AIDAcara, which the Carnival Corporation & plc group recently sold to an undisclosed buyer, has been acquired by Russian intersts, Tradewindsnews.com reports.

The ship has been renamed Astoria Grande and is belived to have been acquired by private investors and managed by Mester Commercial in Limassol on Cyprus, the report said.

AIDAcara was the first ship of the Rostock based AIDA Cruises and entered service in 1996, when it was simply known as AIDA. It is measured at about 38,500 gross tons and was built in Finland.

“The Russian outbound travel market is huge, and many Russians cruise with foreign cruise lines, although they are always in the minority on board. It absolutely makes sense to have a ship dedicated exclusively to the Russian-speaking passengers,” a senior executive at a US-based cruise operator was quoted by Tradewindsnews as saying.

The ship has large food market type restaurants and only smaller table service facilities, which means that it has a smaller crew than a traditional ship of the same size.