MS Mega Smeralda

MS "Mega Smeralda" is a cruiseferry owned by Medinvest and operated by Corsica Ferries. She was built in 1985 by Wärtsilä at the Helsinki New Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland for Johnson Line as MS "Svea" for use in Silja Line traffic. Between 1992 and 1994 she sailed for Silja Line as MS "Silja Karneval", and between 1994 and 2008 for Color Line as MS "Color Festival".

History

ilja Line service

MS "Svea" and her sister MS "Wellamo" were modeled after Silja Line's highly successful Helsinki—Stockholm service ferries MS "Finlandia" and MS "Silvia Regina". The main difference to the older pair of ships was outer appearance of the new sisters: where Finlandia and her sister had had a very box-like exterior, the new sisters for the Turku—Stockholm route had more attractive rounded looks.

In 1989 there were plans to rebuild "Svea" with rails on the cardeck so that she could also carry railroad carriages on board, but these were shelved. Until 1990 her funnel displayed the colours of Johnson Line, but at that time Silja Line's owners Johnson Line and Effoa merged into one company, EffJohn, and Silja Line's seal logo was moved from the ship's hulls into their funnels.

In 1992 "Svea" and her sister underwent a large-scale reconstruction at Lloyd Werft in Bremerhaven, Germany where most of the ships' interiors were rebuilt, a new skybar added on deck 9, a new more blue-dominated colour scheme replaced the traditional Silja stripes and the ship was renamed "Silja Karneval" in accordance with Silja's new name policy. In fact the funds used to rebuild "Svea" and "Wellamo" were originally meant for rebuilding of the GTS "Finnjet", but her planned rebuilding would have been too expensive and EffJohn opted to spend what money they had on "Svea" and "Wellamo" instead.

Color Line service

"Silja Karneval"'s service on Silja proved to be short. In early 1994 EffJohn decided to sell her sister "Silja Festival" to Norway-based Color Line. However, when time came to deliver the ship to Color Line, EffJohn for some reason decided to sell them "Silja Karneval" instead (the two ships being structurally identical). Problematically for Color Line, they had already printed material advertising their new ship as the "Color Festival". As result "Silja Karneval" became M/S "Color Festival", not "Color Karneval" as would have been logical.

After reconstruction at Cityvarvet, Gothenburg, "Color Festival" was initially placed on the Oslo—Hirtshals route. In 2002 she damaged one of her rudders in Hirsthals and had to be docked in Hamburg because of it. In April 2006 she started operating on the Oslo—Fredrikshavn route in direct competition with her old Silja Line fleetmate MS "Stena Saga". On 21 November 2007 Color Line sold "Color Festival" to Corsica Ferries for €49 million (400 million Norwegian krone), [no icon cite web | url=http://www.colorline.no/pages/infoCenter/infoCenterArticle.faces?contentId=1.3816&gridId=0.0 | title=Color Line selger Color Festival for 400 mill kroner | publisher=Color Line press release | author= | date=21 November 2007 | accessdate=2007-11-21] in preparation for the delivery of the new "Color Superspeed" vessels in mid-2008.

Corsica Ferries service

The "Color Festival" was delivered to Corsica Ferries in early January 2008, subsequently renamed "Mega Smeralda" and re-flagged in Italy with Genoa as her homeport. Reportedly she will be placed on Civitavecchia—Golfo Aranci or Livorno-Golfo Aranci service. [fi icon cite web | url=http://www.fcbsweb.com/forum/index.php?topic=12254.msg90415#msg90415 | title=Color Festival myyty | publisher=FCBS Forum | author= Jani Nousiainen | date=29 November 2007 | accessdate=2007-11-30]

Onboard

Restaurants & Cafés

*Captains Grill
*Casa Margharita
*Trattoria Riviera
*Buffet Veranda
*Cafè Maritim

Activities

*Color NetCafè
*Fontana Poolarea
*Cinema
*Color Land

Bars, Nightclubs & Entertainment

*Panorama Bar
*Casino Bar
*Dancing Palace
*Sailors Pub
*Fun Fun Nightclub

hopping

*Tax Free Supermarket
*Color Shop
*Fashion Shop
*Perfume Shop

Conference

*Color Conference Center

References

See also

* List of ship launches in 1985

External links

* [http://www.colorline.com Color Line] (Company website)
* [http://www.faktaomfartyg.se/svea_1985.htm M/S Svea (1985)] at "Fakta om Fartyg" sv icon

de:M/S Color Festival
fi:M/S Mega Smeralda