Artania

Overview

Artania began life as Royal Princess, the first purpose-built ship for Princess Cruises and, on her debut in 1984, one of the most innovative cruise ships in the world: the first with all-outside staterooms, and reputedly the most expensive passenger ship yet built. Named by Diana, Princess of Wales, she served Princess for twenty years, then P&O Cruises as Artemis, and since 2011 has sailed for Germany's Phoenix Reisen as Artania. That a 1984 hull remains in active, front-line service — including world cruises — is a tribute to the quality of her Finnish construction and to the durable market for traditional, mid-sized ships.

Key specifications

The dataset records 44,348 GT, a length of 230.6 m, a beam of 29.6 m, a maximum capacity of 1,260 passengers and a speed of 22.0 knots. Her reference article gives the same tonnage and length but a beam of 32.5 m, which appears to be a maximum figure including bridge wings, against the dataset's hull beam; the same article records a normal capacity of 1,188 and a crew of 537. She has eight passenger-accessible decks and a draught of about 7.8 m. As built she was powered by four Wärtsilä 12V32 diesels totalling 27,840 kW; the machinery was renewed in 2014 (see below).

Design and construction

The ship was built by Oy Wärtsilä Ab at its Hietalahti shipyard in Helsinki as hull 464, at a reported cost of US$165 million — making her, at the time, the most expensive passenger ship ever built. Her arrangement inverted convention: public rooms were placed low in the hull and the cabin decks above them, and — the decision that made her famous — she was designed without a single inside cabin. Every stateroom faces outward, and many of the "affordable" cabins were given private balconies at a time when balconies were still a luxury-ship feature. She was Princess Cruises' first purpose-built newbuild, ordered by a line that had until then grown entirely with second-hand tonnage, and she set the design direction the brand followed for a decade.

Naming, launch and maiden voyage

She was launched at Helsinki on 18 February 1984, delivered on 30 October 1984, and named Royal Princess by Diana, Princess of Wales at Southampton on 15 November 1984, in a ceremony attended by the public, P&O Princess staff and dignitaries including Mauno Koivisto, the President of Finland, with a blessing by the Bishop of Southampton. Her maiden voyage began on 19 November 1984 — the date the dataset records in full.

Career by operator

The dataset's operator-history field records only Phoenix Reisen; the full chain above is from the ship's own article [see batch notes]. As Royal Princess she was Princess's flagship in all but name through the 1980s and 1990s. In April 2005 she transferred within the Carnival group to P&O Cruises and was renamed Artemis — renamed by the actress Prunella Scales — becoming P&O's smallest and oldest ship, an adults-focused vessel with a devoted following. In 2010 her master, Captain Sarah Breton, became the first female captain of a P&O ship and only the second woman to command a major cruise ship. P&O had announced her sale to Artania Shipping in September 2009; she completed her P&O service on 22 April 2011 and passed to Phoenix Reisen on charter under the adjusted name Artania — a change made, as with her sister Phoenix ships, to give the German brand a name of its own.

Onboard character

The ship's character was fixed in 1984 and has survived every refit: all-outside accommodation, a traditional promenade, public rooms low and amidships, and a scale — about 1,200 guests — that keeps her in the classic cruising tradition rather than the resort-ship world. Under P&O as Artemis she was marketed on exactly those traditional virtues; under Phoenix Reisen, with German as the onboard language, she performs the same role for the German market, including long voyages and world cruises that exploit her sea-keeping and her loyal repeat clientele.

Major refits and incidents

In the last quarter of 2014, at Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven, she was fitted with new Wärtsilä main engines and an additional auxiliary engine — a full re-engining, rare for a thirty-year-old ship and the clearest possible statement that her owners intended a long further career. Her most serious episode came in 2020, when a COVID-19 outbreak on board during the pandemic's first wave became one of the defining cruise stories of that spring: the ship's Australian call at Fremantle was followed by quarantine ashore for passengers, and four deaths connected with the outbreak had been reported by 24 April 2020. She returned to service when cruising resumed. No fire, grounding or collision of consequence is recorded for the hull in the sources consulted.

Sister ships and class

Artania is a one-off: no sister was built to the Royal Princess design. Her significance to later fleets is as a prototype — the all-outside, balcony-rich arrangement she pioneered in 1984 became industry standard within a decade, and Princess's subsequent purpose-built ships developed themes first proven on this hull.

Fate and where she is now

The dataset lists the hull as active and operating for Phoenix Reisen as Artania, her third name, more than forty years after her launch in Helsinki. She is among the oldest ships in this directory's active phase — and one of the clearest proofs that a well-built hull, re-engined and carefully marketed, need not have a short life. She is a Phase 1 (active fleet) page in this directory.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships; MV Artania, Wikipedia (ship article, incl. naming ceremony, all-outside-cabin design, 2014 re-engining and 2020 outbreak); CruiseMapper, Artania ship profile.