The new cruise ship, AIDAstella, was christened at a special ceremony held in Warnemünde on the evening of March 16, 2013. The most emotional moment was the remarkable ceremony in the Theatrium when a total of ten godmothers performed the actual christening with the words:

“You exquisite ship, we christen you with the name AIDAstella. We wish you, our guests and our crew bon voyage at all times and may there always be water under her keel!”

Whereas it was well-known personalities that performed the role of godmother in the past, this time the focus was on the stars behind the scenes at AIDA – the AIDA personnel and their families. This made the selection of the godmothers very easy: this honorable duty was carried out by eight female staff from AIDA Cruises, representing the different countries and various departments of the cruise operator, together with one godmother each from the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg and the architect’s firm Partner Ship Design. With this gesture, AIDA cruises expressed its gratitude to all those who have made a substantial contribution to the success of this range of vessels and the unique atmosphere of AIDA’s ships.

About 15,000 spectators took advantage of the fine weather to take a trip to the Warnemünde Cruise Center to marvel at AIDAstella and experience the moment of the christening first hand. After the bottle of Champagne was broken across the bow at 7.45 p.m., the sky above AIDAstella was then lit up in the sparkle of a big fireworks display with showers of twinkling stars.

AIDAstella will stay in Warnemünde over night, before setting off on her maiden voyage to Oslo, Southampton, Paris and Amsterdam at 8 p.m. on Sunday evening, March 17, 2013. After that, the schedule will include cruises from Hamburg to Northern Europe.

Cruises on AIDAstella can be booked with your local travel agent, on the Internet at www.aida.de or by calling the AIDA Customer Center at +49-(0)381-202 707 07.


Rostock, March 16, 2013