AIDAprima Marks 10 Years Since Hamburg Debut
Construction delays cancelled AIDAprima’s repositioning voyage, sending the ship to Germany with crew only before Emma Schweiger christened it in Hamburg.
AIDAprima has completed its 10th year in service for AIDA Cruises, a decade after the Japan-built ship entered the fleet in early 2016. The roughly 125,000-gross-ton vessel was delivered by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Nagasaki on March 14, 2016, and became the largest ship in AIDA’s fleet at the time of its debut.
Across its first decade, AIDA has run the large, all-weather AIDAprima on year-round Northern and Western Europe service. Its arrival also brought several new passenger-facing features to the German brand, including an onboard ice rink and a covered family activity area.
A delayed delivery and Hamburg debut
Construction delays changed AIDAprima’s entry into service. The planned repositioning voyage to Europe was cancelled, and the ship sailed to Germany with crew only before its christening at the Port of Hamburg.
Actor Emma Schweiger served as godmother for the christening, which took place during celebrations for the German port’s 827th anniversary. AIDAprima then began its maiden Northern Europe season from Hamburg.
The inaugural program centered on AIDA’s seven-night Metropolitan itinerary, calling at ports including Le Havre, Southampton, Rotterdam and Zeebrugge.
Ship features and technical profile
AIDAprima is a 300-meter Hyperion-class ship with a beam of about 37.6 meters. The vessel carries about 3,250 passengers, has 1,643 staterooms and operates with roughly 900 crew.
The ship introduced a 200-square-meter ice rink to AIDA’s fleet. Other major public areas include Four Elements, a covered activity complex with a three-deck waterslide, a large screen used for sports programming, a lazy river and a climbing wall.
AIDAprima also added the Lanai deck concept, with open-air promenade-style space, whirlpools, relaxation areas and a boardwalk. On the technical side, the ship uses MaK Caterpillar diesel and dual-fuel engines with two ABB Azipod propulsion units, and is fitted with Mitsubishi’s air lubrication system, designed to reduce hull friction and lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by about 7%.
Current and future deployment
AIDAprima remains based in Hamburg for summer itineraries to Scandinavia and the Norwegian Fjords. In October, the ship is scheduled to shift to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for a Canary Islands cruise program.
AIDA has also announced a 2027-28 winter Caribbean deployment for AIDAprima, which would take the ship to the region for the first time.
