MS Gemini in Stavanger
Gemini in Stavanger
History
Name
  • 1992-1993: Crown Jewel
  • 1993-1995: Cunard Crown Jewel
  • 1995-2009: Superstar Gemini
  • 2009-2009: Vision Star
  • 2009-2016: Gemini
  • 2016-2017: Celestyal Nefeli
  • 2017-present: Gemini
Owner
Operator
Port of registry
RouteEastern Mediterranean
BuilderUnion Navale de Levante, Valencia
Yard number197
Launched30 May 1991
Completed20 July 1992
In service20 July 1992
Identification
StatusIn service
General characteristics
TypeMotor Vessel
Tonnage19,093 GT
Length163.81 m (537 ft 5 in)
Beam22.5 m (73 ft 10 in)
Draught5.40 m (17 ft 9 in)
Installed power4 x Wärtsilä 8R32 diesel engines
Propulsion
Speed19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph)
Capacity1,074 passengers

MV Gemini is a cruise ship operated by Miray Cruises since 2019. 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.

History

Crown Jewel was built in 1992 for Crown Cruise Line (a subsidiary of EffJohn[1]), 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.[2] 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,[3] and the vessel was renamed Cunard Crown Jewel.[4] In 1995 the ship was sold to Star Cruises, and renamed SuperStar Gemini and placed on cruise traffic from Singapore.[4][5] In February 1997 the ship suffered an engine room fire.[5]

In September 2007 Star Cruises reported that SuperStar Gemini had been sold and left the company fleet in December 2008.[6] 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.[7] In 2008, the Clipper Group announced that it would rename the ship 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 Vision Star. However, these cruises were cancelled due to the non-availability of Vision Star from Vision Cruises. Instead, SuperStar Gemini was renamed Gemini, and had a Spanish operator, Quail Travel Group.

After the bankruptcy of Quail in 2011 Gemini was laid up in Tilbury Docks, Essex, awaiting sale or charter.[8]

Cruises to 2015

MS Gemini in Stavanger

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.[9]

Clipper Ship Management, who followed as ship's owner of Gemini and MV Ocean Pearl, issued a statement saying that both ships will be available for sale or charter.[10] After the crew went on strike in Gibraltar,[11] Gemini was berthed on 25 October 2011, at Tilbury Docks, UK,[12][13] while Ocean Pearl left Tilbury Docks on 17 April 2012.[14] During the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games MV Gemini was used as temporary accommodation to house G4S games security staff. Harboured at Albert Docks.

Gemini was chartered to Petrofac, which was 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 status is under Clipper Group management; the ship is berthed at Scalloway Harbour where she accommodated 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 was chartered to Celestyal Cruises of Cyprus.[15]

Cruises since 2015

Gemini was home-ported to the Eastern Mediterranean in mid-2016. In 2017, Gemini was chartered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to host emergency response crews responding to Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.[16] In 2018 the charter with FEMA ended and Gemini returned to Europe. From June to September 2018 the vessel was in service with the Turkish tour agency Etstur, sailing from Cesme to Turkish and Greek ports.[17] In 2019 the cruise ship was chartered by Blue World Voyages.[18] In the first half of 2020 the ship was laid up at Piraeus, Greece.

In 2021, the ship was chartered for several years by Miray Cruises, offshoot of a Turkish travel company, for operation in the Aegean Sea and Sea of Marmara. That programme was interrupted in February 2023 by the catastrophic earthquake in Turkey and Syria, when she was deployed to provide accommodation for the homeless from the Haray region. It accommodated mostly the elderly, sick, pregnant and families with small children.[19] In March 2023, it was announced that Gemini would commence a three-year "live aboard" round-the-world cruise in November, operated by Life at Sea Cruises, a subsidiary of Miray.[20][21] However, in June, Life at Sea Cruises said that Gemini had been replaced for this cruise by another ship, Lara, reported to be AIDAaura.[22][23] In November that ship was sold to Celestyal Cruises,[24] and Miray is still trying to source a ship suitable for its subsidiary start up.[25]

References

  1. ↑ Simplon Postcards: Star Cruises / SuperStar Gemini, retrieved 29. 9. 2007
  2. ↑ Ward, Douglas: Complete Guide to Cruising & Cruise Ships 2006, page 604. Berlitz Publishing 2006. ISBN 981-246-739-4
  3. ↑ Lakeside Publishing Co. (1993). Cruise Travel. Lakeside Publishing Co. p. 28.
  4. 1 2 Miller, William H. Jr: Pictorial Encyclopedia of Ocean Liners, 1860–1994, page 112. Dover Publications, New York, 1995. ISBN 0-486-28137-X
  5. 1 2 (in Swedish) Fakta om Fartyg: M/S Crown Jewel (1992), retrieved 29. 9. 2007
  6. ↑ Cruise Business Review 29. 9. 2007: Star Cruises sold SuperStar Gemini Archived 2007-10-31 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 29. 9. 2007
  7. ↑ (in Finnish) FCBS Forum: Star Cruises myy SuperStar Geminin, retrieved 29. 9. 2007
  8. ↑ "ISP – Fleet Information". International Shipping Partners. Archived from the original on 12 November 2007. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
  9. ↑ "(Un) Happy Cruises Ceases Operations".
  10. ↑ "ISP Issues Statement on Happy Cruises". 28 September 2011. Archived from the original on 5 April 2012.
  11. ↑ "Gemini as of October 4, 2011". shipspotting.com. 4 October 2011. Currently at Gibraltar, the operators are bankrupt, and crew members on strike as they have not been paid their wages for a couple of months.
  12. ↑ "Gemini – Last Position Received". marinetraffic.com. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  13. ↑ "MS Gemini berthed at Port of Tillbury, UK". Google Maps. 2011. Archived from the original on 26 April 2012.
  14. ↑ "Outward from Tilbury Dock, River Thames on the 11th July 2012 she entered George V Dock in Docklands". shipspotting.com. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  15. ↑ "CELESTYAL NEFELI For 2016". Maritime Matters. 14 September 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  16. ↑ "Gemini Also on FEMA Charter for $10.6 Million". Cruise Industry News. 12 January 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  17. ↑ "Etstur to Offer Summer Season Aboard Gemini". Cruise Industry News. 7 February 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  18. ↑ "Blue World Voyages". Archived from the original on 18 July 2018. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  19. ↑ Engelbrecht, Cora; Kirac, Nimet; Ponomarev, Sergey (1 March 2023). "'A Strange Dream': A Cruise Ship Is a Floating Shelter for Displaced Turks". The New York Times.
  20. ↑ Payne, Holly (7 March 2023). "Gemini's three-year world cruise on the verge of selling out Article-Gemini's three-year world cruise on the verge of selling out". Seatrade Cruise News. Colchester. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  21. ↑ Brockes, Emma (30 March 2023). "A three-year cruise sounds like a costly, sweaty nightmare. But then you start doing the maths …". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  22. ↑ "Miray Upgrades Ship for Three Year World Cruise". Cruise Industry News. New York. 29 June 2023. Archived from the original on 24 August 2023. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  23. ↑ Kalosh, Anne (29 June 2023). "Miray Cruises is the reported buyer of AIDAaura". Seatrade Cruise News. Colchester. Archived from the original on 30 June 2023. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  24. ↑ Zelinski, Andrea (16 November 2023). "Celestyal acquires Aida ship and will rename it Discovery". Travel Weekly. Rutherford, NJ. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
  25. ↑ "Life at Sea Three Year World Cruise Facing Investor Withdrawal". Cruise Industry News. New York. 21 November 2023. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
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