The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Majestic ship draws crowds on visit to city
Maritime: Luxury cruiser stops off
One of the most luxurious cruise ships in the world made a flying visit to a north-east harbour. The five-star Maltese passenger vessel Sea Cloud II called at Aberdeen en route to Edinburgh after making a stop at Kirkwall in Orkney.
The ship – which has travelled all over the world since being commissioned more than a decade ago – regularly attracts crowds of admirers when it drops anchor in port.
Operated by Sea Cloud Cruises of Hamburg Germany, she is sister to the historic Sea Cloud, which served as the US armed force’s first racially integrated warship since the American Civil War, while on operations during World War II.
In 2011, the Sea Cloud underwent extensive renovations in Bremerhaven.
The Sea Cloud II currently operates in Europe and the Caribbean as part of a fleet of sail cruise ships. Setting out from Klaipeda in Lithuania on July 10, the cruiser called at Copenhagen, Travemunde in Germany, before heading to Norway and then the northern isles.
The 384ft ship brought visitors for a tour of Aberdeen and a trip to Crathes Castle on the penultimate leg of their voyage.
With its 23 sails stretching to a combined 32,000sq ft, the Sea Cloud II always draws a crowd on its annual visit to the region.
More than 90 passengers, mostly German, American and Australian, spent a half-day in the north-east before heading to Edinburgh. They paid up to £7,500 for one of the 47 cabins on the 10-day trip – which marked the ship’s 10th anniversary and included stops in Orkney and Shetland to see sites such as Skara Brae, Brodgar and Jarlshof. Passengers were promised a treat at Crathes – which the brochure told them “looks like it has been lifted from a fairytale and planted in the Scottish countryside”.
The Sea Cloud II will spend the next couple of months plying the cruise routes of the western Mediterranean before a spell around Africa and the Canary Islands and winter in the Caribbean. She will return to Aberdeen at the beginning of July next year.