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 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.

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

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.

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.

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	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, 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

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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cruiseferries.

• River cruise