She was built in 1983 at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in France for Holland America Line as MS Nieuw Amsterdam.

While in final stages of construction a fire destroyed the ship's main switchboard on 24 June 1983, which delayed her delivery to her owners by three weeks.

[1] The Nieuw Amsterdam entered service with Holland America Line in July 1983, doing a transatlantic crossing from Le Havre to New York.

[7] On 18 October 2000 the Nieuw Amsterdam was taken over by America Classic Cruises in San Francisco and renamed MS Patriot.

[10] American Classic Cruises planned to have two brand-new ships (codenamed "Project America") built for United States Lines at the Ingalls Shipbuilding yards in Mississippi.

The 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks caused a slump in US tourism and on 18 October 2001 American Classic Cruises declared bankruptcy due to massive debts owed to the US government.

In May 2002 the Nieuw Amsterdam was chartered to the Cyprus-based Louis Cruise Lines, renamed MS Spirit and sailed to Perama, Greece for a refit.

[7] Throughout summer 2012, the Thomson Spirit operated a variety of cruises to northern Europe from Harwich and Newcastle (North Shields), England.

Both Celestyal Cruises and Holland America Line had little interest in keeping the Marella Spirit in service, and she was sold for scrapping.