Route Eastern Mediterranean Draft 5.4 m | Length 164 m | |
 | ||
Name 1992 - 1993 Crown Jewel
1993 - 1995 Cunard Crown Jewel
1995 - 2009 Superstar Gemini
2009 - 2009 Vision Star
2009 - 2016 MV Gemini
2016 - onwards MV Celestyal Nefeli Owner 1992 - 1995 Crown Cruise Line
1995 - 2009 Star Cruises
2009 - 2016 Jewel Owner Ltd.
2016 - present Celestyal Cruises Operator 1992 - 1993 Crown Cruise Line
1993 - 1995 Cunard
1995 - 2009 Star Cruises
2009 - 2016 Quail Travel Group
2016 - present Celestyal Cruises Port of registry 1992 - 2009 Panama, Panama
2009 - 2009 Valletta, Malta
2010 - 2016 Majuro, Marshall Islands
2016 - onwards Nassau, Bahamas Builder Union Navale de Levante, Valencia | ||
MV Celestyal Nefeli is a cruise ship operated by Celestyal Cruises. She was built in 1992 by Union Navale de Levante, Valencia, Spain for Crown Cruise Line as Crown Jewel. She has also sailed under the name Cunard Crown Jewel. She also operated as SuperStar Gemini for Star Cruises from 1995 to 2008.
Contents
History
The Crown Jewel was built in 1992 for Crown Cruise Line (a subsidiary of EffJohn), and which was itself the merger of Finland Steamship Company and Johnson Line. The vessel Crown Jewel/Gemini is the largest cruise ship ever built in Spain. Crown Cruise Line used the ship for cruises from the United States to Canada, Bermuda and the Caribbean. In 1993, the Cunard Line signed a deal to handle marketing, sales and reservations for Crown Cruise Line, and the vessel was renamed Cunard Crown Jewel. In 1995 the ship was sold to Star Cruises, and renamed SuperStar Gemini and placed on cruise traffic from Singapore. In February 1997 the ship suffered an engine room fire.
In September 2007 Star Cruises reported that SuperStar Gemini had been sold and left the company fleet in December 2008. Reportedly the buyer was Jewel Owner Ltd., a company in the Bahamas-based Clipper Group of Denmark, which would charter the ship to a new operator in 2009. In 2008, the Clipper Group announced that it would rename the ship the Vision Star and lease the ship to the Spanish cruise ship operator, Vision Cruises. In March 2009, Vision Cruises ceased operations. In early 2009, Mediterranean Classic Cruises (formerly Monarch Classic Cruises) was booking cruises in the Aegean Sea aboard the Vision Star. However, these cruises were cancelled due to the non-availability of the Vision Star from Vision Cruises. Instead, the SuperStar Gemini was renamed Gemini, and currently has a Spanish operator, Quail Travel Group. Since the bankruptcy of Quail in 2011 Gemini was laid up in Tilbury Docks, Essex, awaiting sale or charter.
Former cruises
SuperStar Gemini was based in Singapore and she cruised to various destinations year round in the South China Sea, Gulf of Thailand, and Straits of Malacca. Superstar Gemini embarked on a three month voyage around the Pacific including a full circumnavigation of the Australian continent and visited various cities e.g. Melbourne, Sydney, Perth (Fremantle), Brisbane, Komodo and Bali between November 2007 and February 2008.
For her final 2008 season for Star Cruises after returning from her Australian deployment Superstar Gemini was sailing a combination of Straits of Malacca seven-day cruises and six 21-day roundtrips from Singapore via Koh Samui, Laem Chebang, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hong Kong, Halong Bay, Nha Trang, Kota Kinabalu, and Kuching returning to Singapore.
The last cruise for Star Cruises departed Singapore for a seven-day cruise to the Straits of Malacca on 28 December 2008. SuperStar Gemini arrived at the Singapore Cruise Centre for the last time on 4 January 2009 at 8.30am after her final cruise in the Straits of Malacca. She was seen leaving the Singapore Cruise Centre at 5.45pm for Port Klang. After that, she was refitted and delivered to her new owners.
MV Gemini had a Spanish operator, Quail Travel Group (operating under the trademark "Happy Cruises"), and since November 2010 was sailing the Caribbean, based in La Havana and including stops in Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Paradise Island. From May to October 2011 MS Gemini was scheduled to sail the Mediterranean with stops in (amongst others) Venice, Athens and Istanbul. Due to Happy Cruises ceasing operations on September 24, 2011 she had to terminate her cruise at Valencia, Spain.
Clipper Ship Management, who followed as ship's owner of the MS Gemini and the MV Ocean Pearl, has issued a statement saying that both ships will be available for sale or charter. After the crew went on strike in Gibraltar, MS Gemini was berthed on October 25, 2011, at Tilbury Docks, UK, while the MV Ocean Pearl left Tilbury Docks on April 17, 2012.
Gemini has later be on charter to Petrofac, which is to build an £800 million gas plant for French company Total. She arrived in Shetland in the second week of July 2014, and berthed at Dales Voe where she is used to accommodate around 400 oil workers completing Total's gas plant. Gemini's current status is under Clipper Group management; the ship is berthed at Scalloway Harbour where she accommodates Petrofac workers until 15 November 2015. In the second half of November 2015 the ship left Scalloway to the Turkish yards of Besiktas, south of Istanbul, for drydock and extensive works of maintenance and refitting to start her new life as the cruise ship Celestyal Nefeli in spring 2016. The ship has now been chartered to Celestyal Cruises ( Cyprus )
Recent cruises
Celestyal Nefeli will be home-ported to Eastern Mediterranean in summer 2016.