Emerald Kaia’s maiden voyage: nine Greek calls in 11 days

Emerald Kaia left Limassol, in Cyprus, on 4 April 2026 on her maiden voyage, and on the 11th day she tied up at Piraeus, the port of Athens. Her route ran Limassol to Piraeus, 4 to 14 April 2026, with 12 ports of call. The Greek calls were 9 of 12, Rhodes to Athens: Rhodes, Nisyros, Kos, Patmos, Delos, Mykonos, Spetses, Nafplio and finally Athens. The voyage was sold as Cyprus to the Acropolis. The third yacht of Emerald Cruises spent most of her maiden voyage in the Aegean.

From Halong Bay

She was built a long way from either end of that route, by Halong Shipbuilding Company, Vietnam. The yard cut her first steel in August 2024, watched by Nguyen Tuan Anh, the yard’s general director, and Ivo Skelin of Scenic Group. She was floated out into Halong Bay on 10 November 2025 and delivered in the early months of 2026. She is 120 metres, 128 guests, with 64 suites. Glen Moroney, who founded Scenic Group and chairs it, has stressed that the group handles the whole process itself: it designs its own hulls, builds them and runs them. Kaia is the third yacht to come out of that approach.

MKM Yachts shaped the design together with the group’s own design office under Karen Moroney, its director of project design. The colours are soft sandy beige, seafoam green, turquoise and seashell pink. The furniture comes from Tom Dixon, Missoni, Paola Lenti, Kettal and Freifrau. The effect is lighter than the dark oak and marble now common on the larger yacht-style ships.

The route

An 11-day voyage with nine calls in Greece is a Greek voyage that happens to start in Cyprus. The choice of ports shows what a ship for 128 guests is for.

Rhodes came on the third day. On the fourth came Nisyros, with its volcano, and Kos on the same day. Bodrum and Kuşadası, in Turkey, took the fifth and sixth days. At Kuşadası guests heard a private concert of classical music in the ancient odeon, a small roofed theatre, at Ephesus. Patmos followed on the seventh day, Delos and Mykonos together on the eighth, Spetses on the ninth and Nafplio on the tenth. Piraeus came on the 11th.

Delos is the call that stands out. It has no town, no quay for a large ship and nothing to buy. It is an island of ruins and lizards, which most ships view from the water on the way to Mykonos. Kaia gave it a call of its own, on the same day as Mykonos. Spetses and Nafplio, near the end, show the same thinking. These ports in the Saronic and Argolic gulfs suit a ship small enough to come close inshore, and the ships that turn at Piraeus for the Cyclades usually sail past them.

Aboard

The ship has two guests to every suite, and that ratio is the whole idea of the ship. The Owner’s Suites are 1,407 square feet, with a spa pool on the private terrace. The Yacht Suites are 879 square feet and the Terrace Suites 830, each with a terrace that wraps around the corner of the hull. Interconnecting doors let a family or a group take a run of suites together.

La Cucina is the main restaurant, with its kitchen open to the tables. The Night Market Grill seats eight, with the food cooked in front of them. Above, the observation sun deck at the bow has a spa pool. Below, the marina deck opens the ship at the waterline for swimming, beside an aqua pool and its café. For wellness there is an indoor and outdoor gym, an Elements salt therapy room and a KLAFS infrared sauna. The bathrooms carry ESPA products and the linen is Egyptian cotton. These matter less than the fact that a ship of this length can anchor off Nisyros at all.

After Piraeus

Kaia did not stay long at Piraeus. On 14 April 2026 she set out from there on an 11-night voyage from Athens, through the Corinth Canal and up to the Bosporus. She will stay in the Mediterranean and the Greek islands through the summer of 2026, then sail the Red Sea in November 2026, and the Indian Ocean, the Seychelles and East Africa over the winter of 2026 and 2027. Two sister ships will follow from the same yard: Emerald Raiya in 2027 and Emerald Xara in 2028.

Who is this for

Emerald Kaia suits couples, families and small groups of friends who want to see the Greek islands from a small ship, with a new port most days. In the evening, guests can take a cabana at the Sky Bar, beside a second spa pool, and watch the sun go down. The main bar is faced in grey mosaic, with blue woven armchairs set around low tables. The marina deck has water toys, and the Marina Lounge serves drinks at the waterline.