The last cruise of Saga Pearl II, the smaller of the two ships of the UK based Saga Cruises, will be a 54 night voyage to western, southern and eastern Africa and it will sail from Portsmouth on 16 February 2019, information on the company's website shows.

The cruise will include calls at ports seldom visited by cruise liners, such as Banjul, Luanda, Walvis Bay, Luderitz and Maputo.

The ship will be replaced by a 55,900 gross ton newbuilding called Spirit of Discovery. Saga Pearl II was built in Germany in 1981 as Astor – it should not be confused with the present bearer of the same name – and it is of 18,859 gross tons.

It is not known at this point in time if the ship will continue to trade for another operator after it has left the Saga fleet.