Tallink and Aker Yards creating a princess for the Baltic

Big cruise ferry launched and named.

The christening and launching ceremony of the big cruise ferry ordered by Tallink took place at Aker Yards shipyard in Helsinki. The contract worth EUR165 million (US$253 million) was signed in December 2005. The vessel will start cruises from Helsinki to Tallinn in summer 2008. Ms Eva Hanschmidt, daughter of Tallink’s Supervisory Board member Ain Hanschmidt, christened the vessel as ‘Baltic Princess’. According to plans, the now launched vessel will start operating on the Tallinn (Estonia) - Helsinki (Finland) route in summer 2008 replacing the cruise ferry 'Galaxy'. 'Galaxy' will be rerouted to Turku (Finland),Stockholm (Sweden) route and 'Festival' to Stockholm (Sweden), Riga (Latvia) route. The 'Baltic Princess' will thus mean a new ship not only for the Tallinn - Helsinki route, but at the same time for three routes, when rerouting the two vessels', says Mr Keijo Mehtonen, board member of Tallink Grupp. 'We are looking forward to offering new cruising experiences for all of our passengers,' he adds. This princess is the fourth sophisticated cruise ferry Aker Yards is building for Tallink, and the production of a fifth already started in the Rauma yard.

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