A new French cruise operator, Compagnie Française de Croisières, made its first presence in Irish waters when their Renaissance arrived to anchor off Dun Laoghaire Harbour, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The Marseilles based CFC Croisières has just a single cruise ship, however Renaissance represents the first large vessel dedicated to the French market in several years. Afloat consulted CFC's website where the 1,100 passenger (originally, 1,400 capacity when as Maasdam of Holland America Line) cruiseship has a crew to passenger ratio of 1 for every 9 guests. 

Renaissance which had sailed from the UK arrived into Dublin Bay on Wednesday morning and where Afloat observed tenders from the 55,575 tonnes cruise ship operate back and forth to Dun Laoghaire Harbour throughout the day. On this cruise, 530 passengers were guests of the 520 crew working on the Bermuda flagged vessel which operates a year round cruise programme.

To mark the new operator’s maiden visit in Irish waters, Cllr Denis O'Callaghan, Cathaoirleach of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, joined Harbour Master Harry Duggan aboard Renaissance for a plaque exchange with the captain.

The visit by Renaissance to Dun Laoghaire Harbour is one of a record breaking 90 plus callers this season and following the new operator, the 100,000th cruise visitor from Norwegian Dawn, on Thursday, was welcomed in a ceremony held by the port. In total 164,000 visitors are scheduled this year along with 71,000 crew and generating €10-15m per year to local economies such as Dún Laoghaire. 

In the evening, Renaissance was again observed but setting off for an overnight passage to Cobh, Cork Harbour. Further anchorage calls where tracked by Afloat to St. Mary’s, Isles of Scilly and today, St. Peter Port, Guernsey.

The 219m cruise ship as alluded was originally the Maasdam built in 1993 for Holland America Line until acquired during the pandemic by Seajets of Greece as their Aegean Myth, however the vessel was sold again to CFC in August, 2022.

Under CFC ownership, the cruise ship went to Damen Shipyard, in Brest, Brittany where a €30 million refit took place on the 9 passenger decks in which six are where 629 cabins are located.

On completion of refit, Renaissance headed to Le Havre where the cruise ship on 28 June was renamed by French actress Anne Parillaud. On the next day, an inaugural cruise voyage took place from the port in Normandy.

In addition to CFC offering the domestic market with cruises from the English Channel (La Manche), embarkation for passengers is available from Bordeaux on the Atlantic and Marseilles in the Mediterranean.

#BoutiqueYacht – Making a maiden Irish port of call was mega yacht Variety Voyager that brought yesterday a refreshing change in Dublin Port where the trend is for considerably larger giant sized ships, writes Jehan Ashmore.

At just 1,593 gross tonnage the boutique sized cruiseship Variety Voyager with capacity for only 72 guests pampered in ultra-luxury docked next to the Tom Clark Toll-Bridge. The 2012 built sleek four passenger-deck mega yacht had sailed overnight from Holyhead. Notably the call to the north Wales ferryport took place in the inner harbour where the Stena HSS fastferry craft had served Dun Laoghaire but currently only caters for small cruiseships.

The 60 odd nautical mile crossing that is between Holyhead to Dublin takes ferries just over three hours to complete, however the 68m/223ft mega-yacht took a more leisurely eight hour passage. The debut call to Dublin represented the first of seven calls scheduled this season by the boutique mega yacht's upmarket Greek operator Variety Cruises.

Variety Voyager is the largest of the Athens based operator of 11 mega yachts and motor sailers. They are also the largest mega yachts operator in the Mediterranean and one of the top 3 worldwide in the Small Ship market. In 2016-2017, Variety Cruises won in The ‘Best Boutique Cruise Line’ by USA Today Readers’ Choice Awards.

Cruising in one of these small ships offer guests (4 to 5 star luxury) which offerr the ultimate mega-yacht experience. With capacities ranging from 5 to 36 cabins, it is the latter capacity that relates to Variety Voyager whose guests are served by 33 crew.

As one would expect from a mega-yacht, Variety Voyager has cabins and public areas finished with warm fabrics, rich marbles, Axminster carpeting and soft tones wood panelling. Everywhere, unobstructed views of the ocean and of the ports visited.

Asides operating throughout the Mediterranean, Variety Cruises global ports destinations include Cuba and The Seychelles. In addition to the Irish debut, new for 2017 is that the operator have added destinations further into the Atlantic with cruises to Iceland along with southern hemisphere calls to Madagascar and the Mozambique Islands.