Grand Mistral

The Mistral was laid down for the French company Services et Transport, but still during building, the ship was taken over by Festival Cruises. In the USA, this company was known as First Choice Cruises. The ship was built at the Chantiers de L'atlantique wharf in Saint-Nazaire, France under yardnumber J31. She measures 47.276 tons, is 216 meters long and 32 meters wide. Her maximum passenger capacity is 1667, on double occupancy it is said to be 1196. These passengers are taken care of by 450 crewmembers. Her normal speed is very moderate, 22,5 knots.

In the last decade of the former century, Festival Cruises was planning to modernize their older fleet. At that time, they sailed with three ships, the Flamenco that was built in 1971 as Spirit Of London for P&O, the Bolero that was built in 1968 as Starward for Klosters (Norwegian Caribbean Lines) and then the thirth ship was The Azur, built in 1970 as Eagle for the General Steam Navigation Company, a part of P&O. To compete with more modern lines, Festival had to built up a new fleet themselves.

Mistral floated out on the 2nd of january 1999 and was named at the 25th of june that same year. She then started making some introduction calls in northern Europe, as Festival mainly catered for European passengers. Her first official cruise started from Genoa in Italy at the 17th of july 1999. She was just in time for the celebrations of the new millennium, when she was at the tropical Caribbean port of Tortola. Her millennium celebrations on board included a large lottery for her passengers, with the main prize being a car, not just a car, but 'the best Maserati model', the Mistral. The winner was also crowned as the 'King Of The Ship', with all royalty that it brings. The second prize was a full restitution of the price of the cruise itself.

The Mistral was not the only way to update the fleet, as there were more ships ordered to the same design as the Mistral, although these were enlarged versions. Two ships entered service for Festival in 2001 and 2002 respectively, the European Vision and the European Stars. But there were dark clouds ahead, as the company was getting into financial troubles during these years too. During 2003 and 2004 the companies ships were laid up, sold and finally Festival was declared bankrupt. Their newest ships went to MSC Cruises, another European company that was trying to renew their older fleet. Only the Mistral was sold at an auction to the Spanish company Iberojet. For them, she was renamed Grand Mistral. Her first cruise for the Spanish operator started at the 30th of may 2005. Because of the growth of the company, since 2011 the ships are no longer limited to the Mediterranean and also seen in other parts of Europe.

The pictures of Grand Mistral were taken at Velsen Zuid during her passage through the Northsea Canal from Amsterdam to IJmuiden at the 5th of september 2011.