AIDAnova Celebrates Five Years in Service

The AIDAnova is completing its fifth year in service this month. After being delivered by the Meyer Werft shipyard, the LNG-powered vessel joined AIDA Cruises fleet on December 12, 2018.

As the first in a series of LNG-powered cruise ships built by Carnival Corporation, the AIDAnova introduced a new generation of vessels for AIDA.

Now sharing the title of largest ship in the fleet of the German operator along with its sister ship AIDAcosma, the 5,200-guest vessel spent its inaugural season in the Canary Islands.

Soon after being delivered, the AIDAnova welcomed guests for its inaugural cruise in St. Curz de Tenerife on Dec. 19, 2018.

On that day, the vessel departed on a seven-night cruise that sailed across the Spanish archipelago and also included a visit to Funchal, in Portugal’s Madeira Island.

In late April 2019, the AIDAnova repositioned to Southern Europe for a summer season in the Western Mediterranean.

Sailing from Palma de Mallorca and Barcelona, in Spain, the ship’s regular seven-night itinerary featured three additional ports in Italy and France: Civitavecchia for Rome, La Spezia for Florence, and Marseille.

Currently sailing from Hamburg, in Germany, the AIDAnova is offering a series of cruises to Northern and Western Europe during the 2023-24 winter.

Different itineraries will be offered through late April, including seven-night voyages to Norway and Denmark, and week-long cruises to Germany, England, Belgium, the Netherlands and France.

The cruises can be combined to create a single 14-night cruise that visits Western Europe, the North Sea and Scandinavia.

The AIDAnova remains in the region during the 2024 summer, offering different itineraries to the Norwegian Fjords, Scandinavia and more departing from the German port of Kiel.

AIDAaura to Leave Carnival Corporation Fleet This September

AIDA Cruises has announced that the AIDAaura will leave its fleet this September, in line with Carnival Corporation’s announcement to slim down its fleet by divesting another three older and smaller ships.

The German brand has therefore announced a farewell season for the ship, kicking off on Jan. 9, 2023, in Cape Town with the first of a total of four 14-day voyages to South Africa & Namibia.

On March 6, 2023, the 27-day cruise from South Africa to Hamburg (Germany), via Namibia, the Cape Verde Islands and the Canary Islands, as well as Portugal and Spain, will depart from the metropolis on the Cape of Good Hope.

Starting in April, cruises include the “Great Norway Round Trip” to the North Cape over Easter or the two new seven-day voyages on the AIDAaura from/to Hamburg to Norway’s fjords and to Scotland. These can also be booked as a 14-day cruise.

In July and August 2023, it’s time to sail from Hamburg and Bremerhaven on 21-day cruises to Iceland and Greenland with passages along the glaciers and icebergs in Prins-Christian-Sund or Disko Bay.

AIDAaura’s last voyage for AIDA Cruises leads on well-known European rivers such as the Thames to Tilbury on the outskirts of the British capital London, the Seine in France to Rouen or the Scheldt in Belgium to Antwerp.

The AIDAaura was named on April 12, 2003, in Rostock. Among highlights, in its debut season, AIDAaura was the official German Olympic ship during the Summer Games in Athens (Greece) and sailed to destinations in the Mediterranean as well as the Caribbean and Central America. Further highlights were the exclusive AIDAselection voyages to Mauritius and Seychelles, to the Orient, to India and Greenland, to Iceland or as far as the Arctic Circle to Spitsbergen.

As part of the world cruise in winter 2018/2019, AIDAaura guests visited 41 destinations on four continents in 117 days.