Birka Paradise has been renamed Birka Stockholm (WILLIAM MAYES)

Birka Cruises’ Birka Paradise (2002/34,924gt) was unexpectedly renamed Birka Stockholm in January. The ship is one of three regular ships that operated overnight round-trip cruises to Mariehamn in the Aland Islands from Stockholm.

Anedin Line’s Birger Jarl has recently been withdrawn while that company undergoes a reconstruction, and the third vessel is Viking Line’s Viking Cinderella. No indication has been given as to why the name has been changed. Birka Line, part of the Aland Island-based Eckero Group, has been operating short cruises from Stockholm since 1986, initially with Birka Princess (1986/22,412gt), the ship that, as Louis Cruises’ Sea Diamond, sank off Santorini in 2007.

In 1992 Birka also briefly used what is now Fred. Olsen’s Boudicca as Birka Queen, but this was not a success. Although Birka Paradise operates the short service to Mariehamn, she does undertake longer cruises in the Baltic.

Adonia will not call at Argentinian ports in 2013.

There have been problems in recent weeks for a number of ships calling at Argentinian ports. On 20 November 2012 two ships operated by One Ocean Expeditions, Akademik Ioffe and Akademik Sergey Vavilov, were prevented from sailing due to a national strike. Subsequently, the call at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands by Aidacara on 3 December 2012 was cancelled after disruption and protests at Argentinian ports against ships calling at the Falkland Islands.

vSeabourn Sojourn was delayed by about seven hours at Buenos Aires on 4 December 2012, thought to have been in protest at the ship’s next call at Port Stanley on 8 December 2012. Later, Regent Seven Seas Cruises cancelled a February Falklands call scheduled for Seven Seas Mariner, and Oceania cancelled a call by Regatta around the same time.

P&O Cruises, who also have Falkland calls planned, have taken a different course and will not be calling at Argentinian ports until further notice. The three Argentina port calls by Arcadia and Adonia have been cancelled, with passengers scheduled to embark or disembark in Buenos Aires doing so in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Oasis of the Seas will be joined by another sister in 2016. (Richard Mayes)

After talks between STX, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and the Finnish Government over financing of a third ship in the Oasis of the Seas class broke down, within a short time the order for that ship had been placed with STX at St Nazaire, France. The 361m vessel will be the largest passenger ship built anywhere outside Finland, and with work expected to commence in September, the as-yet un-named ship will be delivered in 2016. The order also includes an option on a sistership for delivery two years later.

It appears that the shipyard has taken the redundant Atlantic Star (1984/46,087gt) in part exchange for the first ship, thus relieving RCCL of a financial and highly visible embarrassment. Atlantic Star, built at La Seyne in the south of France, has been laid up in Marseille for almost four years and was widely thought to have come to a premature end.

Orient Queen opens Louis Cruises’ 2013 Piraeus season. (All photos by William Mayes unless stated otherwise)

Orient Queen (1968/15,781gt) will open the 2013 season of three- and four-night cruises from Piraeus in March. She then moves to Lavrion for a series of five-night cruises, handing over in Piraeus to Louis Olympia (1982/37,773gt). Now the oldest ship in the much-reduced Louis Cruise Lines fleet, Orient Queen was built as Starward for the then still young Norwegian Caribbean Cruise Line. In 1995 she became Festival Cruises’ Bolero and, following the collapse of that company, had a life-prolonging refit before beginning service with Abou Merhi Lines in 2004.

Meanwhile, Louis Cristal, the former Sally Albatros and Silja Opera, does not feature in the 2013 programme from Piraeus as published, but there have been recent rumours of her sale or charter, denied by the company.