Since being sold by Brittany Ferries in March 2025 the 1989-built cruise ferry Bretagne, now renamed Rosalind Franklin, has been in active use for new owners Balearia, primarily on routes from Spain to north Africa. In the summer of 2025 she was mostly deployed on operations to Algeria, although she also made several weekend round trips from Barcelona to Menorca, supplementing the company’s core Balearic schedules.
Over the past winter the ship covered various north African services before in mid-February retiring to Denia, Balearia’s home port and location of their head office, for a spot of maintenance and spring cleaning.
A MINI-CRUISE TO CEUTA
Early in the current year Balearia began promoting a round trip and floating hotel package from Malaga to Ceuta in support of the ‘Cuna de la Legion’, a civic/military marathon for athletes and cyclists held annually in Ceuta each March for the past ten years. Initially it wasn’t certain which ship would be used for this service with most of the original promotional information illustrated by the Regina Baltica. However it became clear that the company intended to use the Rosalind Franklin and, spotting an opportunity for something a little different to a usual line voyage, we duly made a booking, departing from Malaga in the early afternoon of Friday 6th March with two nights spent alongside in Ceuta followed by a return sailing back to Malaga on the Sunday morning.
With the Regina Baltica wintering in Motril and the Rosalind Franklin up in Denia we still weren’t sure until the day before sailing exactly which ship we would end up on (and the Regina Baltica, originally Viking Song, is an interesting and worthy ship in her own right). But our target was the former Bretagne and we were pleased that she was confirmed as leaving Denia on Thursday morning, steaming slowly down to Malaga on a journey that would take around 24 hours. Arriving in port on the Friday morning, her maiden call there, she berthed adjacent to regular caller the Rusadir, the former Honfleur and originally intended to be a Brittany Ferries fleetmate before BF cancelled the order in 2020.
MALAGA
We arrived at Malaga’s ferry terminal at around 1145, ahead of a 1400 departure and, with passengers also arriving for the Rusadir’s sailing at 1500 it wasn’t immediately obvious how busy this departure would be. The answer was not particularly – and the relatively low take-up may perhaps dissuade Balearia from repeating this exercise in future years. The Rosalind Franklin’s sailings were passenger only, although free parking was offered at the terminal in Malaga. Many travellers also brought their bikes ahead of participating in the weekend’s events.
There was some confusion upon boarding with Balearia’s systems evidently not set up to deal with this sort of minicruise operation. However we were eventually given wristbands to denote that we were staying on board the ship in Ceuta together with a bundle of meal vouchers to redeem at breakfast, lunch and dinner. The ship left bang on time and sailed at a moderate speed westwards along the coast before, not too far from the strait of Gibraltar, eventually cutting over towards Ceuta.
ON BOARD
After settling into our compact inside two berth cabin and watching departure we set out to explore the ship. The Rosalind Franklin is, unsurprisingly, largley unchanged from her time as the Bretagne. The most obvious difference is the almost complete removal of the artwork created for the ship when she was built. As on the Rusadir, Balearia have taken no serious steps to replace the removed items but the gaps have largely been tidied up so it is not particularly obvious that anything is missing. In the Bretagne’s final days on the St Malo-Portsmouth route a number of the original artworks were removed ahead of being placed on the new ship, being replaced by replica prints – these replicas have been left in place and this, at least, adds a little to the ship’s overall ambience.
The time in Denia had clearly been put to good use and, although there were one or two missing bits of furniture, the ship was utterly spotless, probably cleaner than in her later days with Brittany Ferries. In the cabin the air vents, which previously seemed to be routinely full of fluff, were completely cleaned and the public areas had clearly been scrubbed and carpets shampooed. Down on the vehicle decks everything was freshly painted and literally sparkled. The north African market can be particularly demanding and hopefully these standards can be maintained as the years go by.
The main bar aft on Deck 8, the former Gwenn Ha Du, was not in use although it was open to sit in. Most passengers however seemed happy to spend the crossings and evenings (when on board) in the former la Gerbe de Locronan cafe area on Deck 8 with football being shown in the reclining seat areas and drinks and snacks available from the cafe counter.
A package covering all meals over the weekend was available and we took advantage of this. The main restaurant, formerly Les Abers, was not in use and, according to the crew, was not opened very often if at all in regular service. Meals were therefore taken in the self service restaurant (previously named La Baule) and they were of a good standard, with the menu for lunch and dinner changing for each meal.
CEUTA
Ceuta is located on the North African coast about 35 miles to the east of Tangier and due south of Gibraltar and Algeciras, being connected to the latter by a high frequency schedule of fast and conventional ferries. Officially it is an autonomous city of Spain and, like Melilla further east, is the subject of some dispute between Spain and Morocco. In practice it behaves like any other Spanish town with Spanish mobile signal, newspapers, TV and currency.
Upon arrival at 2100 on Friday evening the ship came alongside at what is normally the cruise berth rather than the ferry terminal from which Balearia, DFDS and Armas/Trasmed ships sail to Algeciras. This berth doesn’t have a vehicle ramp so a gangway was attached to the starboard side, landing on the main vehicle deck. A handful of passengers who were using the sailing as a point-to-point ferry disembarked and a decent number then boarded, taking advantage of an option to use the ship as a floating hotel for the event. Passengers were free to come and go 24/7 during her time in port with the only checks being a cursory review at the port gate of ID against a passenger list.
Whilst the focus for almost all of our fellow passengers was the Cuna de la Legion for us the ship was the main event, although we did take the opportunity of a round trip to Algeciras on the Saturday (the Bahama Mama outbound, returning on the Jaume III (ex-Seacat Diamant)). Upon returning to the ship she was virtually deserted and, with the sun intermittently shining, it was enjoyable to read a book and watch the other ferries coming and going from port until, gradually, the competitors and spectators began to return.
HOMEWARD BOUND
After a second night in port on Sunday morning the Rosalind Franklin made her return sailing to Malaga. Before departure crew were busy trying to ensure none of the hotel passengers inadvertantly stayed on board and the return leg was again pretty lightly loaded. Departure was at 0900 and a slightly shorter crossing time saw arrival back where we started at 1430. With the sun shining brightly through the large picture windows the arcade on Deck 7 became something of a sun trap and, again, most passengers instead preferred the port-side area of the upstairs cafe, on the shady side of the ship.
All in all this was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, with the ship’s happy and helpful crew putting on a good event which allowed the Rosalind Franklin, of which they are evidently very proud, to really shine. A return to more routine work was soon to follow and after just an hour in port and having quickly decanted her passengers the ship was on her way again, back to Valencia and a return to the Algerian traffic she will be employed in once again this summer.
I once again had the pleasure of the company of Ferry Voyager for this crossing. For an alternate perspective and more pictures of the round trip see – https://www.facebook.com/FerryVoyager/
