Our second ship "easyCruise Life" will start cruising in April 2008 on a 7 day itinerary to the Aegean islands and Turkey. Following an extensive makeover during the winter months, you'll recognise the sleek easyCruise exterior plus the cool range of facilities you have come to expect from easyCruise - and more! "easyCruise Life" will carry over 500 passengers, so more than double the capacity of "easyCruiseOne", and of course a bigger ship means bigger and better onboard facilities.

Jasmine?

quote:

---

Originally posted by cruceromania:
"Following an extensive makeover during the winter months...

---

Don't they mean make-under?

quote:

---

Originally posted by PamM:

Jasmine?

Pam

---

Thats right PamM :

Second ship for easyCruise
11/9/2007
easyCruise has acquired a second ship, to be named easyCruise Life, which will join the fleet with a new seven-day cruise to the Greek Islands and Turkey starting next spring.

The 1981-built ship, formerly The Jasmine, was sold by Mano Maritime last August and is currently sailing as Farah, operated by Arab Ship Management out of Egypt.

easyCruise is due to take delivery in October before undertaking a refurbishment programme, details of which are under negotiation, the company’s sales and marketing director, Paul Ellerby, tells Seatrade Insider.

‘The makeover will include utilizing the space from the existing casino and main dining room to add more cabins plus create a spa and 24-hour dining and entertainment area - similar to those on board easyCruiseOne - however these will be much larger as the vessel is triple the size of our first vessel,’ Ellerby notes. easyCruise Life will have capacity of around 500 lower berths compared to easyCruiseOne’s 232.

From April, easyCruise Life will sail to six Greek islands, from Syros and Samos to Kalymnos, Kos, Paros and Mykonos for a 24-hour stay. easyCruise will visit Turkey for the first time with a full day and night in Bodrum. Customers can choose where to join the cruise – in Athens on Saturday or in Bodrum on Monday.

easyCruise chairman Stelios Haji-Ioannou commented: ‘The popularity of our 2007 season has proved that people are very keen to visit Greece and the surrounding islands and easyCruise Life will certainly cater for this demand.’ In fact this year’s Greek summer programme was sold out by May, says Ellerby, prompting the chase for more capacity for 2008.

Next year easyCruiseOne will also remain in Greece with its established weekend ‘Aegean Escape’ cruise featuring Poros, Mykonos, Paros and Sifnos. A new itinerary, ‘Around the Ionian Sea,’ will cruise through the Corinth Canal to the islands of Ithaki, Paxos, Corfu, Kefallonia and Zakynothos with calls in Corinth, Itea (for Delphi) Preveza and, in another first for easyCruise, Agioi Saranta in Albania.

Haji-Ioannou added: ‘Albania is starting to arouse people’s interest. It’s an exceptional country and from the port of Agioi Saranta we will offer tours to Butrint which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.’

Whilst easyCruise is fully committed to the eastern Med market until October 2008, a return to the Caribbean in winter is not ruled out, says Ellerby. ‘Interestingly many of the North American customers that sailed with us in the Caribbean during the last two winters have now sampled our Med product, so have followed the concept to a new destination.’

Meanwhile, Ellerby confirms the newbuilding programme for up to four new ships is still on the agenda although ‘not far on’ from when originally announced and whilst the company’s European river cruise operations ceased last month - earlier than scheduled due to the financial situation of the firm that operated the riverboat on a franchise basis, ‘our minds are not closed to the idea,’ he added. ‘For now we are focusing on Greece as it’s working well for us.’

quote:

---

Originally posted by Galaxy:

[...]
A new itinerary, ‘Around the Ionian Sea,’ will cruise through the Corinth Canal [...]

---

Some of the recent pictures I saw of Jasmine showed she still had a car deck with ramps from the side of the ship.

Is it known if this space is to be converted into cabins or other passenger facilities.