The ship proceeded to her Caribbean Sea base port of San Juan, Puerto Rico, via Barcelona, Spain and Antigua.

They were well known for their cruises in the Caribbean and middle Atlantic Ocean, becoming a staple at the San Juan ship dock and later at Miami, Santo Domingo and many other places around the area.

Two of Cunard Countess's competitors in the Caribbean during the late 1970s-1980s were the much older but also very popular SS Amerikanis and Carla C, all three being of similar dimensions and capacity (recently built cruise ships are generally far larger).

At the end of the charter, Cunard controversially awarded the contract for the refurbishment of the vessel to Malta Shipyards at a reported cost of £2 million.

During this employment, cruises usually departed from Piraeus, visiting destinations like Mykonos, Patmos, Crete and Santorini in Greece as well as Kuşadası in Turkey.

[7] In late 2012 Ocean Countess left the CMV fleet, with a final 13-night Canary Islands & Madeira "Farewell Voyage" which ended in Barcelona instead of returning to Liverpool; she was replaced by the MV Discovery.

[8] On 30 November 2013 the central superstructure of the ship caught fire at Chalkis, Greece while laid up prior to an anticipated return to service in 2014.

The accommodation, public rooms and decks were refurbished and renamed with British themes in early 2010, in preparation for Ocean Countess' charter to Cruise & Maritime Voyages.