M/S Silja Festival
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M/S Silja Festival (earlier M/S Wellamo) is a cruiseferry built in 1986 by Wärtsilä at the Helsinki New Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland. It is, as of 2006, owned by the Estonian shipping company Tallink operating for their brand Silja Line.
In January, 1986, M/S Wellamo was delivered to Effoa, one of the owners of Silja Line consortium at that time. The ship, named after the goddess of the sea in Finnish mythology was put on the Stockholm–Mariehamn–Turku route. In the summer of 1990, she briefly served Helsinki–Stockholm, due to the fact that one of Silja's new ships for that route, Silja Serenade was not yet complete and the old ship Finlandia was due to be delivered to her new owners DFDS. In 1992, Wellamo was renovated and renamed Silja Festival.
From March 20 to May 23, 1993 she trafficked Vaasa–Umeå, still for Silja Line. When Silja Line joined Euroway, Silja Festival was added as a second ship for their route Malmö–Travemünde–Lübeck, and later also Copenhagen.
When the Euroway project terminated in April, 1994, Festival was moved back to Kvarken to operate from Vaasa to Umeå and Sundsvall. Around this time Silja Line made an agreement to sell Silja Festival or her sistership Silja Karneval to Norwegian ferry operator Color Line. It was Karneval who left for Norway where she was renamed Color Festival.
In September 2, 1994, Silja Festival was moved from Vaasa to serve the Helsinki–Tallinn route. For the summer of 2005, (June 26 to August 14) she served Vaasa–Sundsvall again, then returned to Helsinki–Tallinn.
On April 5, 1997, Silja Line switched the ship's flag from Finnish to Swedish and put her back on Stockholm–Mariehamn–Turku service.
[edit] Specifications
- Passengers: 2 000
- Year Built: 1986 (renovated 1992)
- Cabins: 588
- Floors: 9
- Car capacity: 400
- Length,Width: (168 m, 28.3 m)
