A cruiseship of 85,861 gross tonnes which served a career in China before been laid up in the Mediterranean, is at Harland & Wolff Group’s Belfast shipyard following a repositioning voyage from Sardinia, writes Jehan Ashmore.
The 2,680 guest capacity Bahamas-flagged Margarita at Sea Islander last month went to berth alongside Harland & Wolff’s Belfast Dry Dock, having departed the Mediterranean island on 28 December, and just less than a fortnight later arrived in Belfast Harbour
On the day before sailing into Belfast Lough, the 12 passenger deck cruise ship was tracked in the Irish Sea midway between Dublin and Holyhead and when running at a sedate 5.2 knots, however unbeknown to Afloat, the AIS had given the ship's name with an abbreviation of 'Mas' Islander. Following further research, Afloat had identified from the Belfast Harbour website where the shipping movement list had the vessel’s name given in full as the Margarita at Sea Islander.
The near 300m cruise ship built originally for Italian brand, Costa Cruises in 2000 by Kvaener Masa Yards, at their Helsinki New Yard, Finland as Costa Atlantica, currently remains at H&W where it is undergoing a major transformation to interiors and a new bold and colourful exterior for a livery scheme to reflect its tropical Carribbean and Gulf of Mexico cruises by its new owner, US east coast operator, Margaritaville at Sea. This follows a previous career in China and then for almost four years when laid-up in Europe, initially at anchorage off Cyprus and recently in Cagliari, Sardinia.
The large scale transformation of the cruiseship at H&W will include a full redesign of all 1,100 staterooms and among the internal works, will be a soaring 14-story atrium with a unique nautical Margaritaville flip-flop. In addition the atrium's bar is to feature a three multi-story floating margarita glass chandeliers.
Commenting on the cruiseship, Graham Couser, Harland & Wolff’s Director of Cruise and Ferry said “We are pleased to be kicking off the year by welcoming the Margaritaville At-Sea Islander to our Belfast yard. Over the course of her stay, we will be offering constant operational support, and we look forward to assisting our colleagues at Margaritaville in any way we can.
“The arrival of a ship of this size always creates a buzz around the yard, and we hope that the presence of such a vessel will enable us to continue growing the cruise and ferry side of our business and attract more partners from the cruise ship supply chain to Belfast.”
The Queens Island facility has increased business in this sector and last year as Afloat reported, H&W joined Cruise Britain to enable it to connect and grow a world-class Centre of Excellence for Cruise Belfast. In addition Northern Ireland is home to leading interior outfitting contractors used for major cruise ship conversions.
On completion of the renovation, expected in early summer, Afloat highlights that the Margarita at Sea Islander will have a re-launch as the flagship for Margaritaville at Sea, setting sail from the operator's new homeport in Tampa, Florida in June. From there, 4 and 5 night cruises will call to sun-soaked itinerary with calls to Key West, Cozumel in Mexico and Progreso also in that country.
The flagship is to join another former Costa ship, the 1991 built Costa Classica, which as Margaritaville at Sea Paradise in 2022 launched the off-shore resort experience brand based out of West Palm Beach and Tampa to Grand Bahama Island, Mexico and Key West. The Margarita at Sea Islander however is too big to be accommodated in the port of Palm Beach, hence such cruises will use Tampa as a new embarkation port for Margaritaville.
The origins of Margaritaville at Sea stem from a partnership between the former Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line and the Margaritaville resort brand.
As for the Costa Atlantica, this was the first of two ‘Spirit’ class, commissioned by Carnival Corporation for their Costa Cruises, initially operating primarily in Europe and the Caribbean, before becoming closely associated with the Chinese market. This arose as Carnival Corporation, in recent year’s developed China’s Adora Cruises, in a new brand partnership with the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC).
Arising from the brand developing, this led to one of the two legacy cruise ships, Costa Atlantica sold to be part of the US cruise partnership and this enabled Adora to introduce its first of two new Chinese-built cruise ships.
