AIDAsol

AIDAsol seen from Velsen Zuid at the 30th of april 2011. This small village was almost destroyed totally when the Northsea Canal was enlarged. Only a small part around the church is still existing. A new part of the village has been built at the northside of the Canal, and it's called Velsen Noord.

The fifth member of the Sphinx-class of ships that was built for AIDA Cruises between 2007 and 2013, AIDAsol floated out of her building dock at Jos L. Meyer's wharf at Papenburg, northern Germany at the 27th of february 2011. She is part of the second generation of Sphinx class ships, recieving one extra deck in comparissement with the first three ships within the class. She measures some 71.300 tons, is 253,33 meters long, 32,20 meters wide and her draft is 7,20 meters. The total number of passengers she can carry is 2500, but the normal figure given is 2174 and this is based on a two-per-cabin count. She also accomodates 646 crewmembers. The ship normally sails at a speed of 21,8 knots and her homeport is Genoa, Italy due to the connections with Costa Cruises (this is explained on the AIDA main page). At the 11th of march 2011, AIDAsol transferred from the Papenburg yards to Emden via the Ems river, a river nearly wide enough for the massive cruiseliners built at Meyer's yard. To watch a ships passage over the river is always a marvellous sight and a good day out for the people living in the region or people who travel from all over Europe to witness those events.

AIDAsol at the passengerterminal at Amsterdam during her first call and overnight stay at the Dutch capital. She is seen here at the 15th of april 2011, just days after her delivery to the company.

The following 9th of april, the ship was named at Kiel by Bettina Zwickler, an inhabitant of Kiel who won a Facebook contest out of 1523 women and was picked to be the godmother of the new ship. The naming ceremony was truly one of a large scale. A free concert in the style of the Night of the Proms was organized, and artists playing there included names like Kim Wilde and John Miles. Also, YouTube broadcasted the entire event and at the other ships of AIDA, passengers could enjoy a live-stream.  AIDAsol offers the same facilities as the AIDAblu, including the brewery and the large Spa.

Amsterdam was one of her first ports of call and in fact, the ship is the 1000th cruiseship that berthed at the new passenger terminal, opened in 2000. At saturday the 16th of april 2011, the captain of the ship was offered the symbolic key of the city of Amsterdam by its mayor, Eberhart van der Laan. Also, the German ambassador in The Netherlands Heinz-Peter Behr, the vice-president of AIDA Cruises Michael Ungerer and the director of the port of Amsterdam Dertje Meijer attended this traditional symbolic event.

Because environmental friendly cruiseships are the future, AIDA Cruises develloped a new energy saving project for their ships when they are berthed in the port of Hamburg, together with a company called Becker Marine Systems. The plan is to use an LNG-hybrid barge next to the ships, that will provide electricity and significantly lower emissions. This way, the ships own diesel-plants don't have to be used when the ship is in port. In the summer of 2013, AIDAsol was the first ship using this innovative system. When there are no AIDA ships in port to be fed from the LNG-barges, the barges will be connected to onshore facilities so they can provide energy to the local network.