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What happened to NCL MS Southward ?


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In 1994 NCL sold her to the then start-up cruise operation of the UK tour operator Airtours who renamed her SEAWING. The ship was later sold to Louis Cruise Lines and chartered back to Airtours, who later changed their name to MyTravel. MyTravel exited the cruise business in 2004 and SEAWING was returned to Louis who renamed her PERLA and will be using her for cruises in the Greek Isles. See here for more information.

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Our 1st cruise too.... July 1984

 

Actually, my wife and I at the time thought the whole cruise experience was very confining and actually kinda corny, and so we almost gave up on cruising all together based on that "Southward" cruise.

 

Thank goodness with gave cruising another try 1987 with the kids on the "Big Red Boat" "Oceanic" and have been hooked on cruising ever since...:)

 

Srpilo

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I sailed on the Southward in 1988 for my honeymoon, a 10 day trip from Miami to San Juan....loved the ship, had a great time. Great crew!

 

Dh and I cruised on the Southward for our honeymoon too back in 1984.

 

Lisa :)

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Add me to the list of those initiated into cruising aboard the NCL Southward.

My cruise was in November 1974. It was a two week cruise to the southern Caribbean. If memory serves me correctly we stopped in Aruba, Barbados, Curacao, St Maartin, St Thomas, San Juan, and Nassau. I was single at the time, met some great folks, and caught cruisin' fever.

 

Alan

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Here is what she looks like now.

 

We ran into two of her sisters the Coral (Ex Sunward II) in Athens and the Orient Princess (ex Starward) in Mykonos last year.

 

Thanks for those pictures chasetf. Man, looking at her brings back memories. I remember when I thought she was a BIG ship :eek:

 

-Mike

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I looked in my NCL Caribbean Cruises brochure to find these decks on the Southward from to bottom: Tropicana, Mayflower, Boat, Atlantic, Biscayne and Caribbean. Sailed on Southward in January of 1985 from Miami to Puerto Plata, St. Thomas, San Juan, Nassau and back to Miami. It was a neat ship. My brochure says 767 passengers max, 300 crew, cruise speed 16 knots, gross tonnage 16,609, overall length 536 feet. It was an enjoyable trip. Lori

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The Southward was our first cruise experience on our honeymoon 5/6/84. We were hooked. I still remember the free yellowbirds at the Honeymooners party that got us so trashed.

 

She was an intimate ship. The casino was dinky, I think 2 bj tables. The disco was on top and damn it was hard to dance with out bouncing off your neighbors. And we learned to never try to leave the dining room without at least trying dessert!

 

I still remember sailing back our last night and passing the Norway sailing out. We were amazed by her size and made a promise then that we would sail her some day. We finally made good on that promise, 7 times!

 

Just recently saw the old Southward on TV shuttling people to safety out of Lebanon during the most recent war.

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Just recently saw the old Southward on TV shuttling people to safety out of Lebanon during the most recent war.

As far as I know, PERLA ex SOUTHWARD was not involved.

 

However, her older near sister, ORIENT QUEEN ex STARWARD was definitely involved in the evacuation and the focal point of several days' worth of news coverage.

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I sailed the Southward in 1980 and remember the hammocks they had on the in between open deck area.I loved that section of the ship and spent many hours in the hammock having afternoon cocktails.

Does anyone remember the hammocks?

Ginnie

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As far as I know, PERLA ex SOUTHWARD was not involved.

 

However, her older near sister, ORIENT QUEEN ex STARWARD was definitely involved in the evacuation and the focal point of several days' worth of news coverage.

It was the Starward, and she has been and was sailing out of Beruit.

 

We sailed her in 1991 in the Caribbean, and ran into her in Mykonos on our Grand Princess Med / Greek Island cruise. Her is what she looked like last year.

925551909_OrientQueen.JPG.986f53253baa2955d86ebb3ee210a188.JPG

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I suppose Southward was a popular venue for first time cruisers because it was a cheap, short cruise . .It was our first (of over twenty . . ) cruises probably in 1988 . .

We enjoyed it, but were very disappointed with the excursion in çensenada and got our money back!

 

Now we live in the Canary islands, and we travelled on Seawing around the islands. We didn't even realise it was the same ship until months later when we saw an article about the ship! Great tea time on the Seawing . . . May try her now as the perla!

 

Best wishes

Valerie

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