Cruiseferry

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A cruiseferry is a ship that combines the features of a cruise ship with a ro-ro ferry. Many passengers travel with the ships for the cruise experience, staying only a few hours at the destination port or not leaving the ship at all, while as others use the ships as means of transportation.

Cruiseferries are common in the Baltic Sea. Two major rival companies, Viking Line and Silja Line, have for decades competed on the routes between Turku and Helsinki in Finland and Sweden's capital Stockholm. Generally GTS Finnjet of 1977 is considered to have been the first cruiseferry, she was the first ferry to offer cruise-ship quality services and accommodations, and the first generation of cruiseferries operating from Finland to Sweden were highly influenced by Finnjet's interior and exterior designs.

The size of Baltic cruiseferries is limited by various narrow passages in the Stockholm, Ålandian and Turku archipelagos, meaning ships not much in excess of 200 meters cannot traffic on these routes. The single narrowest point is Kustaanmiekka strait outside Helsinki, although ships making port at the city's west harbour do not have to pass through the strait. Viking and Silja Line have wished to keep their terminals in the South Harbour however as it is located right next to the city center. The largest ships to maintain scheduled service through the Kustaanmiekka strait are M/S Finnstar and her sisters with a length of 219 meters. The largest ship to have ever navigated though the narrows past Suomenlinna sea fortress was M/S Oriana (260 meters), but that was only possible due to extremely good weather conditions.

[edit] Tax-free sales

The expansion of the European Union has limited the growth of the industry as duty-free sales on intra-EU routes are no longer possible. However, as the Åland Islands are outside the EU customs zone, duty free sales are still possible on routes making a stop at Mariehamn or other harbours on the islands. Another popular destination is Estonia with its lower taxes on alcohol.

The ferries have been criticised because of the low prices of alcoholic beverages encourage passengers to become drunk and act irresponsibly. Due to the relatively cheap price of the cruises and availability of duty-free alcohol (which makes it considerably cheaper than on "land" as both Finland and Sweden have a relatively strict taxation of alcohol) many big parties involving vast amounts of alcohol drinking are held on the ships, one such party is the Finnish university students' party GOOM.