mCowboy wrote:Tallink = Silja = Tallink Silja
Actually Silja and Viking Line ships are about the same size... Viking line bought a bra nd new ship that was ordered as the flagship for Silja, but Silja was not able to pay for it, so Viking bought it off, so in that respect, one can say that Viking have bigger ships.
This was exactly the other way round. Viking Line's member shipowner Rederi Ab Slite had ordered M/S Europa, but due to the devaluation of the Swedish crown the price went to sky overnight and they could not afford it anymore. After some swifts and turns (and repainting) the ship became M/S Silja Europa. And Rederi Ab Slite went bankcrupt and Viking Line lost couple of their better and bigger ships (Europa, Athena, Kalypso). Since then Viking Line has been formed only of Rederi Ab SF Line that later changed its name to Rederi Ab Viking Line. (
The whole story)
mCowboy wrote:I used to use only Silja for decades, but after Tallink bought Silja, the service has gone down so much, that now I only support Viking. Viking has improved the quality of the ships and the service, whereas Silja has gone down... Silja line going to Sweden now has lot of Estonians and Russians acting the same was as when Finns are going to Estonia... drunk and disorderly...
Maybe so, but there's the same Finnish/Swedish crew on Silja Line's ships as before... But I agree that the service on Tallink's "own" ships is dismal. However, the service (and food) between Tallinn and Stockholm (Tallink Romantika and Tallink Victoria I) is much better than between Tallinn and Helsinki. But even there you can sense the breath of "soviet service".
