Overview

AIDA's fleet of 14 ships, custom-designed and built with the wants and needs of the German cruiser in mind, have a number of features that won't be seen on ships built for other markets.  These include the theatrium (a combination theater-atrium), nude sunbathing decks, and many more smoker-friendly locations than on ships of any other major cruise line.  In the future, German cruisers will likely see AIDA ships continue to introduce new concepts in terms of design and construction of cruise ships, all to tailor the cruise experience to the German consumer population.

The company, an integral part of Carnival Corporation & plc, continues to pave the way into the future with each new ship and class of ship offering a plethora of unique and innovative features.

History

AIDA Cruises was founded in the early 1960s as Deutsche Seereederei.  The Rostock, Germany, based firm was privatized following the unification of Germany, and was renamed DSR.  DSR bought out Seetours of Bremen and the line marketed cruises under the Seetours name.  The company underwent a further rebranding on 1 January 1998, when a company named Arkona Touristik took over the cruise branch of DSR.

In 2000, P&O Cruises bought a 51% share of the company, with Arkona Touristik retaining the other 49%.  The company formed by this partnership was AIDA Cruises, taking the name of the 1996 newbuild.  The following year, P&O Princess Cruises bought out Arkona Touristik's shares in AIDA and Seetours, and in 2003 a merger between P&O Princess and Carnival Corporation formed Carnival Corporation & plc.  Finally, in 2004, Seetours was rebranded as AIDA Cruises, and the company has since gained a large following in the German-language cruise market.

In an effort to do something that was unique in the industry, they reintroduced the vertical bow on 2016's AIDAprima.  In late 2018, AIDAnova became the first cruise ship to be powered entirely by LNG.  The first of nine Excellence class ships, she was forward-thinking and a definitive successor to AIDAprima.

AIDA's anticipated third Helios-class ship, designated by builder Meyer Werft as S.717, was transferred to Carnival on 23 June 2021.  This was likely done to grow the number of berths in Carnival's fleet, as that same day it was also announced that a Costa ship would be transferred to Carnival.