AIDAvita inaugural call

AIDAvita made its first ever call in Halifax this morning. The ship is en route Hamburg to New York on a 16 night 17 day cruise. (Hamburg, Invergordon, Kirkwall, Reykjavik, St.John's, Halifax, Bar Harbor, Boston, New York).

Aker MTW, Wismar built the ship in 2002 as a twin to AIDAaura. With a capacity of 1266 passengers in 633 cabins and a crew of 426 it is among the smallest AIDA ships.It has been upgraded several times in its career, which originally started with P+0 Princess Cruises. When that company joined Carnival, ownership  was handed over to Costa Crociere, which manages all of Carnival's European operations. Despite the fact that the it therefore flies the Italian flag, it is in all other respects a German ship.

After arriving in New York June 21 the ship will carry out New England / Maritimes / Quebec cruises until mid- August when it returns to Germany.

CAUTION - if you book a cruise on AIDA or Costa be prepared to be greeted aboard and assisted by an autonomous humanoid tri-lingual emotional robot named Pepper. It can read your emotions - and who knows what else.

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