Downdie

I may be the earliest flyer on Flair on this forum. Flew on a Flair Air ( based out of Kelowna BC) 737-400 from Ottawa to Santo Domingo DR as a replacement flight for a Zoom Airlines (bankrupted earlier) flight, to join a 7 day all- inclusive Caribbean cruise on Pullmantur’s Pacific Dream (Horizon) in February 2010. Both flights and cruise were excellent for a bargain price under C$1000.

On 9/16/2021 at 1:29 PM, rkacruiser said:

 

 Is my memory correct?  These two ships were owned by a company called First Festival Cruises?  If so, the logo on their funnels were of First Festival's?  

 

First Festival went bankrupt and MSC probably got these two ships at fire sale prices.  I remember seeing one of the two looking forlorn, docked at Civitivecchia, as the original Royal Princess passed her on the way to our dock.  That would have been the Spring of 2004, I recall.  

The Lirica and Opera were newbuilds from Chantieres Atlantique. The ships from Festival (First European) cruises were refurbished and entered MSC’s modern fleet as their third and fourth ships, the Armonia and Sinfonia.

13 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I will try regarding your MSC ship.  Is it MSC Monterey?  If so, she is now razor blades, etc.  

Sorry for misleading you a little. The ship was younger than that. It was the Opera, sailing from Genoa on it’s first voyage after it’s maiden voyage in 2004. The Lirica arrived a little earlier. Both had the current logo on their funnels but were peddling souvenir items with the MSC logo that you see on all their freight containers. And of course the Opera is still sailing.

My list is not along list, but a bit different.                                                                         Some no name 3 day cruise Miami- Bahamas in the 70’s.                                             Dolphin- Hellas.                                                                                                                        Royal Olympic.                                                                                                                           MSC ( really early. Logo on souvenir golf shirt is the freight line one.).                       Pullmantur                                                                                                                               Happy Cruises ( honestly, the ship Gemini formerly Cunard Crown Jewel ).               Croisieres de France.                                                                                                             Now a little quizz— Other than the Gemini, can anyone name the ships I sailed on and where they are now?

On 4/2/2021 at 12:11 PM, rydersgrandpa said:

What was the name of your hotel in Ravenna?  Sounds like you figured it out!

 

Hotel Italia, a two minute walk to the left from the station. A modest three star with very few amenities, but it was clean, had outstanding front desk staff, and provided an acceptable breakfast in the morning.

On 3/28/2021 at 1:24 PM, rydersgrandpa said:

I am trying to figure out the best way to get to Ravenna, Italy for a cruise in late September. 

Fly into Venice?  Or fly into Bologna? We like to go a day or two in advance, and spend the last night 

in the port city.  But, no good transportation. and no name hotels in Ravenna?  Any suggestions?

My adventure to Ravenna and beyond on a cruise from there to Malaga, Spain. Flew from western Canada to Venice. Stayed for three nights across from the station in Mestre ( had been to Venice before).Hotel half the price of Venice. Restaurants twice as good at half the price. Bought a three day public travel pass for buses and canal travel at a shop next door.Walked and walked till I dropped two days in Venice. Train from Mestre station, just across the street from hotel, to Ravenna with a change of trains in Ferrara. On arriving in Ravenna, wheeled our luggage fifty yards to a perfectly respectable three star hotel. Toured the city for an afternoon, evening and next morning admiring the wonderful mosaics Ravenna is famous for. Found nice local restaurants for meals. Next day, early afternoon, took a cab to Porto Corsini to board our ship, Pullmantur’s Zenith for our seven night relocation cruise to Malaga. Stops at Split, Corfu, Katakolon, Messina and Cagliari. Weather turned a little wild at Cagliari, so had a real rock and roller overnight to Malaga and arrived five and a half hours late. Cab to our hotel in Malaga and while relaxing in the bar,saw bus loads unloading with cruise ship staff from the Zenith as well as Adventure of the Seas for their end of season party, lots of fun. Flew the next morning to Paris for a three nighter in a three star in the ninth arrondisement, a nice ending to a nice trip. Then back home to Canada.

2 hours ago, c-leg5 said:

I agree doesn't specifically say RCL although there is a comment on the statement by an RCL official. 
 

I think the fact the port hasn’t started to be built yet is a more critical factor for ANY cruise line wishing to homeport there, unless modifications can be made to existing port facilities. 
 

I believe TUI may have tried it in the past for an odd sailing? 

Hi c-leg5: We sailed from the central Puerto Maya dock in San Miguel Cozumel on a 850 passenger Spanish ship, the Gemini in Nov. 2010. Passengers were flown in from Madrid to Cozumel. They also boarded passengers the day before in Havana  So co home ports. The Gemini sailed a 7 day itinerary Cozumel,Grand Cayman, Isla Paraiso, Cuba and 2 nights Havana for the winter season until March. It only lasted one season, and it bankrupted the company. Not surprising, no US citizens could officially sail on it, but I do know that a number of American residents of Cozumel did sail on it.

On 9/18/2020 at 9:15 AM, Heidi13 said:

 

SS Uganda in 1976 and SS Oriana 1977. In my experience, at least on P&O ships, single ladies outnumbering men was very common back in the 70's & 80's.

 

Love Boat filming was mostly completed on the original Pacific Princess and Island Princess, with most of it on Pacific. Spent 4 months on Island in 1979 and another 4 months on Sun Princess in 1980. Brilliant ships.

Hi Heidi13: Two episodes of the show were partially filmed on Sun Line’s Stella Solaris in the Med in 1982. As an old ship aficionado, I know you you would be interested that the Cambodge/Stella Solaris’s (1949-2003) Parsons geared steam turbines never needed replacing during it’s lifetime. I sailed on it in 2001 from Piraeus on a 7 day journey the day after 9/11. Another brilliant old ship.  
p.s. Like yourself I’m an old bluenose too.

Isla Paraiso, Cuba. Tendered to this almost deserted wonderful beach from the Gemini in 2010 before a two night stop in Havana.

2 hours ago, getting older slowly said:

Correct

 

Bitter Moon

Filmed in part aboard the M.T.S. Odysseus, a cruise ship of Greece's Epirotiki Line. First launched in 1961 as the Princesa Isabel, Odysseus ended her career as the Lucky Star, a casino ship based out of Singapore. She was scrapped in Alang, India in April 2008, sixteen years after her appearance in this movie.

 

Also another point in Ghost Ship the only real ship used was the Tugboat

 

Sorry about including non cruise ship movies

 

Cheers Don

Hi Don: Right on the Mark with your reply. Another Greek ship was used in the filming of the less than memorable Cuba Gooding Jr film Boat Trip, Royal Olympic’s Olympic Voyager which was designed to be the speediest cruise ship when built around 2000.

Bitter Moon (1992), Roman Polanski’s psycho-sexual thriller. Can anyone guess the ship used in the filming?

11 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I agree.  But, let's give the OP some appreciation for another "out of the box" suggestion.  

 

Some of these "out of the boxers" of the past proved to have a good idea.  "The world is flat", some believed.    Christopher Columbus and many others proved that it was not.

Actually, been there and done that. November 2010 I sailed from Cozumel on a seven night cruise to Grand Cayman, Isla Paraiso, and 2 nights in Havana, Cuba on a lovely little Spanish based ship of 20,000 tonnes

 the Gemini, sister ship of Fred Olsen’s Braemar. No CDC restrictions because the company had no ships sail to any US ports. Charter flights brought European passengers directly to Cozumel’s airport which is only a 10 minute cab ride to most of the docks in San Miguel. So, it has been tried. But, it was a disastrous venture for Spain’s Happy Cruises as their Cuban cruises bankrupted the company after the first season. This cruise company had been started by ex Pullmantur people who had been let go when RCCl  took over Pullmantur and now it’s gone.

Some sad news for many old time Celebrity cruisers. Celebrity’s very first new build the Horizon is heading to Turkey for scrapping, after sailing for Pullmantur. Sovereign and Monarch are finished as well.

I believe the last cruise ships built for speed were the twin ships built by Blohm and Voss for Royal Olympic Cruises in 2000/2001.Designed to sail at 28 knots, the 25000 tonne Olympic Voyager and Olympic Explorer sailed 7 night 3 continent round trips from Athens. Unfortunately, the lines first new builds and 9/11 bankrupted the company. They’re still sailing somewhere, but I can’t recall where.

I suspect that the Sovereign is chartered by a travel company probably in Brazil that only sells in their their own market. In the 80’s and 90’s Regent Holidays (Transat I think) used to charter The Greek ships Triton and Bolero from one of the Greek lines for the winter season in the Carribean and sell them in Canada only with charter flights included to a Carribean departure port.

Yes, executive chef Jordi Cruz has recently introduced a new Gala menu http://online.fliphtml5.com/tqui/mgyw/

Choose a cruise line that few Americans ,especially very conservative ones would be unlikely to sail on. I have since 2004 when I sailed on a MSC ship that few US cruisers knew anything about. But I was wrong. A British couple we met onboard  had your very same experience with some George W Bush supporters in pre-election mode. My five cruises on three different lines have had few Americans aboard. There are a few around, 

On 10/22/2018 at 3:04 PM, Plato123 said:

Most of the Cruise Critic posters are Anglos like us.  Does anyone know if there is any Spanish boards where there are discussions about Pullmantur cruising?

We don't speak Spanish but have enjoyed several Pullmantur cruises and will be on one next week. If I find ant boards I expect I will use Google Translate to better understand discussions.

Hi Plato123: Try googling cruceros Pullmantur. Many online Spanish TA’s eg Logitravel, Nautilia etc have Spanish passenger reviews, although best of luck with the translation.

I'll hazard a guess that they were searching the ship for the passenger, not what he/she left behind.

Since the passenger didn't go thro security they won't have had their boarding card scanned on leaving, so presumably the cruise line didn't know whether he/she was still aboard.

(thunter - I'll also hazard a guess that they searched the lifeboats, so I reckon you're lying about living on a lifeboat for 2 months :D)

 

BTW, I won't disagree with those who've posted that you have to be off the ship by about 10am, or that b2b passengers have to disembark & re-board - but there are exceptions.

For instance those sailing fly-cruises on UK ships from distant ports like the Med or the Caribbean have the run of the ship (but not their cabin) until their transfer to the airport is called - often late-afternoon. This is because those taking the next cruise arrive on the (chartered) aircraft that will be taking them home. Those leaving on late flights are still on the ship when new cruisers arriving on early flights are still aboard.

Nor do folk on those b2b fly-cruises have to disembark/re-board.

All very civilised :cool: - and one of the reasons why I recommend a Brit ship for Brits taking their first cruise.

 

JB :)

My experience disembarking from a Spanish ship in Cozumel was very civilized as well.

Left the ship at 1430 hrs after lunch and included drinks ( just in time to check into our all-inclusive) as we were the only independent passengers onboard. All other passengers were on late charter flight to Spain or on excursions if they were disembarking the following day in Havana.Embarking passengers (almost 100 %) were still on their way from Madrid.

Here is a nice recent video tour of the Zenith for you lucky people boarding soon.

Kathleen if you want info on the ship it is the same style as Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas, but of course since Pullmantur took it over they have modernised it a little (I believe) and will have added their own stamp on it, but it is for all intense and purposes an identical ship to Majesty. (ps Royal Caribbean own Pullmantur)

Actually Pullmantur hasn’t been 100% owned by RCCL since 2016. Springwater Capital of Madrid now owns 51% with RCCL holding the rest.

A 7day roundtrip from Cozumel on Gemini, a 20,000 ton ship which most recently sailed as Celestyal Nefili, but in 2010-2011 was sailing for Spain’s Happy Cruises to Cuba, with a stop at Cuba’s Isla Paraiso, the ultimate deserted Carribean beach, and two nights in Havana. All this 5-6 years before mainstream lines landed in Cuba. Unfortunately, the five month season in Cuba bankrupted the cruise line because of poor marketing and sales. This cruise was niche for my wife and me, as we were the only native English speakers on board and we still had a great time.One of the highlites of the trip for me happened when sailing out of Havana. Sailing in was Fred Olsen’s Braemar, the Gemini’s sister ship. They both originally sailed under the Cunard flag as the Crown Jewel and Crown Dynasty and were the two largest cruise ships built in Spain.

Ok thats great thanks for the info. It'll be either a taxi or free shuttle. Am I right in saying the free shuttle stops at the shopping centre on its way to town?

Also if we do end up heading for the town...I believe it drops us at joliette...is it far to walk to the main city centre from there?

 

Many thanks

I believe the free shuttle terminates at Jolliete which is adjacent to the two shopping centres, Les Terraces and Les Docks. From there you can walk down Rue de la Republique which ends at the top of the Vieux Port and connects to Le Canebiere, one of the main shopping streets (about 20 minutes walk). Alternately, from Joliette you can either take the metro or a tram downtown.

Try this website for views of suites on Pullmantur. http://Https://www.pullmantur.es/en

Thanks Mary for these very nice photos that bring back fond memories to me of sailing in this nice little ship in the early nineties around the Greek Isles just after she had been rebuilt the first time, converted from a ro/ro ferry to a mini version of that great deluxe cruise ship HL's Europa, by the Greek family that owned Dolphin Hellas Cruises and called her the Aegean Dolphin. She was very pretty then, but subsequently had a very chequered career and had deteriorated until being saved by Voyages of Antiquity, rebuilt again, and is now a very smart little vessel.