livery was changed to one closely resembling her Sally-era livery, but with blue stripes instead of black. With the ship continuing to lose money, in September 2005 Silja Line made public its plans to use cheaper foreign workforce on board. However they could not do so under the terms Swedish maritime worker's collective labour agreement. Two months later Silja Line decided to cut costs by concentrating on their core markets and the Silja Opera, alongside the prestigious GTS Finnjet, was to be sold. In January 2006 Silja Opera made her last cruises from Helsinki, after which she was transferred to the Turku—Mariehamn—Kapellskär route in place of MS Silja Europa (that was in turn transferred to Helsinki—Stockholm route while the normal ships of that route were being rebuilt). On 13 February 2006, the Silja Opera stopped sailing for Silja Line, and three days later she was laid up Stockholm, waiting for potential buyers. On 22 May 2006, Silja Opera left Stockholm for the last time bound for lay up at Tilbury Docks, located to the east of Greater London. The ship arrived on 25 May, soon afterwards the Silja Line markings were painted over and her ownership was transferred to SeaContainers, then the parent company of Silja Line. At the same time she was changed from Swedish to Bahamian flag and her name was shortened to Opera. Crystal In May 2007 the Opera was sold to the Cyprus-based Louis Cruise Lines to replace MS Sea Diamond that had sunk some months before. After rebuilding at Pireus, Greece the ship was renamed MS Crystal and started service for the Louis Hellenic Cruise Lines -brand in July 2007. Celestyal Crystal As part of Louis Cruise Lines re-brand as Celestyal Cruises, announced in November 2014, Crystal was renamed Celestyal Crystal and received a new livery. On 27 June 2015, Celestyal Crystal collided with the tanker in the Dardanelles off Gallipoli, Turkey. Three people sustained minor injuries. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic all cruises from March 16, 2020 to March 6, 2021 were suspended. References External links Louis Cruise Lines official page for M/S Cristal Cruise ships of Finland Ships built in Turku Ships of Celestyal Cruises 1980 ships Maritime incidents in 1990 Maritime incidents in 1994 Cruise ships of Panama Cruise ships of Greece Cruise ships of Sweden Cruise ships of the Bahamas Cruise ships of Malta