AIDAsol to cruise from Cape Town in 2022, AIDAmira to be sold

After a failed South African cruise season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, AIDAmira is being sold, while AIDAsol is being transferred to the AIDA Selection program, with a Cape Town cruise on offer for 2022.

AIDAmira was purchased from Costa Cruises back in 2019 and was meant to cruise roundtrip from Cape Town for the second time during the 2019/2020 cruise season, but those plans were scuttled by the pandemic.

She has now been sold to the new British cruise line Ambassador Cruise Line, while another AIDA cruise ship, AIDAsol, will be redeployed to Cape Town to sail at least one South African cruise in 2022.

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AIDA Cruises, which is Carnival Corporation’s German brand, said that AIDAmira is expected to leave the fleet by March, while AIDAsol will be added to the AIDA Selection Program later this year.

She will become the first Sphinx-class ship to embark on a world cruise as part of the AIDA Selection program, offering longer cruises, exclusive shore excursions and more time in port.

Her World Cruise will depart Hamburg, Germany in October on a 117-night adventure that includes a circumnavigation of Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, with calls in the Avenue of Glaciers, Tierra del Fuego, Mauritius, Cape Town and New Year’s Eve in Sydney.

Other highlights of the AIDA Selection program include traveling to the Lofoten Islands with AIDAbella, and visiting the Arctic Circle with AIDAluna.

AIDAblu will offer experiences on voyages to Mauritius, Seychelles and Madagascar.

The program is complemented by new sailings with the AIDAvita and AIDAaura, which will provide new programs in 2022 with their routes to the Scottish Islands or to the archipelago off the Swedish coast.

AIDAsol is one of two AIDA cruise ships that will sail from South Africa in 2022. AIDAaura will replace AIDAmira in Cape Town for the winter season between November and March, offering roundtrip 14-night voyages on the SA and Namibian coasts.

When AIDAmira is transferred to Ambassador Cruise Line, she will be renamed Ambition, joining Ambience, the former Pacific Dawn of P&O Australia. She is expected to re-enter service in 2023.