Your first cruise ship

[Copper10-8]

Ahoy!

 

1958. ms Statendam (prior model). Ten day Xmas Carribean 'float' out of NYC.

 

Hooked since? Si, mi amigo.

 

Any cruise ship, fishing / sailing boat, canoe or raft will do.

 

Bon Voyage & Good Health!

Bob:)

 

 

 

s/s Statendam IV (1957-2004) Built for Holland America Line in 1957 for Rotterdam-New York service as well as, later, for cruising. Sold to Paquet Cruises in 1981 who renamed her “Rhapsody”, and for which she started cruising in 1982. Chartered back to Holland America Line for the 1983 Alaska season.

Sold in 1986 to Lelakis group and operated by Regency Cruises as "Regent Star" for Alaska and Caribbean cruising, starting in 1987. In 1988, once again chartered back to Holland America Line. In 1994 she suffered an engine room fire and later in that same year Regency declared bankrupcy. She was subsequently laid up at Eleusis Bay near Piraeus, Greece. In 1996, she was renamed “Sea Harmony” by new owners Power Marina SA. In 2004 sold for scrap, renamed "Harmony", and broken up that same year at Alang, India

 

__________________

[mr green]

9/11 was an experience I would not like to have again.:( We were on the 1st day out on NCL Sun innaugural cruise. 2 or 3 days later, CNN had a line under the pic saying the bridge to our island was down with at least 8 dead! If not on the cruise, we would have had a car on the island and a car at home. Our ship docked in Boston instead of NY.

 

We went on the Second cruise, still out of Boston, not New York. NCL in its infinate wisdom did NOT notify its passengers, it just sent busses to NY to take them to Boston. I have never seen so many angry cruisers in my life.

Our entry to the U.S,A. was the easiest that we have ever had. We took a 'Red Eye' to Montreal, and looking for our flight to Boston, we ran into a friendly, yes friendly, U.S. Customs Officer. He gave us a form to state that we had no more than $10,000.00 US on us, I filled it in, since my hands were full, I put the form between my teeth. The Officer retrieved said document, and with a grin, welcomed us to the United States, [remember, we were still in Canada], and that was the only 'inspection' that we had, just THREE weeks after 9/11.

 

john

[Copper10-8]

While it took a bit of convincing from my two friends, my first ever cruise was on the Westerdam on Superbowl Sunday, Feb. 4th of last year. It was a 7 day Eastern Caribbean itinerary with stops in the Turks & Caicos, Tortola, St. Martin and of course, HMC.

 

Did it get me hooked? I believe that would be the understatement of the year for me :) One reason I had taken that cruise was in memory of my mother, who had passed away less than a year before. She had traveled with her own mother to Hawaii and the Caribbean when I was just a toddler and would still talk about those trips more than 30 years after with as much excitement in her voice as when she had returned. With my next cruise (albeit with one of those other cruise lines....but I'll be back to HAL in Feb & Sept./08) I'll be visiting the birthplace of my grandmother (Fort Ricasoli in Valletta) and I'm beyond excited!

 

 

m/s Westerdam III (2004-present)

[Copper10-8]

The first ship was Cunard Carinthia in 1957. She was only one year old at the time. She later became Fairland, then Fair Sea, etc. etc. etc.

 

Years later, November 1993, we cruised on the old Rotterdam, 16 days from Los Angeles to Newport News. A repositioning cruise through the Panama Canada. It was wonderful and we were hooked, not just on cruising, but with HAL, and we are addicted to the Panama Canal as we have done several repositioning cruises both ways since.

 

Carinthia, which had a long subsequent career with Sitmar Line and Princess Cruises. She was one of four sisterships built by Cunard between 1954-57:- Saxonia - Ivernia - Carinthia - Sylvania. Carinthia served with Sitmar Line between 1968-1988 as Fairland and Fairsea. Sitmar were bought by P&O Princess Cruises in 1988 and the renamed Fair Princess operated until 2001. After a short and undistinguished period as far Eastern gambling ship China Sea Discovery, she was broken up in 2005, briefly renamed Sea Discovery for the voyage to the breakers.

 

 

Carinthia (1956-2005) Built as Carinthia for Cunard Cruise Line in 1956 and placed on the Liverpool, St Lawrence route to Quebec City, and Montreal, Canada. Then, during the winter months, she was rerouted to the Liverpool, Cobh, Halifax to New York service operating as such until 1968. Carinthia's transatlantic career was all too quickly overtaken by jet air travel, which led to her sale to Sitmar Lines, or Societa Italiana Transporti Maritime, in 1968 and renamed Fairland. It was intended to place her on the Australia, New Zealand migrant run but when this did not pan out, she was laid up in Southampton until 1970.

 

She arrived in Trieste, Italy on 21 February, 1970 at the Arsenale Triestino San Marco shipyard to be completely remodelled as cruise ships, essentially for the US market. Renamed Fairsea in 1971, she became a very popular Sitmar cruise ship, serving the company until 1988. In that year P & O purchased Sitmar Lines and renamed her Fair Princess within the Princess Cruises fleet with which she served until 1997. In 1995, P&O Princess Cruises decided to sell her to Regency Cruises with which she was to be become Regent Isle. However, Regency went bankrupt at the same time so Fair Princess remained with Princess Cruises. She was laid up for almost one year in Los Angeles and several months in Mazatlan, Mexico. It was then decided that she would serve the Australian market for P & O Australia, replacing the Fairstar which was scrapped in 1997. Fair Princess was in turn replaced by Sky Princess in 2001 and became the China Sea Discovery for casino cruising in Hong Kong until broken up by Indian scrappers in 2005.

 

[Copper10-8]

My first cruise was on the Mardi gras in 1986, 4 day cruise to

the Bahamas, Freeport and Nassau.

 

 

Empress of Canada (1961-2003) Delivered in 1961 as the Empress of Canada to British company Canadian Pacific Steamships as their last passenger liner, to serve on the Liverpool-Canada line. She made her maiden voyage on 24th April 1961, by which time the service had already become summer only. She ran her first winter Caribbean cruise from New York in December 1961. She cruised out of New York during the winter, and the number of Atlantic crossings reduced over the years, so that only seven crossings were made in 1969.

Sold in 1972 to Carnival Cruise Lines and renamed Mardi Gras. In 1993 she was sold to Greek company Epirotiki Lines who chartered her to Gold Star Cruises as a casino ship, renamed Star of Texas. In 1994 she became Lucky Star cruising out of Miami. In 1995 she was laid up in Greece and renamed Apollon. In 1999 she was chartered as Apollon to Direct Cruises in the UK for one year. From 2001 she operated out of Piraeus for Royal Olympia Cruises (the former Epirotiki) on 3- to 4-day cruises. In December 2003, renamed Apollo for her final journey, she was beached at Alang, India, and scrapped.

 

[bobpatj]

Our first cruise was on the Legend of the Seas, 7 days Vancouver round trip Alaska, in 1997. Bob had been on the sea, before, while in the Navy, and I had experienced an Atlantic crossing and a Pacific crossing before trying a cruise. We've been hooked ever since! :D

[minaben]

My first cruise was a Med cruise in August 1988 on the Ocean Princess, a ship of the defunct Ocean Cruise Lines. It was a great cruise and I am forever spoiled because it was such a small ship. The food was the best I've ever had on a cruise.

 

http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/Ocean.html#anchor140132

 

Nice

Sardinia

Sorrento

Taoromina, Sicily

Corfu

Dubrovnik

Venice

[Copper10-8]

First cruise was Norwegian Caribbean Line's M/S SKYWARD, sailing from Miami to Cozumel, Cancun and Great Stirrup Cay. Sail date Oct 13, 1985. I'd booked a female quad share, and my TA at home had sent the payment to NCL, but not confirmed that my res was in order. So....when I got to Miami, traveling solo, I learned I had no cabin. I chatted with the purser and some other officials and ended up with an outside double cabin to myself.

 

When I got home, I confronted the TA, whose reply was "well, dear, these things happen". "Dear" realized that there might be a better way, and I ended up opening a successful cruise-only agency which I owned until I retired a few years ago.

 

Despite the goofs on my first cruise, I was indeed hooked. And remain that way!

 

I know that M/S Skyward sailed from Singapore for a number of years as Leisure World (and other names...I recall Shangri-La World). Wonder where she is now?

 

 

m/s Skyward (1969-present) Completed in 1969 for Norwegian Caribbean Lines (founded in 1966 by Knut Kloster and Ted Arison and later renamed Norwegian Cruise Lines), for which she operated until 1991 on Florida-Caribbean cruises. She was sold in that year to Singapore owners, receiving the subsequent names Shangri-la World (1991-1992), Asian World (1992), Fantasy World (1992-1993), Continental World (1993) and Leisure World (1993-present). Since 2005, She operates under this last name for New Century Cruises out of Singapore as a casino ship, although in practice, she is usually anchored in international waters with transfers to and from the ship by high speed launch.

[Copper10-8]

Copper,

 

Thanks for starting this thread, and for the picture of the Azure Seas. We can remember the size of the cabins and when you took a shower you were standing next to the sink and the whole bathroom was covered with water when you were done. Also, we remember the pool was about 12 ft X 10 ft and fairly deep.

 

The thread has brought back great memories.

 

Thanks again:D

 

 

 

Here's one more for you!;)

[Copper10-8]

Our first cruise was on NCL Sunward II in 1981. Hated it and didn't cruise again until 2000 on the Grand Princess. Benn hooked ever since.

Bob

 

m/s Royal Viking Sky (1973-present) Built in 1973 for Royal Viking Line intended for longer voyages to exotic destinations. In 1986 the line was purchased by Norwegian Caribbean Line, then part of the Kloster group. In 1991, the Royal Viking Sky was transferred to Norwegian Cruise Line and renamed Sunward. In 1992 Sunward was sold to Birka Line (Sweden) and renamed Birka Queen II. She was introduced on cruise services from Stockholm to Riga, Latvia and St Petersburg, Russia during the summer of 1992. However, in October 1992 she was chartered back to Kloster, resuming the identity of Sunward for NCL.



In 1993 she was chartered to Princess Cruises as the Golden Princess. Following the arrival of new tonnage in 1996, the charter was ended and Birka Line rapidly sold her to Star Cruises (Malaysia) as SuperStar Capricorn. In 1998 she was chartered to Hyundai Merchant Marine Co Ltd. (South Korea) for use on pilgrim traffic between South and North Korea and renamed Hyundai Kumgang, before returning to Star Cruises as SuperStar Capricorn once again. In January 2004, she became the Grand Latino for new Spanish operator Viajes Iberojet for Mediterranean cruises throughout 2005. In January 2005, it was announced that she had been sold to Fred Olsen Cruises (UK) for 2006 delivery, and renamed Boudicca. She entered service for Fred Olsen in February 2006 and is currently operating for them.

[Copper10-8]

Made only 2 cruises so far. The first ms Costa Romantica in 2000 to the Baltic. My first HAL vessel (visit) ms Rotterdam during the Oosterdam dedication. My first HAL cruise a/b ms Zaandam to Alaska in 2005.

 

Greetings Ben.

 

 

Costa Romantica (1993-present) Delivered in 1993 to Costa Crociere (Costa Cruises)

[Copper10-8]

My first cruise was on the MS Nieuw Amsterdam in 1991, 10 day Alaska, with Capt. Jacob Dijk and Hotel Mgr Hans Dernison, after that it was all SS Rotterdam until the ship's retirement..

 

 

m/s Nieuw Amsterdam III (1983-present). Delivered to Holland America Line in 1983 and sailed for them until 2000. Purchased by American Classic Cruises in that year and renamed Patriot. Laid up in Honolulu, Hi in 2001 and auctioned off in 2002, returned to HAL as Nieuw Amsterdam. Sold to Louis Cruise Lines and chartered to Thomson Cruise for ten years. Renamed Thomson Spirit and currently sailing.

 

 

s/s Rotterdam V (1959-present) Built in 1959 she would become the flagship of the Holland Amerika Lijn/Holland America Line and sail for them for 39 years . On 3 September 1959, she set out on her maiden voyage destined for New York. Until 1971, she made regular roundtrips from Rotterdam to New York. She subsequently made cruises on behalf of HAL until her successor, Rotterdam VI, came into service in 1997. She was then sold to Premier Cruises in 1998 and renamed Rembrandt.

When Premier went bankrupt in 2000 she was laid up in Freeport, Bahamas until 2004 when she became the property of s.s. Rotterdam BV (part of RDM holding) From 17 June to 12 July 2004 she was towed from the Bahamas to Gibraltar where she remained docked until 2005. On 1 July 2005 she became the property of Rederij De Rotterdam BV and from 25 November 2005 to 10 February 2006 she received dock maintenance in Cadiz, Spain. From 10 to 27 February 2006 she was towed from Cadiz to Gdansk, Poland and from 24 August to 2 September 2006 to Wilhelmshaven, Germany where she stayed for renovation until making her triumphant return (see above) to Rotterdam on 4 September 2008 where she will be permanently docked and serve as a floating hotel.

[Copper10-8]

Our first real oceangoing cruise was on the Maasdam in 2000 sailing RT from Barcelona to the western Mediterranean and the ports were Tunisia, Palermo, Civetavcchia, Monaco and Marseille! We also did a pre stay of 2 1/2 days in Barcelona and a post stay in Madrid. Absolutely wonderful cruise and trip! It took a little bit of a hard sell to convince DH to give cruising a try. And we have been hooked ever since. HAL remains our favorite line and we love those DAM ships...but we have been willing to give other lines a try and have enjoyed ALL of our cruises. These days it's more the itinerary and timing that we look for in booking a cruise.

Happy sailing to all!

 

 

m/s Maasdam (1993-present)

[Sea Island Lady]

Ship - Disney Wonder 3 Day - with children

Year - 2000

Ports - Nassau, Cocoa Cay, Sea Day

 

Delightful time...we were hooked and booked a 7 day on the Disney Magic just 3 months later. :) Now we cruise 1-3 times a year, some have been w/children, but most without. ;)

[Copper10-8]

Our first cruise was on the Admiral Cruise Lines Stardancer in 1987. This was to celebrate our first anniversary and, boy, were we hooked...the minute we stepped onboard.

 

Scandinavia (1982-present) The Scandinavia was delivered in 1982 to DFDS Seaways' subsidiary Scandinavian World Cruises. She operated a cruise-ferry service from New York to Freeport, Bahamas which was not successful so she was transferred the Oslo-Copenhagen service briefly in 1984. In 1985, she was sold to Sundance Cruises and renamed Stardancer. Sundance soon merged with Eastern Cruise Line to form Admiral Cruises. When Admiral was bought by Royal Caribbean Cruise Line in 1991, she became RCCL's Viking Serenade. Built as a car ferry, her chunky ferry looks were further spoilt when the funnel was shortened and an RCCL's Sky lounge was fitted. In 2002 she was renamed Island Escape and she is currently operating as part of Island Cruises, a Royal Caribbean/First Choice Holidays joint venture. The Island Escape currently operates in the Mediterranean Sea during the northern hemisphere summer, crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Brazil for the southern hemisphere summer season when she is based out of Santos (Sao Paulo). During her European season she is based at Palma de Mallorca, Spain

.

[sassyredhat]

Wow ~~~~~What great pictures !!!

 

Our first cruise was in 2002 on Statendam RT San Diego to Mexican Riveria.

 

I was getting over a particularly devastating family tragedy so we took this cruise to get away. My mother went into the hospital the day after we got back, and died 3 months later.

 

We took our next cruise on Ryndam, compliments of Mom. :) :)

 

We were hooked from the moment we laid eyes on Statendam !!!! HAL is still our favorite line.

 

Pat

 

 

 

 

We were hooked for life

[Copper10-8]

Thanks, Copper, for all the BEAUTIFUL photos! Our first cruise was in the mid-1980's aboard the Chandris ship-- Britanis-- a cruise to nowhere so we could see what it was like. Needless to say we've been hooked ever since-- can't get enough!:D

 

 

s/s Monterey (1932-2000) Built as a luxury ocean liner to promote travel to Hawaii and for Pacific Ocean liner service. During World War II, she served as a fast troop carrier after being refitted to hold 3,500 soldiers. After the war, in 1946, she arrived at Bethlehem-Alameda Shipyard in Alameda, California for refitting and return to passenger service with Matson Line. However financing ran out on the project after 30% of the work had been completed and for five years, she sat idle in Alameda. She was then purchased by the U.S. Government in August 1952 and towed to the mothball fleet in nearby Suisun Bay, In 1956 she was purchased by Matson Line and renamed Matsonia and in 1957 she started operating on the San Francisco-Los Angeles-Honolulu run.

Within five years, profits from passenger service had fallen to the point where Matson decided to anchor Matsonia indefinitely in San Francisco Bay. Sister ship Lurline continued to operate but suffered a major turbine problem in February 1963; one that would require costly repairs. Instead of repairing Lurline, Matson sold Lurline to Chandris Line and rechristened the former Matsonia as the new Lurline on December 6, 1963 and returned her to service.

By 1970, passenger receipts were down so low that Matson chose to cease liner service altogether. On June 25, 1970, Lurline arrived in San Francisco to be sold to Chandris Lines. Five days later she steamed under new ownership out of the Golden Gate toward Piraeus with the new name Britanis.

She re-entered service in 1971 and in 1974 saw service as a cruise ship in the Caribbean during winter and in Europe during the summer. In May, 1982 she cruised between New York and Bermuda and in 1983 and 1984, she sailed from Miami to the Caribbean in the winter and from New York in the summer. She was chartered by the U.S. Government in 1994 as a floating barracks for military personnel at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and and then laid up at Tampa, Fl. in late 1996.

Chandris opted to sell Britanis as part of a plan to cease cruise line operation so in 1998 she was sold to AG Belofin Investments of Liechtenstein and renamed Belofin-1. Her new owners intended to recoup their investment by selling the ship to scrappers, but a downturn in steel prices held them up for more than a year. In July 2000, Belofin-1 was towed out of Tampa Bay bound for ship breakers in India. She began taking on water and listing during the voyage but nobody was on board to right the list. The tugbat crew subsequently decided to cut her free and she capsized and sank due to progressive flooding some fifty miles off Cape Town, South Africa.

 

[boccismom]

John,

Thank you so much for the history. It's really great to know she's still in service.

[MightyQuinn]

Copper John - What a great thread you've created. So very positive & inclusive. I'm no Nautical Nellie, but I'm fascinated with the ship histories that you're providing. And the "then & now" pics are superb. Great job!:):)

[chasetf]

OK, that's a little better. ;)

I agree. That is more how I remember her .... even though she was a little tired when we sailed her. It has been also our fortune or unfortune to she her laid up in the bay area rusting away. I have some pictures I took of her while on the way to AT&T Park.

 

Also, if you Google Map the San Francisco area near AT&T Park you can see her still tied up. ;)

[Cuttle]

Thank You Copper for the great pictures and histories of all these old and current ships. As many have said, this is a great thread. I am particularly interested in Post 312 and the picture of Rotterdam V as she is NOW. She sure looks good with her new coat of white paint all ready to serve as a floating hotel in Rotterdam. I have special memories of her in 1993. The last time I actually saw her, she was docked in St. Thomas as the Rembrandt. We were docked right beside her and we could look down on her decks. She looked pretty sad. But what a transformation. I hope she enjoys her new life in Rotterdam! Thank you again for the pictures and histories.

[Copper10-8]

Our first cruise was on the Celebrity Mercury in 2000 for our 25th anniversary. It was a 7-day inside passage cruise out of Vancouver. We are hooked on cruising and on Alaska We took our 4th Alaskan cruise in June and plan another for our 35th anniversary in 2010.

 

 

Celebrity Mercury (1997-present)

[pattay23]

Disney Wonder - 4 day - November 1998

Disney Magic - 7 Day - March 2001

Disney Magic - 7 Day - January 2004

Carnival - 7 Day - April 2004

Royal Caribbean - 3 Day - December 2004

Disney Magic - 7 Day - April 2006

***RC Mariner of the Seas - 7 Day - December 2008 *****

[mudscraper]

Thank you John for finding a pic of the USS Monterey. My dad sailed it to the Philipines from California during WW2. The voyage took 30 days because they had to zig-zag along with a stop in Hawaii to pick up more troops. He told us that he was seasick the entire way.

 

Rich

[Copper10-8]

I smile every time I see your new avatar. On a cruise to Svalbard in 2005 on Saga Rose, we were thrilled to see polar bears roaming a bay for three hours.

 

At one point, a bear climbed slowly but determinedly up to the top of the black, snow-covered crags, looking for birds' nests to raid for food. (There were a lot of nervous birds in the air that day!) We also learned from the naturalist onboard that polar-bear skin is black. The Captain said that, in the six years he had been sailing to Far North, this was the first time he had seen polar bears.

 

When the bear turned and looked down to the coastline, he leaned forward and body-surfed down to sea level. I have a photo of that hilarious sight and all you see are a black nose and little-bitty dots of black eyes.

 

Ruby

 

Sagafjord (1965-present) Launched in 1965 as classic liner Sagafjord for Norwegian American Line or Den Norske Amerikalinje, a venerable company that brought tens of thousands of Scandinavian migrants to America while running regular transatlantic service between Norway and the United States, and later to East Africa as well. Primarily due to competition from air travel, transatlantic passenger voyages were discontinued in 1971.

In 1980 she was sold to K/S Norwegian America Cruises A/S and in 1983, Trafalgar House Co., the owners of Cunard, acquired Norwegian American Cruises, and Sagafjord and her sister, Vistafjord, joined the Cunard fleet, both retaining their names. She sailed a successful 13 years under the Cunard banner, spending 3 months a year on a "world cruise" which would include the annual meeting with her larger fleet mate QE2.

In 1996, Sagafjord was chartered to Trans-Ocean Cruises (Germany) as part of a 6 month deal. Under Trans-Ocean she operated as "Gripsholm." During that time, she was swept by a fire which knocked her out of service and resulted in her having to be towed back to port. In 1997, she was then sold to Saga Holidays (UK) where she was given a much deserved refit and to this day sails as the very popular and highly rated Saga Rose for Saga Cruises, operating worldwide on cruise tours targeted at the senior market.