Memories of the Norway...we never knew how good we had it!!!!!!!

[MamaTene]

The International Deck with its REAL TEAK WALKWAY!

Room service DELIVERED to tables outside of the bars and casinos..you just had to call and tell them where you were and they brought food direct to you!

Tables stewards who cleaned the slightest bit of crumbs off of the tableclothes BETWEEN each course.

Beverage attendants for each table to assist the waiter assigned to your table...and they REMEMBERED from the first day EXACTLY what you liked to drink and had it sitting at your table when you arrived.

Skeet shooting off of the upper deck.

 

Those were the days!

 

Anyone else care to share memories you have of the Norway???

[Globaliser]

Club I - probably the nicest public room of any ship I've ever sailed on, other than the broken window in the clerestory that they never fixed.

[CTCruisers]

She was our first cruise and boy, we were hooked.

 

We really liked the promenade for walking and people watching. Everything seemed so elegant and the service was great.

[yoyocruiser]

It was our first cruise. We were young and just married and had NO money--we won some money in a Super Bowl Pool. LOL. My memories may not be so grand as others as we slept in BUNK BEDS at the very bottom of the ship! But yes, the ship was beautiful. However, I truly do not remember the food nor the service being that superior to what I have experienced in the past few years. I realize that that is definitely a minority opinion. What I do feel is that the ship itself was very grand and elegant, all of that beautiful wood, as well as the bar with the piano, very elegant. It was--simply--an experience!

 

yoyocruiser

[Planer's Edge]

The twinkling ceiling in the Windward dining room.

 

The Aft pool with its large sitting area "inside" the pools confines.

 

PE

[tawcat]

Just got back from the Spirit, funny, we had a very lengthy conversion with one of the crew about the Norway. We sailed her twice, and if she was still in service, we'd sail as often as possible. We absolutely loved this ship and the Club Internationale.

[CTCruisers]

She was our first cruise and boy, we were hooked.

 

We really liked the promenade for walking and people watching. Everything seemed so elegant and the service was great.

 

I forgot to add that our cruise on the Norway was a gift from the company I was working for back then. It was an NBA players cruise, so our 7 year old son had a great time working out with some of the players.

 

We had a oceanview suite. The bathroom was bigger than the entire inside cabins we now book. It actually had a full size bath tub.

[peabody99]

I thought it was funny we had bunk beds. The budget inside cabin meant something different back in the day!

[Planer's Edge]

I remember the quirky cabins sizes.

 

One cruise we opened the door and the first words out of my wifes mouth were Oh My God. 100 Sq. ft. including the bathroom. :eek: And that was an outside cabin with a port hole.

 

Then another time we had an outside that was larger than our AC Penthouse suite on the Jewel.

 

PE

[HPINE1]

I sailed her twice. One of the best memory i have of her is walking into Club International and watch a drunk hold a conversation with one of the statues. I think it was club international that had the statues

[VegasCrossfire]

I remember the quirky cabins sizes.

 

One cruise we opened the door and the first words out of my wifes mouth were Oh My God. 100 Sq. ft. including the bathroom. :eek: And that was an outside cabin with a port hole.

 

Then another time we had an outside that was larger than our AC Penthouse suite on the Jewel.

 

PE

That is my memory as well. We traveled with friends - their room was right next door and they could not have been any different!! Both were elegant though, with nice windows. Just different. Not like today, where most are identical.

 

I remember being on board and looking down the hallway thinking it was soooooooo long (after being on the M/S Starward and M/S Skyward).

 

She was a beautiful lady indeed!:D

[oklaviking]

In March of 2003 my family and I cruised on the S.S. Norway. We chose the ship because of the value. We recieved more than just value. My family and I had a wonderful time on the S.S. Norway. She will always have a place in our hearts.

[NormanW]

Skeet shooting off of the upper deck.

 

While not the Norway I certainly enjoy trap shooting over water! Did about 900 rounds/month through my 870 12ga back in the 80's near Cape Charles VA out of the duck blinds.

 

I would LOVE to do it on a cruise. We regularly pulled triples all the way to the water line.

 

It would be interesting if pirates would come along...

 

Cheers,

 

Norman

[G'ma]

When it first entered the water under the NCL umbrella...much was made of the "1 million dollars spent on original artwork throughout the ship"....

 

The carpeting was two different colors; one color going forward and another going aft...to help keep you from getting lost.

 

The musicians onboard would all dress in full-band uniforms, complete with those high feathered hats, and, while Norway was striking the anchor and pulling away from St. Thomas, the "band" would march all over the ship, ending up far aft playing marching band music......was great.

 

The gigantic "Conga lines" that would form spontaneously in the evenings. It would start somewhere and people would keep joining in while the line wandered all over the ship, up and down stairs...hundreds of people. I can recall PA announcements and printed instructions to "please don't enter the passenger cabin areas with the Conga line"....HA!

 

She carried her own tenders on the bow of the ship...which was a wonder in those early years.

 

Great photos on Simplon website.

[Planer's Edge]

 

She carried her own tenders on the bow of the ship...which was a wonder in those early years.

 

 

Those tenders are were registered ocean going vessels unto themselves. They are still in use at Great Stirrup Cay as tenders for the private island.

 

PE

[Neiner]

WOW! I had forgotten so many of the nice things about the Norway! We sailed on her in March 2003 for our honeymoon. It was my second and my husbands first cruise.

 

I remember that we were shocked about our room steward. We had left our room, walked down the hallway to the stairs and my DH realized he'd forgotten his sunglasses. We turned around and went back and our room had been cleaned! We thought we had walked into the wrong room! Did they have cameras in our room? A little bell that rang somewhere when we left? We were amazed!

 

The tenders were there because there were very few ports where the Norway could dock because of how deep her draft was. We were told that she was a converted ocean liner.

 

I do remember the things I didn't like, (of course I remember that, isn't that sad). Our porthole was so fogged over because of a bad seal that you couldn't even tell if it was sunny or cloudy out. That was such a huge bummer to me because my first cruise was an inside cabin and I was upgrading, lol. You couldn't even tell how high above the water we were. :(.

 

The other thing we didn't like was navigating around the ship. It seemed very difficult to get from one place to another. I remember having to go up a flight, down a hall, down a flight, etc. to get somewhere but I don't remember where. And the very few elevators, well, they were soooo slow we just completely gave up on them and left them for people who really needed them. Didn't see any sense in slowing them down anymore.

 

My husband and I kept having an argument about 'man over board'. The argument was, if someone fell over, would the ship turn around/stop or not. I was of the opinion that yes, they would. Hubby disagreed. We had a chance to speak to the captain one night and asked him to settle the argument. I won! (Which I remind my DH whenever we argue that that had set a precedent for our marriage;).) The captain said they will stop the boat, search for a few hours but leave when the coast guard got there. He said that in the caribbean where the water is warm people can survive for days. He said if the ship was in Northern waters they don't search for long. He mentioned that a crew member had fallen overboard sometime before our cruise and was found alive 3 days later.

 

The Norway was a beautiful ship and the crew was fantastic. Sadly her accident occured shortly after our honeymoon. We were shocked and saddened when we saw it on the news.

[IWORK2CRUISE]

We had an ocean view suite right next to the rear pool. As someone else posted we had a great bathroom with a a tub.

That rear pool had windows in it and you could walk around an area below and see people swimming. Also surrounding that area were small single cabins. They must have originally been for valets, maids, etc.

 

We loved the afternoon tea in the International Lounge with the string orchestra. As much as we love the pool deck we dressed each afternoon on sea days went to that tea.

I only wish that had been on her more than once!

[GOCOCKS]

Wow, this has brought back so many memories. My family and I sailed on the Norway for 14 straight years. I absolutely loved that ship. It was a real ship-and I loved all the formality of it. Dressing every night, everyone looked great. We made some truly great friends with the crew and looked forward to seeing them each year. There was Harris (from Jamaica) and Jean Louie (from Haiti)-both worked there way up to maitre d. Candita--all the wait staff were great. They had remarkable memories and those who were not our wait staff would remember us from year to year. Those were really the good days. As already said, the cabin stewards were the best. Remember in the mini suites, you got 3 bottles of liquor and goodies every day and nite.

Remember Checkers? We loved going in there after dinner each night and listening to the music. There are just too many memories.

The one bad thing--so few elevators and we had to tender to every island.

Thanks for bringing back the memories.

[InTheCruisingYearsOfLife]

... REAL TEAK WALKWAY!

Room service DELIVERED ... Skeet shooting off of the upper deck. ... Those were the days!

 

Anyone else care to share memories you have of the Norway???

 

 

Back in the days when you could get a ship's tour, I have this vague memory of Raquel Welch cracking a whip over the backs of a number of big, burly men pulling on oars down in the ship's galley. That might have been a different ship though; I just can't quite remember.;)

 

The Dawn might have faired better this week if she'd been aboard, to organize some of the pax and get some propulsion going. They ignored the offers of the pax who was a certified electrician though, so what are the chances they'd have yielded to a scantily clad, whip-wielding Italian lady. (Uh, well, come to think of it, probably pretty good.)

 

 

InThe

[GOCOCKS]

Oh yeah, remember when there were celebrities on the cruises. We sure did meet alot of them.

 

Boy, those were the days...

[watchdiva]

Our first cruise was on the Norway and our cabin was huge - two portholes and a ridiculously big bathroom! We dressed up in the late afternoon for tea in CI and then danced...I remember thinking how sophisticated it was to promenade around the deck all dressed up after dinner.

 

That first cruise on the Norway was followed by 3 other Norway cruises and it was on one of those later cruises that we first took our kids (teenagers at the time) with us on their first cruise. We last sailed her the week before the tragedy in Miami.

 

She was a great lady and the last of her kind IMO.

[pseudochicken]

Wouldn't it be wonderful if NCL instated the SS United States into the fleet after an extensive refurbishment? Man, I'd sail that offer so fast it'd make the propellers spin! :eek:

[Cruzinnana47]

What wonderful memories we have on the Norway--our sailings were in 1995 and 2001. So glad that we have photos and videos of our cruises on her to look at and recall the experience. Some of our favorite memories: coming down the grand staircase into the dining room; the beautiful teak decks. the midnight buffet; our luck in booking the same outside cabin on the 2nd cruise that we had on the first; the crew was great...so friendly and efficient; parties on the pool deck were so much fun; also, as others recollected, walking down the seemingly endless passageway--it looked the other end was miles away. And we laugh now when we remember discovering the "secret room" (we thought, anyway) under the aft pool where we could watch people swimming from underneath.

 

Will there ever be another ship like the Norway? I think with her went the end of an era.

[Giantfan13]

Add us to the list that sailed the Norway and just loved her. We had an inside cabin, but we lucked out and had a huge room, while others that booked insides had broom closets.

 

We will always remember that cruise. We booked at the last minute over President's week. We got a fantastic rate, especially for an inside. But we had trouble getting to Miami. We are from NY, and since it was a holiday week all the planes were full, unless you wanted to pay exorbitant rates. We tried to book Amtrak but they also were booked up solid. We ended up going from NY to Miami via Greyhound, 26 hours on the bus. But, in the end it was all worth it.

 

Would sail her again in a heartbeat, if she were still around.

 

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/Norway/tenders.jpg

 

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/Norway/norwaypool2.jpg

 

And in our younger days

 

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/Norway/dorisandlenny_rug.jpg

[adamholland73]

Everything seemed so elegant and the service was great.:)

 

adam holland