Astoria Grande

Astoria Grande is a cruise ship which entered service as Aida in 1996 in the fleet of German cruise company, AIDA Cruises. She was their first cruise ship and in 2001 became AIDAcara. In 2021 the ship was sold to a Russian company and renamed Astoria Grande.

History

The ship was built, at a cost of DM 300 million, by Kvaerner Masa-Yards at their Turku New Shipyard in, for Deutsche Seetouristik/Arkona Reisen, Rostock, as a "Clubschiff", She was launched in 1996 and entered service in June that year with the name Aida.
When P&O Cruises purchased a controlling stake in Arkona Reisen in 1999, they transferred the ship, and it became part of the new Aida Cruises fleet. She was renamed Aidacara in 2001, after two sister ships entered operation as AIDAvita and AIDAaura. In 2005, the vessel underwent a refit, which increased the number of cabins.
In 2021 the ship was sold to a Russian company and renamed Astoria Grande.

2023 Port of Batumi Incident

In the summer of 2023, the ship began sailing from the Russian port of Sochi. On Monday, July 31, 2023, Russian passengers disembarking the ship in the Georgian port city of Batumi were met by protesters who threw eggs at the ship, waved Georgian, Ukrainian and EU flags and chanted anti-Putin slogans. The ship left the port on the evening of August 1, ahead of its scheduled departure. Although the ship had been scheduled to dock at Batumi every two weeks, following the incident the ship's webpage had dropped Batumi from its itinerary.