MV Artania (previously Royal Princess and Artemis) is a cruise ship chartered since 2011 by Phoenix Reisen, a German-based travel agency and cruise ship operator. She was built for Princess Cruises by Wärtsilä at the Helsinki Shipyard, Finland, and was launched on 18 February 1984. At a ceremony in Southampton, England, on 15 November 1984, the ship was named Royal Princess by Diana, Princess of Wales. After entering service on 19 November 1984, she cruised as Royal Princess until April 2005, when she was transferred to the control of P&O Cruises, and was renamed Artemis. In 2011, she moved to Phoenix Reisen’s fleet and was renamed Artania.
Royal Princess was named by Diana, Princess of Wales at a ceremony in Southampton, Hampshire on 15 November 1984. The ceremony was attended by members of the public, employees of the P&O Princess Group and local and international dignitaries including Mauno Koivisto, President of Finland. The Bishop of Southampton performed a blessing prior to the naming. The ship was the most expensive passenger ship when built. She does not have any inside cabins, which makes her the first cruise ship to have all outside cabins.
She was transferred to the P&O fleet in April 2005 and renamed Artemis by Prunella Scales. Artemis was the smallest and oldest ship in the P&O cruises fleet. In 2010 British captain Sarah Breton took charge of Artemis, becoming only the second female in the world to command a major cruise ship and the first for P&O, after Karin Stahre-Janson from Sweden, who took charge of MS Monarch of the Seas of Royal Caribbean Cruises in 2007. On 22 September 2009, after numerous rumours, it was announced by P&O Cruises that the ship has been sold to Artania Shipping for an undisclosed sum of money. She continued to sail for P&O Cruises until 22 April 2011, when she was chartered to Phoenix Reisen as MV Artania.
As of November 2019, the vessel has undergone four overhauls at Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven. The ship has been fitted with new Wärtsilä engines, and 96 additional balconies have been added. Artania sailed the South Pacific, New Zealand and Oceana for the first part of 2017, docking at Wellington Harbour 27 February. Artania sailed under the flag of Bermuda until October 2016, her port of registry having been Hamilton. From 26 October 2016 Artania, as all other ships of Phoenix Reisen, has sailed under the flag of the Bahamas. On 26 October 2017, Artania docked in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, sailing north from New York as part of the autumn New England cruising schedule, departing 27 October to St. John’s Newfoundland, Canada, which was its last North American port of call before making a transatlantic crossing to Europe. Cork in Ireland will be her first port of call on her way to Hamburg, Germany, to commence the remaining 2017 cruise season with ports of call in Europe, Africa and the Indian Ocean.
