Cruiseferry

Pride of Bilbao (now Moby Orli), an archetypical cruiseferry. Built for Rederi AB Slite for the Baltic cruise market and operated until 2010 by P&O Ferries between Portsmouth in the UK and Bilbao in the Basque Country, Spain. She was sold by Irish Continental Group at the end of her charter to P&O Ferries in 2010 and the operated for St. Peter Line among Stockholm, Tallinn, Helsinki and Saint Petersburg, before being moved to Italy.

A cruiseferry or cruise ferry is a ship that combines the features of a cruise ship and a Ro-Pax ferry. Many passengers travel with the ships for the cruise experience, staying only a few hours at the destination port or not leaving the ship at all, while others use the ships as means of transportation. Some operators prefer to refer to them as "cruise ships with car decks." ^[1]

Cruiseferry traffic is mainly concentrated in the seas of Northern Europe, especially the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. However, similar ships traffic across the English Channel as well as the Irish Sea, Mediterranean and even on the North Atlantic. Cruiseferries also operate from India, China and Australia.

Baltic Sea cruiseferries

Main article: Baltic Sea cruiseferries

In the northern Baltic Sea, two major rival companies, Viking Line and Silja Line, have for decades competed on the routes between Turku and Helsinki in Finland and Sweden's capital Stockholm. Since the 1990s Tallink has also risen as a major company in the area, culminating with acquisition of Silja Line in 2006.

While superficially resembling cruise ships that operate primarily in tropical climates, Baltic cruiseferries will have windows rather than balconies for cabins/suites, plus a higher hull and promenade deck with higher positioning of lifeboats (the height above water called the freeboard), a longer bow, and for additional strength they are often designed with thicker hull plating than is found on cruise ships, as well as a deeper draft for greater stability. Cruise ferries share these above attributes with ocean liners in order to protect against the large waves and cold stormy weather, since cruise ferries are expected to ply the Baltic Sea year-round while cruise ships can only do so in the summer. ^[2]

The largest Baltic cruiseferries offer many of the amenities found on contemporary cruise ships, including a wide range of restaurants, entertainment options, and health and fitness facilities. However on cruiseferries, many of these facilities such as the pool deck and shopping arcade are fully enclosed due to the cool Baltic climate. Cruiseferry cabins are typically smaller as voyages are only one or two nights, plus food is generally not included in cruise ferry fares, whereas cruise ships usually have itineraries lasting three nights or more and fares are all inclusive. ^[3]

List of largest cruiseferries of their time

The term "cruiseferry" did not come into use until the 1980s, although it has been retroactively applied to earlier ferries that have large cabin capabilities and public spaces in addition to their car- and passenger-carrying capacity.^{[ citation needed ]}

Year	Name	Tonnage1	Company	Traffic area	Flag	Notes
1956	MV Akdeniz	8,809  GRT	Turkish Maritime Lines	Mediterranean Sea	Turkey	Built 1955
1975	MS Belorussiya	16,331  GRT	Black Sea Shipping Company	Black Sea	Soviet Union	Alongside five identical sisters built 1975–76
1976	MS Napoléon  [ fr ]	20,079  GRT	SNCM	Mediterranean	France	Sent to Comarit in 2002.
1977	GTS Finnjet	24,605  GRT	Enso-Gutzeit (Finnlines traffic)	Baltic Sea	Finland	Gas turbine-powered. Also fastest and longest
1981	MS Finlandia	25,905  GRT	Effoa (Silja Line traffic)	Baltic Sea	Finland	Alongside identical sister MS Silvia Regina
1982	MS Scandinavia	26,747  GT	Scandinavian World Cruises  [ da ], later DFDS Seaways	New York—Bahamas Copenhagen—Oslo	Denmark
1985	MS Svea	33,829  GT	Johnson Line (Silja Line traffic)	Baltic Sea	Sweden
1985	MS Mariella	37,799  GT	SF Line (Viking Line traffic)	Baltic Sea	Finland
1989	MS Athena	40,012  GT	Rederi AB Slite (Viking Line traffic)	Baltic Sea	Sweden
1989	MS Cinderella	46,398  GT	SF Line (Viking Line traffic)	Baltic Sea	Finland
1990	MS Silja Serenade	58,376  GT	Silja Line	Baltic Sea	Finland
1991	MS Silja Symphony	58,377  GT	Silja Line	Baltic Sea	Sweden
1993	MS Silja Europa	59,914  GT	Tallink	Baltic Sea	Estonia	Ordered by Rederi AB Slite for Viking Line traffic
2001	MS Pride of Rotterdam	59,925  GT	P&O Ferries	North Sea	Netherlands
2001	MS Pride of Hull	59,925  GT	P&O Ferries	North Sea	Netherlands
2004	MS Color Fantasy	75,027  GT	Color Line	Kattegat, Skagerrak	Norway
2007	MS Color Magic	75,100  GT	Color Line	Kattegat, Skagerrak	Norway
1May be specified in gross tonnage (GT) or gross register tons (GRT).

List of cruiseferry operators

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Åland

• Eckerö Linjen
• ( ) Viking Line

Australia

• Spirit of Tasmania

Canada

• BC Ferries
• Marine Atlantic

Croatia

• Jadrolinija

Denmark

• DFDS Seaways

Estonia

• Tallink

Faroe Islands

• Smyril Line

Finland

• Eckerö Line
• Silja Line (operated by Tallink)
• ( ) Viking Line
• Finnlines
• Wasa Line

France

• Brittany Ferries
• Corsica Ferries - Sardinia Ferries
• Corsica Linea

Greece

• ANEK Lines
• Blue Star Ferries
• Hellenic Seaways
• LANE Lines
• Levante Ferries
• Minoan Lines
• NEL Lines
• Superfast Ferries
• Ventouris Ferries

Hong Kong

• Genting Hong Kong (defunct) ^[4]

Ireland

• Brittany Ferries
• DFDS Seaways
• Irish Ferries
• P&O Ferries ^[5]
• Stena Line

Italy

• Grandi Navi Veloci
• Grimaldi Lines
• Corsica Ferries
• Moby Lines
• Tirrenia di Navigazione

Mexico

• Baja Ferries

Norway

• Color Line
• Fjord Line

Poland

• Polferries

Spain

• Trasmediterranea
• Baleària

Sweden

• Stena Line

Tunisia

• Tunisia ferries (COTUNAV)

United Kingdom

• P&O Ferries
• NorthLink Ferries
• Brittany Ferries
• Irish Ferries
• Stena Line

Japan

• Taiheiyō Ferry

Gallery

• 
  Pont-Aven, Brittany Ferries' flagship.
• 
  M/S Silja Europa, the largest cruiseferry in the world 1993–2001.
• 
  M/S Cinderella departing Helsinki.
• 
  M/S Mega Regina at Ile Rousse
• 
  M/S Color Fantasy, the largest cruiseferry in the world 2004–2007.
• 
  MS Cruise Roma in Civitavecchia, Italy.
• 
  M/S Danielle Casanova in Bastia, Corsica, France.
• 
  M/S Pride of Rotterdam
• 
  MS Galaxy in Helsinki West Harbour.
• 
  MS Scandinavia in Gdańsk, Poland.
• 
  M/S Pearl of Scandinavia in Oslo, Norway
• 
  MV Cap Finistère of Brittany Ferries sailing from Portsmouth International Port, UK for Bilbao, Spain.

See also

• River cruise

References

1. "Top 6 European Cruise Ferries". Cruise Critic. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
2. "Top 6 European Cruise Ferries". Cruise Critic. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
3. "Top 6 European Cruise Ferries". Cruise Critic. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
4. Ngui, Yantoultra (2022). "How a Billionaire's Cruise Empire Imploded in Hong Kong". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2 November 2024– via EBSCOhost.
5. "Travelscene boosts options in Cruiseferry programme". Travel Trade Gazette UK & Ireland. No. 2534. 2002. p. 63. Retrieved 2 November 2024– via EBSCOhost.