Proud Portuguese cruise ship entrepreneur Mr. Mário Ferreira, CEO of Douro Azul Group at the bow of his new purchase, the ATLÂNTIDA, at Alfeite, 19 September 2014 (Douro Azul photo)
The Portuguese passenger RoRo ship ATLÂNTIDA has been sold to Mystic Cruises, a new cruise company set up by the Douro Azul Group to develop ocean cruising.The ATLÂNTIDA purchase contract was signed at the Alfeite Naval Dockyard (where ATLÂNTIDA has been laid up waiting her fate) at 11 AM on 19 September 2014 and the ship is due to return to the Viana do Castelo yards of WestSea, the new shipbuilder set up after the demise of the Viana Yards.
ATLÂNTIDA is to be converted into an ocean going luxury 7000 GT 156 Pax / 100 crew luxury expedition cruise ship.
Conversion work is planned to take one year and the not yet renamed ATLÂNTIDA will be positioned on the river Amazon for a series of 7-day cruises between Manaus (Brazil) and Iquitos (Peru) with calls at Tabatinga (Colombia) with a minimum daily rate of USD 500.
Mário Ferreira, the founder and CEO of Douro Azul intends to develop the fleet of Mystic Cruises with one newbuilding per year, a prototype is already develop at the design stage and looks like a modern SEA GODESS yacht cruise ship. This Friday 19 September the purchase contract was signed to the liquidators of Viana Yards and the ship paid in full by Douro Azul own cash reserves of M € 9. A deal to finance the rebuilding at Viana is already contracted to Portuguese bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos ammounting to 6 million euros. The former ATLÂNTICO Line ferry was refused by the Azores Government company in 2009. ATLÂNTIDA generated a loss of 70 million Euros to Viana Yards and helped the state owned shipyard to close doors. Check our previos posts on the ATLÂNTIDA here.
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia
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