The ship was designed with various environmentally friendly innovations; in addition to exhaust and closed sewage treatment systems already used on the company's Birka Princess, Birka Paradise was built to fulfill Det Norske Veritas' Clean Design rule relating to environmentally friendly structural solutions.

The ship then sailed via her port of registry Mariehamn to Stockholm, where she was officially named on 10 November 2004 by Arja Saijonmaa.

From 2006 onwards she has made various longer cruises from Stockholm around the Baltic Sea during the northern hemisphere summer season.

[13] However, the company refers to the ship only as Birka, dropping "Stockholm" which is part of the official name, as well as being the port of registry.

[1][14] Due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic Rederi Ab Eckerö, ceased operations and the ship was put up for sale.

[16] On the 9th of August 2023, Viking Line announced that a deal had been made to acquire 50% of the ship for 19 million Euro with the intention to form a company with shared ownership with Rederi AB Gotland, for the intended traffic previously outlined.