Harland & Wolff Group’s Belfast shipyard bid farewell to the cruise ship Margaritaville at Sea Islander following a four-month major transformation of the former Costa Cruises owned vessel.

In addition, the 2,380 passenger cruise ship, originally named the Costa Atlantica in 2000, made sea-trials on the Irish Sea, which Afloat tracked taking place as far south when between Dublin and Holyhead. 

Afloat also tracked this morning the Margaritaville at Sea when offshore of Lisbon, Portugal and is bound for Gibraltar. 

The 85,861 gross tonnes ship in January entered the historic Belfast dry-dock where an extensive refurbishment took place for the ship’s new operator, the US-east coast based Margaritaville at Sea.

During dry-docking, the 12 deck cruise ship underwent a full exterior livery repaint and re-design carried out by H&W's'tradespeople. The shipyard also created and developed a framework for the ship’s LED screen systems in addition to laying out the foundations for the vessel's sports courts.

In order to facilitate the sizeable amount of work, sub-contracting work was carried out on the 300m ship, which also involved work on the 1,100 cabins, which were completely refurbished.

Margaritaville at Sea becomes the flagship for the company, which is to set sail next month from the operator's new homeport in Tampa, Florida, to the Gulf of Mexico.

This will see 4 and 5 night cruises calling to Key West, Cozumel and Progreso both in Mexico.

The cruise company’s second ship, Margaritaville at Sea Paradise sails on two- and three-day excursions from Palm Beach and Tampa to Grand Bahama Island, Mexico and Key West.