She was formerly owned and operated by the Estonia-based Tallink as the MS Silja Festival, and used on their route connecting Riga, Latvia to Stockholm, Sweden.

She was built in 1986 by Wärtsilä Helsinki Shipyard, Finland, for Effoa as MS Wellamo for use on Silja Line traffic.

In 2008 the ship was transferred from the Silja Line fleet to that of Tallink, but she retained her Silja-prefixed name.

[1] After being replaced by MS Isabelle on the Stockholm-Riga route in May 2013 she was chartered as an accommodation ship to Kitimat, British Columbia.

[1] In the summer of 1990 the Wellamo briefly served on the Helsinki–Stockholm route,[1][8] because the new Silja Serenade was not yet complete, but old MS Finlandia had to be delivered to her new owners DFDS.

[1][8] After the Euroway service was terminated in April 1994, Silja Festival was moved back to the Kvarken to operate from Vaasa to Umeå and Sundsvall.

MS Isabelle, which became the new name in the Tallink fleet, has more passenger and car capacity which is needed to meet the increased demand on the route.

While in Kitimat, British Columbia the vessel was assigned the name "Delta Spirit Lodge".

[15] Silja Festival remained moored at Rio Tinto's dock for just over a year prior to departing for Italy at the end of April 2015.