The MS Costa Marina was originally built in 1969 as the container ship Axel Johnson by the Wärtsilä Turku Shipyard in Turku, Finland for the Sweden-based Rederi AB Nordstjernan and operated on their Johnson Line services.

[2] In 1988 the ship was acquired by Costa Cruises, renamed Costa Marina, and rebuilt into a cruise ship at the T. Mariotti shipyard in Genoa, Italy.

[5] Costa Marina left the fleet in November 2011, and was initially replaced by Iberocruceros' Grand Voyager for her Red Sea cruises.

[6] Costa Marina was chartered to the South Korean Harmony Cruise and renamed Harmony Princess with a Marshall Islands registry, for cruises between Korea and Japan.

In September 2014, she was sold for scrap in India and arrived at Alang the following month as Harmony 1.