Information AboutRuotsinlaiva |
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Two major rival companies, Viking Line and Silja Line , operate on the routes. Both companies' ferries are mainly coloured white, but Viking Line's trademark colour is red while Silja Line uses blue. The ferries are huge, compared to the distance they travel. They are mostly about 170-200 Metre s long, 30 metres wide and as high as five- or six-story houses. Inside, they offer many Restaurant s, Night Club s and Tax Free Shopping , which is the main attraction for many cruise passengers. Ferries are also important means of transport between the two countries and their car decks can accommodate hundreds of cars and dozens of lorries. The ferries are often criticised because the low prices of Alcoholic Beverage s encourage passengers to become drunk and act irresponsibly. Due to the relatively cheap price of the cruises and availability of tax-free alcohol many big parties involving vast amounts of alcohol drinking are held on the ships, one such party is the university students' party GOOM . In 1995 when Finland and Sweden joined the European Union , the abolition of tax-free sales on ferry boats travelling between destinations within the European Union made Finland demand an exception for the Åland Islands . The exception allows for maintained VAT tax-free sales on the ferries passing via the islands. Thus the traditional direct Stockholm - Helsinki route of the ferries had to be modified and all ferries nowadays stop briefly at Åland. SEE ALSO '' M/S Estonia '', a ferry that was operated on the Turku - Stockholm route from 1980 to 1990 as ''Viking Sally''. Today notorious for having been the scene of the worst maritime disaster in Europe since World War II . |