Here’s some news that few people saw coming: the cruise line Swan Hellenic is returning to the cruise world in 2021. They have been out of the game for a bit after having a storied history that involves multiple year-long periods of inactivity, but it seems like they have rebranded and will be returning alongside several new ships.
Swan Hellenic
If you’ve never heard of Swan Hellenic before this, let us give you a quick rundown to bring you up to speed. They were founded way back in 1950 as a company that used small ships to give tours to people. It was eventually picked up by P&O in 1983 and became part of the Royal Caribbean Group’s collection of cruise lines. However, it was discontinued in 2007. A few years later, a small company purchased Swan Hellenic and brought it back from the dead, only to once again discontinue it in 2017. A short year later, it had a new owner with plans to give it a third life; instead, they sold it to its current owners who have the newest Swan Hellenic revival plan.
Expeditions aboard new ships
Swan Hellenic’s new brand is going to be focused on expeditions on small ships that are specifically built for the cruise line. Two ships are currently being built in Helsinki, and it seems that they are sister ships with equal capacities of 152 guests. The ships will be staffed by a crew of 120 people, meaning that there will definitely be an incredibly high ratio of crew to guests (always a good thing on luxury expedition ships). Not much is known about the ships as of right now, but we’re sure that we will get more details once the building process is further along.
The logistics
Swan Hellenic will now be operating out of Monaco with headquarters in Cypress. Additional offices will be found in the UK and in Germany, with several veterans of the cruise industry leading each different office for the company.
When will they be ready to sail?
The first ship for Swan Hellenic is planned to be ready to sail to Antarctica in November 2021. The second ship will take a bit longer and won’t be unveiled until April 2022, but we can assume that many of the same features that we see in the first ship will also be present on the second.
If you’re excited about trying a new cruise line that can take you to some of the most exotic locations on earth, definitely keep your eye out for Swan Hellenic to make a return in 2021!
