Marine Atlantic has accepted delivery of its brand new ferry the Ala’suinu, but the vessel will have logged some significant travel time before it starts regular service this summer.

Work is now underway to prepare the ferry, which was built by Stena RoRo in China, for its long journey to Canada’s east coast.

Marine Atlantic spokesperson Darrell Mercer says there are three routes to take to get a vessel from the other side of the world, and they chose the route across the Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.

“We could go across the Pacific, but this is a passenger ferry, it’s not designed like a bulk carrier for long ocean distances, (and) between Asia and North America, there’s not a lot of stops.” The Suez Canal is another route, but because of difficulties in that region they decided not to take that option for safety reasons.

They’re expecting the ferry to arrive in Atlantic Canada sometime in April depending on the weather.

The Ala’suinu, which will replace the Atlantic Vision, will be used between Argentia and North Sydney starting in June and transfer to the Port aux Basques run for the fall, winter and spring.

The accessible ferry includes 146 passenger cabins—31 of which are pet friendly, 40 passenger pods, and a kennel for pets.