M S Artemis, formerly known as Royal Princess is a cruise ship part of the fleet of P & O Cruises. She was transferred to P & O Cruises in June 2005 from Princess Cruises. On entering into service with the P & O Cruises company, she was renamed Artemis, after the Greek Goddess by Prunella Scales. She is the smallest ship among the seven ships part of the fleet at P & O. Although she has been sold to Artania Shipping for an unknown amount in 2009, M S Artemis will be sailing as part of P & O Cruises fleet till 2011.
M S Artemis is captained by Sarah Breton, who is only the second woman to take charge of a major cruise liner. She took charge in 2010.
Construction and History
M S Artemis was built Wärtsilä at the Helsinki New Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland in 1984. Inauguration was done by Diana, Princess of Wales at South Hampton in the same year. At the time of construction, M S Artemis was a pioneer in innovation, as public areas were incorporated in the lower decks, with the cabins located above them; she was the first ship to have all cabins outside. She was also the first ship to provide standard cabins equipped with balconies.
Specifications
M S Artemis, is a comparatively small ship at 44 348 Gross Register Tons ( G R T ). The ship has a displacement of 5, 580 metric tones dead weight ( D W T ). She is 756.59 feet long ( 230.61 m ) and 29.60 m ( 97.11 m ) long at the beam, and 7.80 m ( 25.59 ) long at the draught. There are 8 passenger accessible decks on board. The maximum passenger capacity is 1, 260 and average passenger capacity is 1, 188. The crew members and other staff numbers 537.
Itinerary
M S Artemis sails routinely from Southampton, United Kingdom with over 120 cruises for P & O departing from here annually. Cruises lasting for 7 to 26 nights are offered to various destinations like the Baltic Sea, Iceland, Norway and so on. The ship goes around the U K and the Mediterranean. The 26 night cruise visits ancient holy lands mentioned in the Bible. In January 2011, a 98 night world cruise, which will be via Suez Canal, to China and will return via South Africa.
Accommodation Options
Artemis has a total number of 594 cabins on board. The State rooms include Outside stateroom, Balcony Stateroom, Deluxe Balcony Stateroom and Suite. Artemis is does not have any inside cabins, all the cabins are outside.