Corazul Cruceros will launch its inaugural sailing from Santos on October 26, putting the first ship of the Spain-introduced startup into a Brazilian market where MSC Cruises currently dominates capacity.

The 1,806-passenger Buenavista, formerly the Piano Land, is repositioning from Asia on schedule, Chief Commercial Officer Camille Appeldoorn told Cruise Industry News. The vessel stopped in Singapore for hull painting and technical maintenance, then sailed for Mauritius with more than 300 crew onboard handling preparations. Additional crew boarded in Port Louis, where the company also completed significant provisioning.

"From Mauritius, it's straight on to Santos to arrive there around the 20th or 21st of October to start our inaugural sailing on the 26th, which is the most important thing that we're looking for now," Appeldoorn said.

A shakedown cruise is scheduled for October 23, according to the company's published plans.

What capacity does Corazul add?

Corazul took delivery of the 69,000-ton ship in late September under a deal with Astro Ocean Cruises. After the inaugural sailings, the vessel will run a series of short cruises to Brazilian destinations from Santos and Rio de Janeiro — itineraries that compete directly in the high-volume, low-ticket segment where domestic brands already hold share.

How is the vessel being converted?

The ship requires limited refurbishment because it was well maintained, Appeldoorn said. The core task is cultural rather than structural:

• Reconfiguring public spaces back to original layouts after years of Chinese-market customization ("Where the Chinese would have made a shop somewhere, we say, 'No, we want to bring this back to what it was originally designed for'").
• Replacing all onboard signage with Spanish, Portuguese and English.
• Finalizing menus and running test cooking and tastings with the chef and galley staff already onboard.

Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) is overseeing technical management of the vessel. Appeldoorn said the handover, including work with authorities, went smoothly: "We set out that plan and we didn't miss a single deadline."

What is the ship's lineage?

The Buenavista debuted in 1995 at Meyer Werft as the Oriana for P&O Cruises. Astro Ocean acquired it in 2019 and repositioned it to Asia for the Chinese national market.

For travel sellers, the launch adds a new Brazilian home-port product with tri-lingual onboard operations and short-itinerary positioning. The company has not yet disclosed deployment beyond the inaugural short-cruise series from Santos and Rio.