A Brace of Cruisers - AIDAsol and Regatta

Two cruise ships – Regatta and AIDAsol – arrived in Fremantle this week bringing thousands of visitors to Fremantle.

Regatta, a regular visitor, arrived yesterday from Geraldton for a 2-day visit. She departs tonight at 8pm for Busselton.

Regatta is operated by Intercruises and has 629 transit passengers on board; 7 disembarked and 7 embark in Freo. So, with a crew of 398, that brings lots of visitors to Freo.

AIDAsol – a much bigger ship than Regatta as the pics below show – arrived this morning from Kangaroo Island, South Australia, at around 6 am with 1719 transit passengers and 626 crew; 15 passengers are disembarking and 1 embarking for the last leg of the cruise to Port Louis, Mauritius.

This colourful ship has a beaming smile with red puckered ‘kissing lips’ on her bow, and flashing yellow eyes and beckoning waves on her hull. She is a sister ship to AIDAmar whose January 2023 visit we covered here, and AIDAblu.

AIDAsol was built in 2011, and refurbished in 2023, she is 253m long and 32m wide.

AIDA Cruises, who operate her, is Europe’s largest German cruise line and is owned by the mega Carnival Corporation. The ship however sails under the flag of Italy.

AIDAsol left Hamburg, Germany on 27 October for this 84-day, inaugural World Cruise to Port Louis. Along the way, she has been to Spain, Canary Islands, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, French Polynesia, Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania, Adelaide and Kangaroo Island before arriving in Freo.

Tonight AIDAsol departs at 5 pm.

Here are the two cruise ships in Port this morning.

Why don’t you head on down to Victoria Quay tonight with the family to watch them sail away! They’ll make quite a sight as they quietly steam out of the inner harbour.

* STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS by Jean Hudson @jeansodyssey. Jean is our Shipping Correspondent and also a regular feature writer and photographer here on the Shipping News. You may like to follow up her informative Places I Love stories, as well as other feature stories and Freo Today photographs, right here.

WHILE YOU’RE HERE –