The thoroughly renewed cruise ferry Silja Europa returned to regular traffic on the Helsinki-Tallinn route from 13th of March, announced AS Tallink Grupp. The renovations, which lasted several months, most of the passenger areas were updated.
According to the Sales and Marketing Director Mr. Margus Hunt, the renovations were of large scale, as the ship`s main passenger areas had to be changed from a floatel to ones of a beautiful passenger ship again. „We were aware of the large interest of our passengers towards the potential return of Silja Europa to the Baltic Sea operations, but were still positively surprised about the large scale support and approval of her coming back to the Helsinki-Tallinn route,“ added Kitter.
The largest reconstruction works were done on the 7th and 8th deck, were the shops, restaurants and bars are situated. The Tax Free Superstore as well as perfume shop both have received a totally new look, which required taking down even some walls. From restaurants, a full make-over was done to the self service restaurant Fast Lane and the former Taurus a la carte restaurant now turning into the Italian restaurant Tavolata already very popular on Silja Line branded vessels. The new Tavolata restaurant will be opened on 28th of March. Also the discothèque and show bar are renewed.
The cabins of the ship, which was operating as a floatel in Australia last year, were equipped with new beds and TVs. The wide children`s playroom is situated on the 7th deck and there are also a conference center, sauna and a beauty salon on board.
The renovations of the Tavolata restaurant and discothèque will take further 2 weeks and are opened on 28th of March.
Silja Europa will depart from Länsiterminal, Helsinki at 9.00 in the morning, with the arrival to Tallinn at 13.00. From Tallinn, D-terminal the daily departures are scheduled to 18.30 with the arrival time in Helsinki at 23.00. The exception is the schedule on Saturdays, when she will depart from Tallinn at 17.00 arriving in Helsinki 20.50, the departure time from Helsinki is the same with other weekdays at 09.00 am.
Altogether, there will be 14-16 departures per day on Tallinn-Helsinki route according to the season’s schedule of Tallink`s ships, being the most widest selection of departures among the operators of that line. During March and April she will replace the other cruise ferry on that route, Baltic Queen having planned maintenance dockings.
Silja Europa is built in 1993 in Germany. She is worlds one of the largest ro-ro ships by the number of cabins with the length of 202 meters, width of 33 meters and passenger capacity of over 3000 people. There are 6 different cabin classes available on board, as well as 5 restaurants, 2 bars and nightclubs, a beauty salon, sauna and 4 shops. She has the highest ice class of 1A Super and her maximum speed is 21.5 knots. Her car deck accommodates 932 lane meters of vehicles and cargo.