For more information on Ocean Majesty in her current role see my article “Ocean Majesty (1966 – present), Majestic International Cruises“
Ocean Majesty was launched in 1966 as Juan March for Spanish ferry operator Trasmediterránea. She was the first of two Albatros-class sisters, the other being the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Trasmediterranea mainly used her on the route from the Spanish mainland to the Balearic Islands. In 1985 Juan March was sold to Sol Mediterranean and was renamed Sol Christina . She was soon sold to Opale Lines and became their Kypros Star in 1986. She sailed on the Cyprus to Egypt service. Later she was chartered out to Adriatica for the service between Brindisi and Patras for a few months in 1989. She then changed hands yet again, this time to Majestic International Cruises, who converted her from ferry to a cruise ship and gave her her current name Ocean Majesty. Work was carried out in Perama, Greece and took four years to complete until 1994. She was also reengined, her 7-cyl B&W engines were replaced by Wärtsilä 16V32D diesels.
Majestic International operated her for several years themselves, but in 1994 she ws chartered out to Epirotiki Cruise Line for a year. For Epirotiki she sailed under the names of Olympic and Homeric. After her charter expired, she was returned to Majestic International and named Ocean Majesty once again. Majestic International has chartered her out to several different companies since 1995, like Nouvelles Frontiers in 1996, Apple Vacations in 1997 and 1998 and Orient Lines in 1997. In november 2000, she was was chartered to Indian Ocean Cruise Line, but this charter was discontinued earlier then planned in 2001. Since then, Ocean Majesty has most often cruised for British tour operator Page & Moy until 2013 and since then to the German company Hansa Touristik between May and October every year. After being laid up for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ocean Majesty sailed again for Hansa Touristik during the 2022 and 2023 summer seasons. In August 2023, the ship was taken out of service in order to serve as a refugee ship in Velsen, the Netherlands where she replaced Silja Europa a former Baltic ferry which had been fulfilling the same role of refugee ship before her.
The first series of photos are of Ocean Majesty as a refugee ship in Velsen, The Netherlands, the last 13 photos were taken during her days as an active cruise ship (many thanks to Panos Antonelos (Majestic International Cruises for providing these photos).
