[11] She was built in 1975 by Wärtsilä Turku Shipyard as the Belorussiya class-cruiseferry Gruziya for the Black Sea Shipping Company, Soviet Union.

[2] After she was delivered to the Black Sea Shipping Company, the Gruziya was used on ferry service between the Crimean Peninsula and the Caucasus, as well as cruising.

[10] Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 the Black Sea Shipping Company came to be based in the newly independent state of Ukraine, and the Gruziya hoisted the Ukrainian flag.

[2] In August 1998 the Odessa Sky was sold in an auction to the Dutch businessman Gerard van Leest for 16.5 million Deutsche Mark.

A settlement was eventually reached where the crew were given flight tickets home and even money for newer clothes, and the Odessa Sky could proceed to Bremerhaven for rebuilding for her new service.

The Club 1 failed to find popularity in The Netherlands, and as a result the planned winter program was cancelled and the ship was laid up in September 1999.

In December 1999 Nouvelles Frontieres, a France based group, chartered the Club 1 and renamed her Van Gogh for cruises around the Mediterranean and Caribbean.

[3] Due to difficulties in acquiring a membership in the Association of British Travel Agents, Van Gogh Cruises were forced to suspend operations in April 2008.

[4] During the final leg of her 2007/2008 world cruise, the Van Gogh was arrested by police in Funchal, Madeira on 1 April 2008, in a dispute over an unpaid debt from a previous operator.

[11] The Belorussiya class ships were built with an exterior appearance that was in keeping with the aesthetic of the time, described by Douglas Ward in 2006 as being "reasonably smart-looking – with a square-ish 1970s profile".

[12] Following the 1999 refit, the public spaces include five bars, a dining room, self-serve buffet, casino, discotheque, cinema, library, gymnasium, sauna and one swimming pool.