Phoenix Reisen is a Germany-based travel agency that also operates a fleet of cruise ships.

[2] Phoenix Reisen first begun operating cruises under its own brand in 1988 when the company chartered the West German-built cruise ship SS Maxim Gorkiy from the Soviet Union-based Black Sea Shipping Company on a 20-year charter agreement.

[5] Due to numerous mechanical problems, Phoenix Reisen decided to prematurely terminate the charter of the Albatros in December 2003.

[6][7] In 2005 the company fleet expanded to include three ships for the first time when MS Alexander von Humboldt (2005) was chartered from V-Ships.

[8] A fourth ship followed in 2006 with the charter of MS Amadea, a higher-class vessel compared with the rest of the Phoenix Reisen fleet.