean and Atlantic services.

The Albatros-class ferry, one of a quartet, was operated by Transmediterranea on Spain-Balearics routes and also those from the mainland to the Canary Islands.

Following a sale to Majesty International Cruises, through a Greek dockyard a major conversion costing more than US$ 50 million took place in 1994.

The conversion radically altered her appearance (click for photo) notably her superstructure and removal of twin funnel uptakes and forward cargo hold. Despite the work, she retains her classic traditional sweeping hull form lines and aptly a cruiser stern. In addition the work increased tonnage to 10,417 gross.

MIC charter the Ocean Majesty to a variety of operators, among them Hansa Touristik. The 672 capacity cruiseship call to Dublin Port is only for eight hours and forms the 9th cruise of the German charter operators 2016 season.

Ocean Majesty had departed Hamburg last week on an 11-day cruise. So far ports of call have been Rosyth, Kirkwall, Ullapool, Greenock in Scotland and yesterday Belfast.

Early this afternoon, Ocean Majesty is to depart bound for Plymouth. Following her Cornish call, she heads through the English Channel to spend an overnight call in the Pool of London.

The final day will be a passage in the North Sea before the cruise culminates in the German city.

Published in Cruise Liners

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.