Trip Report: The Hook Up Ship

Over in Stockholm, Sweden they have a party ship that sails daily at 6PM and it's like nothing you've ever experienced! Its operated by Viking Line on their ship Viking Cinderella and it seems this could work here in Florida too if someone had the bucks to put it together.

Sailing from Stockholm, the ship's destination is Mariehamn in the Aland Islands.

Leaving Stockholm behind every night at 6PM.

Passengers are given a program for the sailing and even though it is in Swedish, it's easy enough to figure out what's going on by words such as "Fun Club" "Nonstop Party", "Karaoke" and "DJ". 

 

 

     Outside and inside cabins are available with en suite facilities just like on any cruise ship.

Just like cruise ships, Viking Cinderella is filled with restaurants and bars. The nightlife begins at 9PM in the Fun Club.

This is in the ship's 3-level atrium with a huge dance floor on the lowest level.

This is where you'll find live bands playing Top 40 hits.

And what is unique is that there are two live bands playing consequently. They play for about an hour each and when one band goes on break, the other takes over for the next hour. So the music is constant.

And the dance floor, mostly Swedes of course, stays busy! Friday and Saturday night sailings are especially crazy fueled by (relatively) cheap booze. You've heard of the Love Boat; Viking Cinderella is the Hook-Up Boat!

The ship's cavernous Disco is called Club7even.

On the night of my trip, we found DJ Peo Wahlin (S) in the booth.

The format here more to my liking, all EDM including Classic Dance.

The Aland Islands are an autonomous nation that no one has ever heard of. Legally a part of Finland for Defense and Customs purposes but otherwise independent, the nation is monolingually Swedish.  The Aland Island are exempt for tax purposes from EU regulations and thus ships calling there are able to sell duty free goods on board.

Sleepy little town at 7AM on a Saturday. Viking Cinderalla's port-of-call at Mariehamn lasts just 90 minutes so it was a quick walk about.

Only 2 other passengers plus myself got off here. They legally have to allow transit to Aland but otherwise the visit is just for tax free purposes onboard the ship. With Sweden's high taxes on tobacco and alcohol, the ship's supermarket store is a popular purpose for taking the trip.

Many ships stop here for that reason, often for just 5-10 minutes to make it legal.

And back on board with just a few minutes to spare, it was time for the return journey back to Stockholm. At this early hour nearly everyone onboard was asleep. The bands stop playing at 3:40AM and the Disco runs till 4AM. So you can literally party (or whatever) all night and then go to sleep with the ship not returning to Stockholm until 3:30PM the second day. The ship is then cleaned up before heading out again for another night of partying!

Could something like this work in the United States? The ship Scandinavian Sun used to operate day cruises to nowhere out of Port Canaveral under the SeaEscape brand name. U.S. law would no longer allow something like that. But in later years, the same ship under new name Discovery Sun for Discovery Cruises operated day cruises from Port Everglades to Freeport, Bahamas. It was hardly the party ship though because of its mostly daytime schedule. The foreign port stop makes that legal though and this concept could work here too with overnight sailings and early morning calls at Freeport.

If you're ever headed to Stockholm, check out the Viking Cinderalla. LINK  I can assure you that a good time was had by all.