Your first cruise ship

[Copper10-8]

Ocean Monarch - 1961. I was 13. My parents and I sailed one way to Bermuda out of NY. Stayed at Elbow Beach and flew home.

 

 

tss Ocean Monarch (1951-1981) Built in 1951 as tss (turbine steam ship) Ocean Monarch by Vickers-Armstrong Shipbuilders, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England for UK-based Furness, Withy & Company. She was launched on 27 July 1950 and after technical trials, delivered to her owners on 24 March 1951. She was the first postwar-built ship designed especially for the American cruise market. Ocean Monarch was awarded a gold medal by the American Institute for Designing for her "outstanding beauty and unusual design features of a cruise ship". On 18 April 1951, the single-stack steamship departed the United Kingdom bound for New York City on her maiden voyage.

Furness Withy was incorporated as a company in 1891 upon the amalgamation of Christopher Furness' business in West Hartlepool and London with Edward Withy's shipbuilding yard in Hartlepool. By 1914 the company had acquired interests all over the world in liner and tramp shipping and in shipbuilding, but from 1920 they concentrated on liner services. In addition to the North Atlantic service, they developed other American routes based principally on New York and including Bermuda in 1919 and the West Indies.

 

Furness, Withy & Co. based Ocean Monarch out of New York City and used her on the New York - Bermuda service operated by the Furness Bermuda Line. She made this run for the first time on 3 May 1951 and operated alongside the older and larger Queen of Bermuda. Throughout the 1950s, the two ships were dubbed the "Honeymoon Ships", their Saturday departures from New York fitting in well with the week-long honeymoons of many couples. The celebrity list of both ships included former United States of America president Harry Truman, motion picture star Cary Grant, British playwright and actor Sir Noel Coward and Princess Soraya, former wife of the Shah of Iran.

She would earn her keep for fifteen years carrying passengers and fresh water supplies to the island's hotels. (Bermuda has no fresh water supply at that time). Ocean Monarch and Queen of Bermuda also shared longer trips from New York south to the Bahamas and West Indies and pioneered cruises from Port Everglades/Ft. Lauderdale, Fl.

On 22 September 1966, following the end of sea passenger services to Bermuda, Ocean Monarch crossed back over to Great Britain but this time to be laid up in the River Fal, Cornwall, awaiting disposal.

 

In August 1967, she was sold to Bulgarian-based Balkantourist (owned by Sofia-based Navigation Maritime Bulgare) and renamed Varna to earn foreign currency by cruising in the Black Sea and from Montreal, Quebec. She did this for three years, spending time in lay-up during each winter season.

 

 

In 1970, she was laid up at Perama, Greece. In 1973, the ship was chartered by Sovereign Cruises however only made two voyages with them. She was then laid up again. Her name was changed to Venus in 1977 and to Riviera in 1978. In 1979, she was refurbished for use by Italy-based Trans-Tirreno Express for Mediterranean cruising.

Later in 1979, she was purchased by Greek-based Dolphin (Hellas) Shipping S.A., who had her refurbished for full-time cruising. She was then chartered by German-based SUR-Seereisen who announced a series of Mediterranean cruises to take place in the summer of 1981. Her name was once again changed, this time to Reina del Mar. Before these summer cruises were to take place, the ship was to be overhauled and renovated at Ambelakia, Greece.

 

On 28 May 1981, while at Ambelakia on the central-east coast of Salamina (Salamis) Island, engine running trials led to an engine room fire which completely gutted the ship's passenger acommodation. The next day, 29 May 1981, found Reina del Mar, still burning, so a decision was made to tow her out to sea by the tug Titan. However, the tow parted and the ship ran aground on the coast of Salamina Island. On 1 June 1981, she was reloated and towed off but again burst into flames and was scuttled at Kynosoura, also on Salamina Island, where she fell onto her side, became a total loss and was scuttled.

Edited February 16, 2010 by Copper10-8

[RedmondCruiser]

John -- Ive said it before. You need to write a book with all the pictures and stories. I'd be one of the first to buy one.

Ron

[Copper10-8]

John -- Ive said it before. You need to write a book with all the pictures and stories. I'd be one of the first to buy one.

 

Ron

 

Ha, thanks Ron!:) It's very interesting learning about the history and "life" of some of these ships. Some most definitely do not experience a good ending. That's why it's so rewarding reading about what's happening to a classic like the ss Rotterdam V

[Copper10-8]

May, 1975, seven days aboard Sitmar's Fairwind to Haiti, San Juan, St. Thomas & Nassau. Italian crew who pampered and spoiled us. Room stewards sat outside our door 24/7 to anticipate any desire we might request. Outstanding food. Comedy week---Red Buttons & Henny Youngman performed, each doing two shows, with non-stop monologues for over 2 hours, never repeating a joke, nor ever inserting a curse word. Laughed until tears rolled down our cheeks. Still fondly remember the day in St. Thomas where we rented a dune buggy as one of the best of our 40 years together. Heaven to me would be to spend eternity reliving that day on St. Thomas with my dearest best friend and generous love of my live, my husband.

 

That cruise turned us into cruise fanatics. Since then we taken 9 cruises, (Carnival, RCCL, Celebrity & Holland America) about to go on #10 next year. HAL comes closest to giving us the same level of service & overall pleasure. We've morphed into HAL zealots. Our retirement wish is to sail on every HAL ship. We have 1 down, Maasdam, and many more to go.

 

 

ss Sylvania (1957-2004) Built by John Brown & Company Ltd, Clydebank, Scotland and delivered in June 1957 to the Cunard Steamship Company as ss Sylvania for "secondary" North Atlantic (Liverpool-Eastern Canada) service. She was the last Cunard Line vessel built specifically for transatlantic crossings. In addition to their more prestigious run from Southampton to New York, Cunard also operated other services, including one from Liverpool to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. On that run, their main competitors were Canadian Pacific Steamships. In order to strengthen their position on this service, Cunard decided to order a series of four identical liners, eventually referred to as the Saxonia class, for the run in 1951. Per Cunard's tradition, all four ships were named using the Latin names of provinces of the Roman and Holy Roman Empires; Saxonia (1954), Ivernia (1955), Carinthia (1956) and last but not least, Sylvania in 1957.

 

The new ships reflected the economics and travel patterns of the post-war world; they were not built exclusively as passenger liners, but also included cargo-carrying facilities. Their passenger accommodation were divided into just two classes, first and tourist, with the tourist class occupying the majority of the ship. The outer dimensions of the ships were defined by the Saint Lawrence Seaway, as they had to be able to navigate from the Atlantic Ocean up river to Montreal.

 

Sylvania started on her maiden voyage from Greenock, Scotland to Montreal on 5 June 1957. On 26 June 1957 she joined her sisters on their northern hemisphere summer service from Liverpool to Montreal via Greenock and Quebec City. By the time she entered service the growth of passenger numbers in transatlantic liner service had ceased, while the amount of passenger transported by jet airliner was growing.

 

In 1958, Sylvania made one crossing from Liverpool to New York via Cobh, Ireland and Halifax, Noca Scotia. In April 1961 she was moved permanently to the Liverpool - New York service, replacing RMS Britannic. At some point during her career with Cunard, she also served on the Rotterdam, the Netherlands 0 Southampton - Le Havre, France - Quebec City - Montreal route.

 

When the North Atlantic passenger operation became unprofitable in the early sixties, Sylvania was used on more and more cruises. In early 1965 she received a refit to make her accommodations more cruise-friendly. In November 1966 her transatlantic service was altered back to the Liverpool—Montreal route. Due to heavy losses Cunard withdrew the Sylvania and her her sister ship Carinthia from service in December 1967. They were subsequently laid up in Southampton and put up for sale.

 

 

On 2 February 1968, Sylvania and Carinthia were purchased by the Italian cruise company Societa Italiana Transporti Marittimi S.p.A aka Sitmar Line, managed by the Russian Vlasov family. The sisters were renamed Fairwind and Fairland, respectively, with the intention of converting them into immigrant liners for the Europe to Australia and New ZEaland service. Sitmar had held the immigrant service contract by the Australian government from 1955, but the Australians were asking for new tenders for the period of 1970 onwards so Sitmar needed more ships. However, despite the purchase of the Fairwind and Fairland, Sitmar lost the contract to the Greek Chandris Line, resulting in Fairwind and Fairland staying put at Southampton.

 

Sitmar then decided to convert the two sisters for cruise service instead. Fairwind received a year-long refit at the Arsenale Triestino San Marco shipyard at Trieste, Italy between January 1970 and January 1971 where her appearance was radically altered. Her forward superstructure was rebuilt to a sleek, streamlined form, her funnel rebuilt to a more modern, slightly conical form with a smoke deflector fin on top, and her cargo cranes eliminated and removed. In keeping with the then-current Sitmar livery, the Fairwind had a yellow funnel with a large V (for Vlaslov) painted on it. In addition to the funnel, the topmost decks of her superstructure and her radar mast were painted yellow.

 

She emerged from the yard to join her sister (having her refit completed some two months earlier and renamed Fairsea instead of Fairland) on the North American cruise market, on which she proved highly popular. During the northern hemisphere winter season, Fairwind made cruises to South America from Ft. Lauderdale, FL, while during the summer season she sailed from San Francisco, CA to Canadian west coast and to Alaska.

 

In 1988, Sitmar decided to change their brand identity with a new external livery and a new naming policy. That livery consisted of an entirely white superstructure, a dark blue funnel with Sitmar's new Swan logo, and three wave-like ribands painted on her hull.

 

Her career as Sitmar Fairwind proved short however, when on 14 September 1988, Sitmar Cruises was sold to the British P&O (Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company) Group. P&O closed down the Sitmar brand and just eight days after the acquisition, Sitmar Fairwind was renamed Dawn Princess and transferred to the fleet of Los Angeles-based Princess Cruises.

[/url]

 

 

As Dawn Princess, the ship continued cruises mainly aimed at the North American market. Princess Cruises would be investing heavily in new tonnage, and in early 1993, the popular Dawn Princess was sold to V-Ships, a subsidiary of the the Vlasov Group or "V" Group of Monte Carlo. the original owners of Sitmar.

 

 

[Copper10-8]

 

Under that ownership starting on 27 March 1993, German tour operator Phoenix Seereisen started operating her initially under a five-year charter as Albatros for world-wide cruising for mainly German tourists. On 18 August 1993, she departed on her first cruise for Phoenix from Germany to North Cape, Norway.

 

On 22 May 1995, during a cruise in the Red Sea, an engine-room fire broke out forcing her passengers to be evacuated to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. After the fire was contained and eventually extinguished, Albatross, without her passengers, travelled via the Suez Canal to Livorno, Italy for temporary repairs. She then continued on to Germany, arriving at the Lloyd Werft, Bremerhaven in June for more permanent repairs. She returnred to service on 30 June 1995.

 

[/url]

 

In November 2003, her charter contract having been extended, Albatros suffered severe machinery problems. As a result, Phoenix Seereisen decided to terminate the contract. Owners V-Ships, in turn, concluded that the price of repairing the the 46-year old ship was too high.

 

 

As a result, Albatross was sold to Indian scrappers in December 2003. She was renamed ss Genoa and departed Genoa, Italy on 21 December 2003 on her final journey to India. She arrived at Alang on 16 January 2004 where she was beached and subsequently broken up.

 

[tkips]

My first cruise was the Stockholm - Swedish Cruise line - 1958 - Aarhus, Denmark to New York - 1st cruise after it sank the Andreadoria off New York in the fog - Our Family was Immigrating to the US.

[Copper10-8]

My first cruise was on the Zaandam in 2006. We were heading for Alaska out of Vancouver for the last cruise of the season. It was my first time on anything larger than a speedboat (which I hated) and I was going to be sailing as crew. I was excited and terrified all at once, I was petrified that I'd hate it just as much as I hate small boats.

 

After a small bout of sea sickness heading up to Alaska (we were not taking the inside passage), I found my sea legs and continued to work onboard various HAL ships for the next two years. And what did I do on "vacation"? Sailed the Ryndam, NCL's Spirit, the Veendam and now I'm planning on visiting the Eurodam for a week. Yep, guess you could say I'm hooked.

 

ms Zaandam (2000-present) Built in 2000 as ms Zaandam by Fincantieri - Cantieri Navali Italiani S.p.A., Marghera (Venice), Italy for Holland America Line. Her keel was laid on 26 June 1998 and she was floated out of her building dock on 30 April 1999.

After running successful technical trials in the Adriatic, Zaandam was delivered to Holland America Line on 6 April 2000. She then crossed the Atlantic via the Adriatic and Mediterranean under the command of Captain Jean “Jack” van Coevorden. Uniquely, Zaandam was originally intended to serve as Holland America's bid to attract younger passengers. Consequently, upon her arrival in Ft. Lauderdale, FL she was christened by her then 13-year old godmothers, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, known to television viewers of the late 80's and early 90's from the sitcom "Full House", in a ceremony on 4 May 2000. She departed that afternoon on her maiden voyage to the Caribbean, alternating Western and Eastern itineraries.

Zaandam was named after the city of Zaandam located in the Dutch province of Noord Holland (North Holland), the main city in the municipality of Zaanstad. Zaandam, the city, was once a small settlement built on the river Zaan near a dam. ms Zaandam is the third ship in HAL history to bear the name Zaandam and also the third ship of the four vessel “R” class, Rotterdam (1997), Volendam (1999), and Amsterdam (2000) are her sisters. The “R” class really should be divided into two separate classes due to internal and external differences; Rotterdam & Amsterdam as one class and Zaandam & Volendam as the other. Holland America Line, however, considers the four ships as one class.

The first Zaandam, built by the Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij/Netherlands Steamboat Company, at Rotterdam, the Netherlands, was launched on 20 July 1882 as a 3,063 ton combination steam and twin-masted sail ship. Zaandam I, HAL’s first ship built in the Netherlands, would sail between Rotterdam and New York through 1897 and also opened HAL’s new route to Buenos Aires, Argentina. In June 1897, she was purchased by the Austro-Americana Steamship Company and renamed Styria. In 1902 she was sold to the New York-based Luckenbach Steamship Company, renamed Julia Luckenbach, and converted into a petroleum carrier. In January 1913 while in Chesapeake Bay, she collided with another steamer and subsequently sank.

 

The second Zaandam was laid down on 22 December 1937 at Wilton-Feijenoord at Schiedam, the Netherlands. She was a 10,909 ton combo cargo-passenger vessel which departed Rotterdam for New York on her maiden voyage on 7 January 1939. When the Netherlands were invaded and occupied by Germany in May 1940, Zaandam was repainted in camouflage colors. In 1942 she was requisitioned by the British Ministry of War Transport and then assigned to the United States War Shipping Administration. In November 1942, Zaandam was torpedoed by a German U-boat, some 300 miles off the coast of Brazil and sank, tragically with 130 of her occupants killed or missing at sea. There were 169 survivors.

 

 

Essentially a stretched-out and slightly larger version of HAL’s “S” class, Zaandam has three design changes that distinguish her from that earlier class: Her aft swimming pool was moved from Navigation Deck up one level to Lido Deck, an alternate restaurant, at the time of her delivery called the Marco Polo, later changed into the Pinnacle Grill, was incorporated, and a mid-ship elevator bank and stairwell was added. Zaandam is similar to the lead ship of the “R” class, Rotterdam, but is slower (she basically has the same speed as the four “S” class ships). Zaandam also has a single funnel, however the stack is of a different design than the “S” class funnels. Rotterdam and Amsterdam have a twin-funnel, side-by-side arrangement. Unlike Rotterdam, one of HAL’s two flagships designed for longer, world-wide cruises, Zaandam was designed for yeoman duty in the Caribbean and Alaska but has also found her way to Hawaii, the South Pacific, Australia and Asia. Her home ports so far have been Ft. Lauderdale and Port Canaveral, Fl, San Diego, CA and Vancouver, BC.

The basic layout of Zaandam’s public rooms are the same as that of ms Volendam, including her two-tier Rotterdam dining room, Lido buffet-style restaurant, an alternate 88-seat Marco Polo (Pinnacle Grill) restaurant, as well as a Club HAL children’s room on her Sports Deck that can also be used as a meeting or reception room. Her main two-story show lounge is named after Dutch abstract painter Pieter Cornelis “Piet” Mondriaan. The lounge glitters with bright white, gray, and silver decor with somewhat darker furniture providing contrast (the tables feature lamps with miniature musical instruments). Zaandam’s trade mark Ocean Bar attracts the pre- and post-dinner cocktail crowd and her 205-seat Wajang theater, the place for movies, meetings and presentations. The Crows Nest observation lounge has a 320-degree view for taking in port departures and arrivals. She has an Ocean Spa fitness center with a gymnasium and separate massage, sauna and steam rooms. Zaandam also came out with an Explorers Lounge, Java Café coffee bar, Piano Bar, a 24-seat Erasmus Library, an Internet center, shops stocked with duty-free goods, and a Casino with Casino Bar which doubles as the ship’s sports bar.

 

 

 

Zaandam’s theme is loosely tied to the world of music with related memorabilia scattered throughout the ship in fabrics, posters and real instruments. Zaandam’s center piece is a giant 22-foot high Baroque-style Dutch pipe/street organ with mechanical figures “playing” violins, drums and horns that can be found in her three-deck high atrium. The organ “performs” on sea days at 11:00 am and at 12 Noon and at 2:00 and 4:00 pm. Zaandam sports a collection of rock 'n' roll memorabilia that would do credit to a Hard Rock Cafe: a Fender Squire Telecaster guitar, signed by the Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood and Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, is located in a glass display case on the Deck 4 staircase. An Ariana acoustic guitar signed by David Bowie and Iggy Pop, a Fender Stratocaster guitar signed in silver ink by the members of Queen and a Bently Les Paul-style guitar signed by various artists, including Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, BB King, Robert Cray, Keith Richards and Les Paul can also be found in the hallway near the lower entrance to the Rotterdam dining room. The rear wall of the Explorers lounge has a Conn saxophone with a mouthpiece signed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton. There are two somewhat unusual piano art pieces on board that have been painted by modern Dutch artists; one by Henk van Vessem painted in a colorful abstract design located in the ship’s Lido Restaurant, the other, made to look like “shipwreck wood” is located in the Seaview Lounge (outside the Piano Bar).

The artwork and artifacts onboard Zaandam are valued at more than U.S. $2 million, including antiques, paintings, prints and photography centered around a theme of Dutch and Holland America Line seafaring exploration and cruise travel. There are a series of black & white photos of the line’s early cruise ships in some of the passenger corridors. Zaandam also exhibits works created specifically for the vessel by world-class artists and has a collection of Egyptian artwork (including a wooden model of the third coffin of King Tutankhamen) permanently displayed in the Art Gallery. Usually an “eye catcher” is the large reproduction of the New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Yellow Jasper”, actually a fragment of an Egyptian queen’s face (commonly referred to as “the yellow lips”) located on the outside of the Explorers Lounge. Like all other HAL ships, great paintings of the line’s ships by Captain Stephen Card can be found in the forward stairwell, and some public rooms are decorated in Dutch colonial motif. A bronze sculpture of a group of five leaping white-sided Pacific dolphins by British artist Susanna Holt is located at Zaandam’s mid-ships magrodomed Lido pool. A pair of boldly colored life-size ceramic cows by Dutch artist Jackie Bouw lie contently by the ship’s rear/Sea view swimming pool.

 

Zaandam’s Java Café, originally found outside her Wajang Theater, has been converted into a wine tasting bar and her original Marco Polo Italian alternate restaurant into the Pinnacle Grill serving Pacific Northwest fare. In November, 2003, Holland America Cruise Line announced a U.S. $225 million program of up-scaling their cruise ships, cruise line image and passenger cruise experience called the 'Signature of Excellence program'. This enhancement program included stateroom amenities (luxury beds and bed linens upgrades, Euro-style mattresses, waffle-weave bathrobes and Egyptian cotton towels to all cabin categories), new massage-type showerheads and professional-grade hair dryers in all bathrooms, new flat-screen LCD televisions with DVD players, make-up mirrors with halo lightning, fresh flowers and complimentary fruit baskets in all cabins, a Culinary Arts Center (inside the Wajang Theater) presented by Food & Wine magazine, with an on-stage kitchen for gourmet cooking demonstrations and interactive classes; an Explorations Café (taking in the Erasmus Library and original internet center and adding a coffee bar); a Neptune concierge lounge for the exclusive use by Deluxe Verandah and Penthouse suite occupants; an expanded Greenhouse Spa and Salon offering thermal suite treatment, a hydrotherapy and thalassotherapy pool and heated ceramic lounges; and the ”Loft” and the “Oasis”, respectively, an interior and exterior area designed exclusively for teens (ages 13-17). Zaandam had her SOE part 1 enhancements installed while in dry-dock in January 2005 at Freeport, the Bahamas.

During the first week of February 2005, Zaandam, her sister Volendam, HAL's Vista class Zuiderdam, Carnival Miracle and Radisson's Seven Seas Navigator were chartered by the Jacksonville, Fl. Super Bowl Host Committee as accomodations/hotel ships. Jacksonville, the smallest market ever to host a Super Bowl, rented the five ships for U.S. $11.5 million and "parked" them along the St. Johns River for five days to assist with hotel room space for National Football League affiliates and sponsors for Super Bowl XXXIX. The three HAL ships were berthed at the city's newly upgraded Talleyrand Marine Terminal. Rooms aboard the five ships cost $200 to $550 a night.

On 21 January 2009, Zaandam gained a Digital Workshop program by Microsoft which is comprised of complimentary classes led by a Microsoft-trained “techspert”. As part of the program, located in the Queen’s Room, her passengers can learn to use computers to enhance photos, produce and publish videos onto a DVD and create personal web pages or blogs. In addition, one-on-one coaching, called “Techspert Time” is available for more than 20 hours each week. On 18 November 2009, on the east-bound portion of her Circle Hawaii cruise, Zaandam also gained a second alternate restaurant, "Canaletto", serving Italian cuisine. Canaletto, named for the famous 18th century Venetian artist, which debuted on the ms Eurodam in 2008, will come to life for dinner nightly between 5:30 and 9:30 pm when a section of the ships' Lido restaurant is transformed into the Italian restaurant. Canaletto's menu begins with an antipasti plate that changes nightly, followed by soup choices, salad, four pasta dishes and entrees like veal Milanese, chicken Marsala

 

 

Edited February 17, 2010 by Copper10-8

[Copper10-8]

What a coincidence. I was just going through my photo albums and came across my first cruise album. It was Song of America - RCCL in 1986! It had sample menus that they sold in miniature and a drink menu from one of the lounges. An average cocktail was $1.95, with a Crown at $2.25. The next year on the Nordic Prince - RCCL the drink prices went to $2.45 and $2.65! Wow did we look young. We sat at the First Officers table on our first cruise. It was such a good time. The ships didn't even look like they had balcony rooms. We had port holes. I remember having to book far in advace to get a room where the bed would be configured to a double!

Memories!

 

ms Song of America (1982-present) Built in 1982 as ms Song of America by Oy Wärtsilä Ab (Wartsila New Ship Yard), Helsingfors (Helsinki), Finland, for (then) Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL). At 37,584 grt, she was one of the largest cruise ships built at the time.

 

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line had operated throughout the 1970s with three ships; Song of Norway, Nordic Prince and Sun Viking, that had been built at the same yard in Finland, two of which (Song of Norway in 1978 and Nordic Prince in 1980) had been lengthened. Due to increased demand, RCCL decided to order a new and larger ship, again from the Wärtsilä shipyard, which was to become Song of America.

 

For the interior layout of this new ship, RCCL decided to adapt a system with cabins stacked towards the front, furthest away from engine noise, with public spaces to aft. This layout, widely used on large ferries built by Wärtsilä at the time, had rarely been seen on cruise ships. The public spaces on decks five and seven were built with one and a half times the standard deck height, leading to deck six only existing in the forward part of the ship. Unlike Song of Norway, Nordic Prince and Sun Viking, Song of America's Viking Crown Lounge, the trademark of all Royal Caribbean ships, completely surrounded her funnel providing passengers with a 360 degree view

 

She was delivered to her owners on 11 November 1982 and after a transatlantic crossing arrived in Miami, Fl. from where she operated a cruise to nowhere for media and travel professionals. On 3 December 1982, she was christened by her godmother, American opera soprano Beverly Sills, in a lavish ceremony. On 5 December, she departed Miami on her maiden voyage, a seven-day Eastern Caribbean cruise to Nassau, the Bahamas, San Juan, Puerto Rico and St, Thomas, USVI with former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalyn among her guests. During the early part of her RCCL career, this seven-day itinerary from Miami would be her staple. Later on, she would make several trips to the U.S. west coast via the Panama Canal, operating on the Alaska run in the summer season and down to the Mexican Riviera out of Los Angeles during the winter months.

 

 

She was sold in May 1998 for $94.5 million to Sun Cruises, a subsidiary of UK-based travel company Airtours. Sun Cruises immediately chartered the ship back to RCCL until March 1999. Unlike earlier ships sold by RCCL, her Viking Crown lounge had not been removed when she was handed over to her new owners. Sun Cruises had her refitted with additional suites on deck nine, renamed her ms Sunbird, and operated her for cruising around Europe, mainly in the Mediterranean. Later on during her Sun Cruises career, she received MyTravel colors.

 

 

When Airtours decided to pull out of the cruise vacation and ship ownership business, she was purchased by Cyprus-based Louis Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Cyprus-based travel and tourism group Louis plc, on 26 July 2004. History repeated itself when Louis chartered her back to Sun Cruises until February 2005 when she was laid up in Pireaus, Greece.

 

On 3 May 2005, she was placed on long-term charter (until 2011) by UK-based Thomson Cruises who renamed her Thomson Destiny. Thomson has used her for cruising in the Mediterranean as well as Red Sea, to the Canary Islands and to the west coast of Africa. She recently returned to the Caribbean, her initial area of operations with RCCL back in the early eighties.

 

[/url]

Edited February 18, 2010 by Copper10-8

[Copper10-8]

Some add'l pics of the former Song of America in her RCCL days:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Copper10-8]

i remember it well i went on her in 1998 from los angeles to san juan (she is of couse the THOMSON DESTINY) which i have also been on.

 

MY 1ST CRUISE was CROWN DYNASTY in 1994 i left british rail was wanted to try a different kind of holiday(i did not even like the sea,but soon got hooked!

the DYNASTY is of course "BRAEMAR" for fred olsen.

dave

 

Crown Dynasty (1993-present) Built as Crown Dynasty by Union Naval de Levante, S.A., Valencia, Spain in 1993 for Scandinavian (Finland/Sweden)-owned Effjohn International's subsidiary Crown Cruise Line. She was launched on 31 January 1992 however, on 23 February 1993 a fire broke out in her dining room while still under construction at the Valencia shipyard which delayed her delivery by approximately three months. She was ultimately delivered to her new owners on 25 June 1993.

By that time, EffJohn had entered into cooperative marketing agreement with Cunard Line and sent Crown Dynasty to the British line. Under their flag, Cunard named the ship Cunard Crown Dynasty and used her for North American and Caribbean mass market cruising. She departed Southampton for the east coast of the United States on 3 July 1993. In the summer of 1994, Cunard Crown Dynasty was sailing in Alaska from 19 May through 11 September. She sailed seven-night cruises from Vancouver, BC north-bound and from Juneau, Ak south-bound. Those cruises were offered as two-week packages that included land tours in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and/or as a two-week back-to-back. The fall of 1994 and winter of 1994-1995 found Cunard Crown Dynasty operating ten-night Panama Canal cruises from Ft. Lauderdale to Acapulco on the west coast of Mexico.

In 1995, the alliance between Crown Cruise Line and Cunard came to an end due to Crown's owner EffJohn changing strategy by putting their primary emphasis on Baltic ferry operations. As a result, in May 1995, Cunard Crown Dynasty was bare boat chartered to the British line. Cunard took her right back to Alaska for her summer season there between 18 May and 10 September 1995 and on Panama Canal cruises for that fall and following winter. For 1996, Cunard Crown Dynasty repeated the same schedule, the only full year that she sailed under Cunard management.

In November 1996, Cunard Line reached a charter agreement with Majesty Cruise Line: the ship would be delivered on 1 March 1997 and renamed Crown Majesty until the charter concluded in late 1999. The ship fulfilled her complete 1997 Cunard program of Alaska and Trans-canal cruises, her last Cunard cruise departing Ft. Lauderdale on 5 May 1997 and concluding in Los Angeles on 17 May 1997. She was then delivered to Majesty Cruise Line and returned to Alaska as Crown Majesty. However history would repeat itself and her proposed career with Majesty was short lived.

In February 1997, Norwegian Cruise Line appeared on the scene with her new owners, NCL Holdings, who were looking to expand their cruise business and re-establish their position of strength. On 5 March 1997 an agreement was announced whereby NCL Holdings would lease Crown Majesty for a period of two years with a delivery in September 1997 under her new name Norwegian Dynasty.

 

After being renamed Norwegian Dynasty in late September, she operated trans-Panama Canal cruises in the winter of 1997-1998 but this time from Montego Bay, Jamaica to Acapulco, Mexico. After some cruises to and from Hawaii in the summer of 1998, Norwegian Dynasty found herself once again based in Vancouver, BC sailing to Alaska. However, the delivery of larger panamax cruise ships to NCL meant that the smaller 19,093 grt Norwegian Dynasty was no longer a good fit with the remainder of the fleet, so the writing was on the wall that NCL woud not extend or renew her lease.

On 1 March 1999, Commodore Holdings Ltd. announced that they would bare boat charter Norwegian Dynasty effective November 1999 with an option to purchase her. Commodore Holdings also announced that the ship would be operated by their newly formed upscale subsidiary, Crown Cruise Line, resurrecting the brand name that was once part of Effjohn International. Crown Cruise Line had plans to operate their new ship from Philadelphia, Pa to Bermuda in the summer and on southern Caribbean cruises from Oranjestad, Aruba in the winter. On 2 December 1999, She regained one of her prior names when she was christened Crown Majesty in New Orleans. She then sailed her first Caribbean cruise from Aruba on 18 December 1999.

Her passenger bookings were good and in January 2000, Commodore soon decided to purchase Crown Majesty outright from her Scandinavian owners for U.S. $86.2 million. While under that last charter, Crown Majesty had undergone a U.S. $5 million upgrade and refit. Crown marketed the ship to those seeking a somewhat more sophisticated and higher quality cruise experience at a moderate price. Her winter itinerary had her sailing every Saturday on 7-night cruises from Oranjestad to five "hidden harbor'' ports of call, visiting Bridgetown, Barbados, Castries, St. Lucia, St.George's, Grenada, Kralendijk, Bonaire, and Willemstad, Curacao, before returning to Aruba the following Saturday.

 

On 10 May 2000, Crown Dynasty started her exclusive operations from Philadelphia, Pa and Baltimore, Md to Bermuda for twenty-two 7-night cruises. After that summer season, she sailed back to Aruba from where she continued her seven-night Caribbean cruises. However, on 28 December 2000, Commodore Holdings Ltd. had run into financial trouble, requested Chapter 11 protection and declared bankruptcy. The main creditors of the company were Scandinavian banks.The fully booked 2000-2001 winter season of the Crown Dynasty was cancelled, and she was laid up at Oranjestad, Aruba, and put up for sale.

On April 2001, it was known that the UK-based Fred. Olsen Cruises was in the market for a third cruise ship to join their fleet. At the time, Fred Olsen operated two ships, the 1966-built Black Prince and the 1972-built Black Watch. That search ended with the GBP 52 million purchase of Crown Dynasty on 11 May 2001 from banks acting as liquidators for Commodore Holdings Ltd.

 

After a transatlantic voyage, and a small refit at Santa Cruz de Tenerife, she was sent to the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg. Germany. Upon arrival there on 20 June 2001, she underwent a comprehensive refit and refurbishment, both on the hotel and technical sides of the vessel, and she emerged on 22 July 2001 almost as a new ship with the name Braemar. She is named after a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Most of her public rooms were gutted and totally rebuilt and her cabins were refurbished using high quality fabrics and carpets. A major area of refit work was the conversion of a number of cabins from double to single occupancy, reducing her overal passenger capacity to around 750.

 

 

In early August 2001, Braemar sailed to Dover, England where she was provisioned and where her crew was given a chance to get accustomed to their new home. After a number of public functions, the ship set sail for the first time in Fred Olsen house colors on 9 August 2001 on a 2-night pre-inaugural cruise to Antwerp, Belgium.

After her return Braemar departed Dover on 11 August 2001 on her sold-out maiden voyage to Northern Europe. Later that year, she was switched to Southampton for fall departures to the Mediterranean. The 2001-2002 winter season found her back in familiar territory, sailing cruises in the Caribbean. She has also visited the Amazon region of Brazil. Since that time, she has repeated this schedule year after year, with the vast majority of her passengers being multiple repeaters.

13 May 2008 found her back at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg for a massive overhaul and facelift including a mid-ship lengthening by 102' 3". Along with this addition came 70 new cabins, including 18 balcony cabins, a new lounge, the Observatory, a second restaurant, The Grampian, and an expanded sun deck with one new pool and plenty of room for sunbathers. Her capacity was increased from 900 to 950 passengers. At the beginning of July 2008, Braemar departed the German shipyard for a short sea trial and was then handed back over to Fred Olsen Cruise Lines in Southampton to continue her cruises for them.

Edited February 18, 2010 by Copper10-8

[Napi's Mom]

Our first ship was Celebrity's Meridian...their first ship...a really old Grand Dame we fell in love with cruising on her...and still look for the older style decor (The Avant Gard looks of the new Celebrity ships leave me cold!..!) the "R" ships have suited us since we first went on R 2, then again on the R4. Oceania kept that nice decor. Since we've been on the Azamara version...(very strange changes to the Decor I hated! Celebrity has awful artwork as far as I'm concerned!):eek:

Edited February 18, 2010 by Napi's Mom

[Cruiseship16]

Cunard Countess (1974-present) was launched on 20 September 1974 as ms Cunard Countess at Burmeister & Wain Skibsbyggeri, Köpenhamn/Copenhagen, Denmark for Great Britain's Cunard Line. Although delivered on 21 May 1975, Cunard Countess did not begin sailing for Cunard until 1976. Upon leaving the Cpenhagen shipyard, she was towed to La Spezia, Italy where she arrived on 28 May 1975 to be fitted out at the Industrie Navali Meccaniche Affini Shipyard. She was christened in August 1976 by Janet Armstrong, wife of astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.

Cunard Countess began service for Cunard with British officers and an international crew and would soon become a staple at Miami, Fl, San Juan, Puerto Rico (her home port), Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and several other Caribbean ports. Countess was well-known for her amenities which were of a very high standard and even included an onboard hospital. She had a sister ship, Cunard Princess (1976), which was almost a carbon copy, but would not be as famous.

 

 

Cunard Countess was one of the few ships to regularly visit the Caribbean island of Grenada during the revolutionary period of that island between 1979 and 1983 playing a major role in supporting the local tourist industry during those years. From 1982 until 1983 she was chartered by the British Ministry of Defense and sent to the South Atlantic as a troop ship during the Falklands conflict between Great Britain and Argentina. She was back cruising the Caribbean for Cunard in July 1983. In 1990, she was re-registered in Nassau, the Bahamas.

 

 

On 26 October 1996, before Carnival's buy-out of Cunard Line in 1998, Cunard Countess was sold to an Indonesian company by the name of Awani Cruises, and renamed Awani Dream II. Unfortunately, the Awani cruise company ran into financial trouble and in 1997, she was sold to Greece-based Royal Olympic Cruise Line who renamed her Olympic Countess. The International Olympic Committe had a problem with that name and filed a protest. It wasn't until 2002 however, when she was renamed Olympia Countess.

 

 

In Royal Olympic/Olympia operation, the ship alternated between three and four-day cruises from Piraeus, visiting the Greek ports of Mykonos, Rhodes, Patmos, Santorini and Kusadasi in Turkey interspersed with longer cruises including some crossings.

 

 

Following the financial collapse of Royal Olympia in January 2004, the ship was arrested on 8 January in Durban, South Africa due to outstanding bills. On 29 January 2004, she was aquired at public auction by Majestic International Cruises' subsidiary Maximus Navigation and named Ocean Countess on 8 March 2004. For the 2005 summer season, she was chartered to Spanish tour operator TravelPlan/Globalia for Mediterranean cruising.

 

 

On 12 November 2005 her next operator would be German-based Holiday Kreuzfahrten for which she would sail on long-term charter as Lili Marleen. Mr. Murphy had other plans however, and decided to pay yet another visit when Holiday Kreuzfahrten failed on 21 September 2006, declaring bankrupcy. The ship arrived back at Piraeus in October 2006, was returned to Majestic International, once again renamed Ocean Countess one month later and laid up in Eleusis Bay.

 

 

On 28 May 2007 she was chartered by Cyprus-based Louis Cruise Line (operated by their Greek arm, Louis Hellenic Cruises) who renamed her Ruby and used to replace their Sea Diamond which had sunk at Santorini after striking a reef.

Nice pictures! good info

[Copper10-8]

First cruise was 1953 on the US Army Transport General Simom B. Buckner - Japan to Hawaii.

 

Admiral E. W. Eberle AP-123 (1943-1997) laid down on 15 February 1943 under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 681) by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Alameda, CA. She was the fourth of what ultimately would be eight P2-SE2-R1 "Admiral" class troop transports. She was launched on 14 June 1944, when she was sponsored by Mrs. Earl Warren, the wife of the Governor of California who later became Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. She was acquired by the United States Navy when she was commissioned on 24 January 1945, Capt. G. C. Carlstedt, USCG, in command.

The ship was named after Admiral Edward Walter Eberle, who commanded the U.S. Navy Atlantic and Pacific Fleets and was Chief of Naval Operations from 1923 to 1927. The transport displaced 20,120 tons, had a length of 608’11”, a beam of 75’6” and a draft of 26’11”. Her top speed was rated at 19 knots; she had a ship’s complement of 618 and a troop capacity of 5,200. Her war-time armament consisted of four single 5” dual purpose gun mounts and four twin 40mm guns.

The transport was operated by the Naval Transportation Service and manned largely by Coast Guard personnel. On 6 March 1945, she departed San Francisco with troops and supplies bound for New Guinea. She made stops at Finschhafen and Hollandia before dropping anchor at Manus Island on 25 March. While there a U.S. Navy plane crashed into the starboard side of the ship. Both occupants of the plane were killed, and casualties on board Admiral E. W. Eberle numbered one dead and five wounded.

 

On 26 March, the ship sailed in convoy for the Philippines. After loading boons at Leyte, USS Admiral E. W. Eberle proceeded to Manila. There, she embarked over 2,000 civilians for transportation to the United States. These passengers were mainly American citizens who had been interned in the Philippines since Japanese forces captured the islands in the spring of 1942. Admiral E. W. Eberle returned to Leyte on 13 April to pick up U.S. Army personnel, then sailed, via Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline Islands, for the west coast of the United States and reaching Los Angeles (San Pedro) CA. on 2 May 1945.

 

The ship's next voyage took her via the Panama Canal across the Atlantic to Italy. Arriving at Naples on 4 June 1945, she embarked U.S. Army personnel and baggage for transportation to Trinidad. The transport reached Trinidad on 18 June and soon reversed her course, bound for France. At Le Havre, Admiral E. W. Eberle embarked over 4,000 homeward-bound troops whom she put ashore upon her arrival at Norfolk, VA on 6 July.

 

Admiral E. W. Eberle stood out to sea again on 14 July 1945 for yet another voyage to France. She called at Marseilles and took on board troops destined for the Philippines. Admiral E. W. Eberle steamed via the Panama Canal and Ulithi, arrived at Luzon on 29 August 1945 where she debarked part of her passengers and then moved on to Manila. The transport returned to the United States in September and put into Seattle, Wash., for upkeep. Between October 1945 and March 1946, Admiral E. W. Eberle made three voyages to Japan and Korea.

 

 

Admiral E. W. Eberle was decommissioned on 8 May 1946 and returned to the Maritime Commission for transfer to the U.S. Army. Her name was struck from the Navy register in June 1946. The Army acquired the transport that same month and subsequently renamed her General Simon B. (Bolivar) Buckner.

 

Now USNS General Simon B. Buckner T-AP-123, the ship was once again transferred to the U.S. Navy on 1 March 1950 and assigned to the Military Sea Transportation Service. The transport, now with a civilian crew, steamed across the Pacific throughout the Korean conflict, transporting troops and equipment to Japan and other staging areas. General Simon B. Buckner continued operations in the Pacific until 15 February 1955, when she departed San Francisco, CA bound for New York, NY.

 

Upon her arrival there two weeks later, she was assigned to the New York-Bremerhaven, (West) Germany runs. During the next 10 years, General Simon B. Buckner made over 130 Atlantic voyages from New York to Bremerhaven, Southampton, England and ports in the Mediterranean.

 

Departing New York on 11 August 1965, she returned to the west coast, arriving at Long Beach Naval Base, CA on the 27th to assist in the movement of troops and equipment to southeast Asia. After two cruises to South Vietnam, the veteran transport resumed operations in the Atlantic, arriving at New York on 3 December 1965.

 

 

During the next eight months, she steamed across the Atlantic 10 times, making stops at Bremerhaven and Southampton. Returning to the west coast in August 1966, General Simon B. Buckner was once again pressed into service to carry war material to Vietnam. She departed San Francisco on 8 September and reached Da Nang, South Vietnam twenty days later. Following her return to San Francisco on 16 October, she continued to support American operations in Southeast Asia until President Nixon's Vietnamization program decreased the Navy's need for transports. She was returned to the Maritime Administration on 24 March 1970.

Laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Cavin Point Army Deport, NY during the following two decades, USNS General Simon B. Buckner was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 20 August 1990. On 14 July 1993 her title was transferred to the Maritime Commission and she was sold by that body in June 1997 for scrapping. Her final journey took her to the International Shipbreaking Company at Brownsville, TX where she was dismantled in May 1999.

Edited February 20, 2010 by Copper10-8

[Copper10-8]

1988 maybe 1989..my 50 year old brain cannot remember the exact year. However it was cruise to Bermuda rt NYC on Chandris Fantasy Crusies which would evolve into Celebrity. Enjoyed the cruise but did not cruise again until 2003 and became addicted at that time. Making up for lost time and have been on 11 since 2003 and 2 booked for 2010!

 

Interesting one! In both the 1988 and 1989 summer seasons,

Chandris Cruises' Amerikanis and Galileo were doing Bermuda cruises from east coast cities. Chandris marketed both ships (plus two more, but there was no "Fantasy") in North America under the Chandris Fantasy Cruises name. Here's Amerikanis. Galileo is on page 74/1435.

ss Kenya Castle (1951-2001) Built in 1951 as passenger liner ss Kenya Castle by Harland & Wolff Ltd, Belfast, Northern Ireland for the UK-based Union Castle Mail Steamship Company, Ltd. aka Union Castle Line. She was the second of a three sister class, the others being lead ship ss Rhodesia Castle and ss Braemar Castle, and she was delivered to her new owners at Southampton on 18 February 1952. From there, she departed on her maiden voyage, a 14-day cruise to the Canary Islands before settling in on the line's London (Southampton) - Cape Town, South Africa via Suez service.

 

 

The Union-Castle Line, at the time, was a prominent shipping line that operated a fleet of passenger liners as well as freighters between Europe and Africa from 1900 to 1977. Union-Castle named most of their ships with the suffix "Castle". They were well known for their lavender-hulled liners with black and red funnels, running on a rigid timetable between Southampton and Cape Town. Every Thursday at 4:00 PM, a Union-Castle Royal Mail Ship would leave Southampton bound for Cape Town. At the same time, a Union-Castle Royal Mail Ship would leave Cape Town bound for Southampton.

 

 

In 1958, Kenya Castle had her funnel remodeled and in 1960 her accommodation altered to cater for 442 one-class passengers. The British National Export Council considered using her as an exhibition ship in 1966 but the plans did not proceed. On 22 April 1967 she was laid up in the River Blackwater.

 

[/url]

 

In August 1967, she was purchased by the Greek-based Chandris Line who renamed her Amerikanis (“American Maiden”) and intended to use her for summer Atlantic Ocean liner service. They had her converted into a one-class, 920 passenger vessel at Piraeus. On 8 August 1968, she departed for New York City from Piraeus on her maiden voyage for her new owners with calls at Messina and Naples, Italy, Lisbon, Portugal and Halifax, NS. She became somewhat famous for being the first passenger ship to have a television in every cabin. After three additional line voyages, Chandris decided to base her out of New York City for cruises to the Caribbean during the following winter. This operating pattern was repeated in 1969.

 

In 1970 she was transferred to a cruising-only operation with a passenger complement of 617. She operated inexpensive 3, 4 and 7-day cruises out of U.S. East coast ports and the Bahamas to Bermuda and Caribbean ports. In April 1981, Amerikanis was leased to Italy-based Costa Crociere/Costa Cruises (no name change) who used her on year-round 3 and 4-day cruises to the Bahamas out of Miami, Fl. This charter ended in December 1983. Chandris then arranged a dry-dock for Amerikanis and, afterwards, they put her up for sale. When a proposed sale to a west coast operator fell through, Chandris took her off the market and decided to charter her out to Fantasy Cruises, a small company that already another Chandris ship, Britanis, under charter.

Effective 4 May 1984, Amerikanis replaced Britanis on the run from Miami to the Bahamas and to Mexican east coast ports. In October of that year, she switched her home port to Port Everglades and started operating 5-day cruises to Nassau as well as Ocho Rios, Jamaica plus 2-day cruise to nowhere. Both of these proved unsuccesful however. In January 1985, Chandris teminated Amerikanis' Fantasy charter and home ported her out of San Juan, PR until sending her back to Miami in May. In October 1985 however, Chandris bought out Fantasy Cruises and immediately started marketing their four North American ships (Britanis, Galileo, Amerikanis and The Victoria) under a new Chandris Fantasy Cruises label.

 

Beginning with the 1986 summer season, Chandris home based Amerikanis in New York City for 7-day cruises to Bermuda, along with her fleet mates Britanis and Galileo. Winter season found her doing Caribbean cruises out of San Juan. Amerikanis and Galileo would repeat these itineraries for 1987, 1988 and 1989 (see below) while Britanis went elsewhere. In 1988 and 1989, Amerikanis changed to 6-day Bermuda cruises, berthed in St. George's, plus a 1-day cruise to nowhere. 1989 would be here last year in Bermuda, however as Chandris had decided to replace her with their new-built Horizon. Amerikanis was subsequently transferred to, and home based at, San Juan for year-round cruises.

 

 

In 1996 she was laid up at Eleusis Bay, Greece while decisions were made about her future. Although there were plans to use her as a floating hotel in London, nothing materialized and she was sold for scrap in either 2000. In early June 2001, a Russian skeleton crew took Amerikanis to Alang, India where she was subsequently broken up.

 

[Copper10-8]

Some add'l pics of Amerikanis

 

 

Amerikanis in San Juan, PR in 1987

 

 

Same place (San Juan, PR) at night in 1987

 

 

Amerikanis in New York harbor in 1988

[Copper10-8]

Our first cruise was in November, 2006 on the Carnival Victory;we were hooked before the lifeboat drill! We sailed from Miami with stops in Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, and St. Thomas.

 

[/url]ms Carnival Victory (2000-present) Built as ms Carnival Victory in 2000 by Fincantieri - Cantieri Navali Italiani S.p.A., Monfalcone, Italy, for Carnival Cruise Line (CCL). She was the third and final vessel of the Destiny/Triumph class. That class was modified after the lead ship, Carnival Destiny, was built in 1996. Destiny was the world's largest cruise ship until 1998 and she was also the first passenger ship to be built over 100,000 gross tons. Carnival Victory differs from Destiny in that she was launched with the addition of extra balcony cabins on her Lido deck and various changes to placement and shapes of her public areas. Because of the addition of the extra cabins on Lido deck, Carnival Victory and Triumph are officialy part of the Triumph Class while Destiny is in a class by herself.

Carnival Victory was delivered to her owners on 29 July 2000 and, after a transatlantic crossing, christened on 18 August 2000 in New York City by her godmother, Mary Frank, wife of Carnival Corp vice chairman Howard Frank. That evening, the ship departed on her maiden cruise to New England and Canada. In the fall of 2003, Carnival Victory offered a select number of sailings from New York to Canada, New England and the Bahamas, followed by winter cruises from Miami to the Caribbean (Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and St.Maarten).

 

Carnival Victory has a "Different Oceans and Seas of the World" theme. Her amenities include the Atlantic Dining Room, the Pacific Dining room, the Mediterranean Restaurant, the Caribbean Show Lounge, Club Arctic, featuring music, the Indian Bar, the South China Sea Casino and a two-level Spa Carnival spa and fitness center. The ship has a sea-going cellular systems which allow guests to use their own personal cellular phones to make calls directly from the ship at any time.

Carnival Victory currently sails from San Juan, PR (Sunday)or Bridgetown, Barbados (Wednesday) offering 7-day Southern Caribbean cruises with port calls at Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI, Roseau, Dominica, Castries, St. Lucia, (Bridgetown, Barbados), Basseterre, St. Kitts and Philipsburg, Sint Maarten.

In late 2007, Carnival Victory underwent a refit which included the installation of Carnival's Seaside Theater for her midship pool.

 

 

[url=http://boards.cruisecritic.com/"http://media.shipspotting.com/uploads/photos/rw/106653/Ship+Photo+Carnival+Triumph.jpg&quot]

[Copper10-8]

Certainly not a cruise in the modern sense of the word but my first was aboard the Elder Dempster Aureol in 1957 sailing Liverpool (England) to Apapa (Lagos, Nigeria). Not sure of the stops but I believe they were Freetown (Sierra Leon) and Takoradi (Ghana).

 

mv Aureol (1951-2001) Built in 1951 by Alexander Stephen & Sons, Govan (Glasgow), Scotland, as mv Aureol, a combination passenger-cargo liner for the UK-based Elder Dempster Lines. The ship was launched on the 28 March 1951 and was named after the large mountain which rises up behind the city of Freetown in Sierra Leone. Aureol was the last flagship of Elder Dempster Lines and,at 14,083 gross registered tons, was the largest passenger ship ever built for the company. She could carry nearly 350 passengers and had a crew of about 150. With her yellow funnel, gleaming white hull, with a gold band around it, and a well raked bow, she looked more like a yacht than a glorified ferry.

Elder Dempster Lines was one of the major shipping lines serving West Africa. In their heyday as well as operating many cargo ships they operated three liners (Aureol, Accra and Apapa) on scheduled services from Liverpool, England to Ghana and Nigeria in West Africa. Their headquarters was based in the India Buildings in Liverpool. Their mail ships were based in Brocklebank Dock in Liverpool and picked up passengers from the Liverpool Pier Head adjacent to the Liverpool Riverside railway station.

Aureol departed Liverpool on her maiden voyage to Lagos on 3 November 1951. Her terraced superstructure, tripod mast and cruiser spoon stern made her one of the handsomest ships of the day, drawing comparisons to the Caronia of 1948.

For the next 21 years she sailed the "West Africa Mail" service between Liverpool and Lagos. On her southbound run, she would sail from the Pier Head at Liverpool, calling at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, Freetown (Sierra Leone), Monrovia (Liberia), Tema (Ghana) finishing up at Lagos (Nigeria). She would stay there for five days, and then on her northbound voyage, call at Takoradi (Ghana), Freetown, and again at Las Palmas. Five days later, she would be back on the landing stage on the Pier Head. Her trip would take about five weeks, she would be in Liverpool for 12 days and the cycle would start all over again. Most of her passengers were British Nationals who worked in various jobs in West Africa; schoolteachers, oil workers and quite a few missionaries, including many Priests and Nuns. There were also quite a few people just “cruising”.

 

 

In 1972 Elder Dempster changed home ports by sending Aureol to sail out of Southampton instead of Liverpool. She sailed her first voyage from Southampton to Lagos on the 26 April 1972. Sadly by the mid 1970s the winds of change were sweeping through Africa and air travel was impacting on ocean travel. Aureol arrived in Southampton for the last time on 14 October 1974.

 

After being retired from Elder Dempster Lines, Aureol was sold to the Greek oil tycoon John S. Latsis (Panama-registered Marianna Shipping), and renamed Marianna VI after one of his daughters. She arrived in Piraeus, Greece for refitting in November 1974. She then sailed to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where she was used as an accommodation (office and leisure center) ship for the Petrola International Construction Company, S.A. In February 1979, she was replaced there by Margarita L. (the former RMS Windsor Castle) and then laid up in Jeddah.

From 1989 she was laid up in Eleusis Bay, Greece. In 2001, despite being in remarkably intact condition after so many years of lay up, the former Aureol was sold for scrap and then sailed under her own power via the Suez Canal to Alang, India arriving there on 6 May 2001. Her breaking up started soon afterwards

[2cruisecats]

Wow ... I love this thread. Great memories. Our first cruise was our honeymoon cruise on the Cunard Countess in August 1978. We were one year out of university and my DH had never been off the continent. We flew from the Maritimes to San Juan and (not in order) sailed to Grenada, Barbados, St Lucia, St Thomas and Caracas. The great thing about this cruise, you could sail, stop at either St Lucia or Barbados for 1 week and then rejoin the ship on the next circuit. What a great option. We stayed at Paradise Beach (Barbados) which I think was owned by the cruise line (or at least associated with). What a great trip. After many land trips to Europe, the US and across Canada, it was 16 years before we cruised again, this time a belated 15th anniversary trip on the Pacific Princess in Asia. Another few years passed before Panama Canal on Legend of the Seas and then our 25th anniversary on the Amsterdam to the Antarctic, our 30th was 4 weeks with HAL in the Med. No, we are not frequent cruisers but do love to cruise and they are special celebrations for us. We're now fans of long cruises and HAL. Scandinavia here we come!

[Copper10-8]

Wow ... I love this thread. Great memories. Our first cruise was our honeymoon cruise on the Cunard Countess in August 1978. We were one year out of university and my DH had never been off the continent. We flew from the Maritimes to San Juan and (not in order) sailed to Grenada, Barbados, St Lucia, St Thomas and Caracas. The great thing about this cruise, you could sail, stop at either St Lucia or Barbados for 1 week and then rejoin the ship on the next circuit. What a great option. We stayed at Paradise Beach (Barbados) which I think was owned by the cruise line (or at least associated with). What a great trip. After many land trips to Europe, the US and across Canada, it was 16 years before we cruised again, this time a belated 15th anniversary trip on the Pacific Princess in Asia. Another few years passed before Panama Canal on Legend of the Seas and then our 25th anniversary on the Amsterdam to the Antarctic, our 30th was 4 weeks with HAL in the Med. No, we are not frequent cruisers but do love to cruise and they are special celebrations for us. We're now fans of long cruises and HAL. Scandinavia here we come!

 

Cunard Countess (1974-present) was launched on 20 September 1974 as ms Cunard Countess at Burmeister & Wain Skibsbyggeri, Köpenhamn/Copenhagen, Denmark for Great Britain's Cunard Line. Although delivered on 21 May 1975, Cunard Countess did not begin sailing for Cunard until 1976. Upon leaving the Cpenhagen shipyard, she was towed to La Spezia, Italy where she arrived on 28 May 1975 to be fitted out at the Industrie Navali Meccaniche Affini Shipyard. She was christened in August 1976 by Janet Armstrong, wife of astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.

 

Cunard Countess began service for Cunard with British officers and an international crew and would soon become a staple at Miami, Fl, San Juan, Puerto Rico (her home port), Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and several other Caribbean ports. Countess was well-known for her amenities which were of a very high standard and even included an onboard hospital. She had a sister ship, Cunard Princess (1976), which was almost a carbon copy, but would not be as famous.

 

Cunard Countess was one of the few ships to regularly visit the Caribbean island of Grenada during the revolutionary period of that island between 1979 and 1983 playing a major role in supporting the local tourist industry during those years. From 1982 until 1983 she was chartered by the British Ministry of Defense and sent to the South Atlantic as a troop ship during the Falklands conflict between Great Britain and Argentina. She was back cruising the Caribbean for Cunard in July 1983. In 1990, she was re-registered in Nassau, the Bahamas.

 

 

On 26 October 1996, before Carnival's buy-out of Cunard Line in 1998, Cunard Countess was sold to an Indonesian company by the name of Awani Cruises, and renamed Awani Dream II. Unfortunately, the Awani cruise company ran into financial trouble and in 1997, she was sold to Greece-based Royal Olympic Cruise Line who renamed her Olympic Countess. The International Olympic Committe had a problem with that name and filed a protest. It wasn't until 2002 however, when she was renamed Olympia Countess.

 

 

In Royal Olympic/Olympia operation, the ship alternated between three and four-day cruises from Piraeus, visiting the Greek ports of Mykonos, Rhodes, Patmos, Santorini and Kusadasi in Turkey interspersed with longer cruises including some crossings.

 

 

Following the financial collapse of Royal Olympia in January 2004, the ship was arrested on 8 January in Durban, South Africa due to outstanding bills. On 29 January 2004, she was aquired at public auction by Majestic International Cruises' subsidiary Maximus Navigation and named Ocean Countess on 8 March 2004. For the 2005 summer season, she was chartered to Spanish tour operator TravelPlan/Globalia for Mediterranean cruising.

 

[/url]

 

On 12 November 2005 her next operator would be German-based Holiday Kreuzfahrten for which she would sail on long-term charter as Lili Marleen. Mr. Murphy had other plans however, and decided to pay yet another visit when Holiday Kreuzfahrten failed on 21 September 2006, declaring bankrupcy. The ship arrived back at Piraeus in October 2006, was returned to Majestic International, once again renamed Ocean Countess one month later and laid up in Eleusis Bay.

 

 

On 28 May 2007 she was chartered by Cyprus-based Louis Cruise Line (operated by their Greek arm, Louis Hellenic Cruises) who renamed her Ruby and used to replace their Sea Diamond which had sunk at Santorini after striking a reef.

[Copper10-8]

 

In November 2007, she was renamed Ocean Countess for a third time and was to be placed on charter to Monarch Classic Cruises, another subsidiary of Majestic International Cruises. Her itinerary was supposed to have her depart from her home port of Piraeus and making port calls at Greek isles Mykonos, Patmos, Crete and Satorini as well as Kusadasi in Turkey. Instead, she spent the 2008/2009 winter months on charter to Spain-based Quail Cruises cruising to South America. At the end of this charter, she spent some time in lay-up at Elefsina (Piraeus)

 

The latest news on the former Ocean Countess is that she has recently been chartered again by Quail Cruises for a series of seven-day cruises from Valencia, Spain using the name of New Venus. In Quail Cruises livery, she is once again replacing their mv Pacific, the former Pacific Princess and original TV 'Love Boat'. She left Piraeus on 15 June 2008, arrived in Valencia on 19 June and departed on her first cruise for Quail on Monday evening, 22 June 2009.

 

[OK2BU]

March 6-20, 1993

 

Fort Lauderdale, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Aruba, Grenada, Barbados, Martinique, St.Thomas, Fort Lauderdale.

 

Please accept my apologies for the quality of the photos:o

 

[seabourndt]

OCEAN COUNTESS is curently being refitted(no idea where) asa i am bookeed on in april to AMSTERDAM and back for CRUISE AND MARITIME in london.

 

this thread has been going a while my 1st cruise was 0n CROWN DYNASTY fot CUNARD she is now the BRAEMAR for FRED OLSEN CRUISELINES. actually might have bben MS DISKO to GREENLAND.

dave

[Copper10-8]

OCEAN COUNTESS is curently being refitted(no idea where) asa i am bookeed on in april to AMSTERDAM and back for CRUISE AND MARITIME in london.

 

this thread has been going a while my 1st cruise was 0n CROWN DYNASTY fot CUNARD she is now the BRAEMAR for FRED OLSEN CRUISELINES. actually might have bben MS DISKO to GREENLAND.

dave

 

Thanks for the heads up. Did some more checking. The charter to Spain-based Quail Cruises was supposed to be from JUN 09 to APR 10. Her name with them is New Pacific, though, not New Venus, my error!.

Also read about the charter to UK-based Cruise & Maritime effective APR 2010.

[Copper10-8]

My first cruise was the Stockholm - Swedish Cruise line - 1958 - Aarhus, Denmark to New York - 1st cruise after it sank the Andreadoria off New York in the fog - Our Family was Immigrating to the US.

 

ms Stockholm (1948-present) Built in 1948 by AB Götaverken shipyard, Göthenburg, Sweden as ms Stockholm for AB Svenska Amerika Linjen aka the Swedish America Line. When she was launched on 9 September 1946, she was the largest ship built in Sweden at the time. She was delivered to her new owners on 7 February 1948 and it was apparent that she differed from the line's earlier vessels. The Swedish America Line had established a reputation of operating ships with luxurious decorations and spacious passenger accommodations. The new Stockholm did not have any of these. With her 12,165 tons she would be the smallest liner operating on the North Atlantic run with a passenger capacity of no more than 395 souls.

 

[/font]

Her exterior design was sleek, resembling a yacht, and in some aspects even a Naval destroyer. Stockholm’s slanted bow gave her a speedy look, although her service speed was only 17 knots. She was painted in the Swedish America Line's traditional colors; a white hull and a light-yellow funnel with a blue shield adorned with three golden crowns. Her passenger staterooms and crew quarters were all located along the sides of the hull. By doing this, all rooms had access to daylight and a view of the sea through at least one porthole. This, according to her crew, was “a revolution on the Atlantic”.

On 21 February 1948, Stockholm departed Göteborg on her maiden voyage to New York. Once out in the open North Atlantic, the ship encountered heavy winter storms and started severely rolling in the rough seas. This gained her a reputation of being one of the worst 'rollers' on the North Atlantic which, of course, was bad publicity for her owners. The Swedish America Line decided remedy her instability by having her cargo holds, intended for express goods, filled with 3,000 tons of stone to give her some more weight in the keel. Unfortunately, the problem was not her lightness, but a keel simply not suited for the North Atlantic. The stones now occupying much needed cargo-space did not improve her stability much. On 12 February 1954, Stockholm was sent to the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, West Germany for a refit. There, her superstructure was enlarged to include more passenger cabins, increasing her capacity to 548, and she also gained a movie theater. Three years later, in the first half of 1956, Stockholm was fitted with stabilizers, which did diminish her rolling problem.

 

On 25 July 1956 shortly before noon, Stockholm departed New York harbor on her 103rd eastbound crossing with her home port of Göteborg as her final destination. In command of her was Captain Gunnar Nordensson, whose experience in ships and the sea went back to 1911. Later that night, at 10.30 pm as Stockholm was approaching Nantucket island, another ship was coming in from the other direction. That ship was the Società di navigazione Italia or Italian Line’s luxury ocean liner Andrea Doria. Stockholm’s officer of the watch at this time was 26-year old third officer Johan-Ernst Carstens. As his ship was travelling through Nantucket's waters the weather was clear however in front of him was a heavy fog bank. Andrea Doria was already in that fog bank steaming at high speed. On the bridge of the Italian ship, second officer Curzio Francini saw the approaching ship on his radar. It took a few minutes before Carstens made the same discovery on Stockholm because she had a slightly less powerful radar. Carstens noted that the approaching vessel was 12 nautical miles in front of him and on his port side. When the distance had shrunk to 10 miles, Carstens plotted the approaching ship's course which he concluded was two degrees to the port side of his ship. At this time, his lookouts still were unable to see the lights of the approaching ship. Carstens subsequently prepared his ship to pass on Andrea Doria’s starboard side by making a slight turn to starboard.

On the fog-surrounded Andrea Doria, things were a little different. The crew on her bridge interpreted Stockholm’s radar echoes to position her four degrees on their starboard bow. When the distance between the two ships was about four miles, Andrea Doria’s Captain Piero Calamai ordered his ship four degrees to port to give him some safety space. He did this in spite of international rules that proclaimed that when two ships meet they should do so on the starboard side of each other. When the distance between the two ships became as little as two nautical miles, the two ships still did not yet have visual contact. On the bridge of the Stockholm, Carstens could not believe what he was seeing! The other ship was turning in the same direction as he was. He ordered his ship hard to starboard while maintaining his speed of about 18 knots. On the Andrea Doria’s bridge, Captain Calamai was just as confused as Carstens. Still believing that Stockholm was on his starboard side, he ordered his ship hard to port, but did not divert from his speed of 22 knots. By doing so, he caused his ship of 30,000 tons to proceed straight for Stockholm. When Carstens saw this he ordered his engines full astern and turned to starboard. He then ordered the watertight doors closed.

The Stockholm was slowing down at the same time as the Andrea Doria came roaring out of the fog towards her at high speed and a collision was inevitable. At 11:20 pm, Stockholm’s bow, reinforced for the sometimes icy Scandinavian waters, sliced through the hull of the Italia Line's ship on her starboard side, just aft of, and below, her bridge. The Stockholm then fell back, exposing her now badly crumbled bow and the massive hole in the Andrea Doria’s side.

The Italian ship continued at her high speed, but then came to a stop at a distance of about one mile from the Stockholm. After only a few minutes, the Andrea Doria took on a twenty degree list to starboard. Stockholm had already sunk three feet at the head and had taken on a list of four degrees. On Stockholm twisted bow, five of her crewmen had been killed instantly and several more were trapped in the wreckage. When it became clear that Stockholm was in no immediate danger of sinking, her lifeboats were launched to assist in the rescue of occupants of the sinking Andrea Doria.

In addition to Stockholm’s lifeboats, many other vessels in the area came to the rescue of Andrea Doria, among them the French ocean liner Ile de France and the United Fruit Company freighter Cape Ann. Through concerted efforts, all of Andrea Doria’s passengers and crew, with the exception of the 46 passengers who had perished in the initial violent collision, where evacuated. Eleven hours after the collision, Andrea Doria rolled over and sank. Stockholm, now carrying an extra 327 passengers and 245 crewmembers from Andrea Doria in addition to her own 534 passengers, sounded her whistles and slowly initiated her return to New York.

That voyage turned into prolonged tension for all on board the Swedish liner. With her bow badly twisted and crumbled, the forward watertight bulkhead was now the only protection keeping water out. If it gave away during the voyage, it could turn into a new disaster. Stockholm was carrying 1,319 people, but her lifeboat capacity was only for 846. As faith would have it, Stockholm stood up to the challenge and averaged 8.4 knots on the way to New York. Although her forward bulkhead was taking on great strain, it held together.

Edited February 22, 2010 by Copper10-8

[Copper10-8]

On 28 July 1956, three tugs towed Stockholm from pier 97 to the Bethlehem Steel Company Shipbuilding Division in New York where she would be given a new bow. Her next three transatlantic crossings and a cruise were cancelled but after about three months she was again ready for service.After hearings of inquiry into the cause of the tragic collision had been conducted in New York, and a settlement had been reached between the two shipping companies, Stockholm continued serving the Swedish America Line. In 1954, the company had ordered a new Gripsholm from the Ansaldo Shipyards in Genoa, Italy, ironically the same yard that had once built the Andrea Doria. This ship was delivered to SAL in 1957. In addition, a new Kungsholm had been delivered from the Dutch yard de Schelde in 1954, and with these two new ships in service, SAL put Stockholm up for sale.

 

After several failed attempts, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik orGerman Democratic Republic (East Germany) emerged as a possible buyer and on 15 May 1959, Stockholm was sold after only 11 years of service with the Swedish America Line. On 3 January 1960, the East Germans renamed her Völkerfreundshaft (People’s friendship) and operated her as part of their merchant marine (under the management of the Rostock-based VEB Deutsche Seerederei) as an ocean liner/worker’s cruise ship until 1985. Few were her exploits under Communist control though she occasionally made the news in the Western media when some of her crew or passengers jumped ship, in some cases literally, in their bids to avoid returning home to the East German “workers’ paradise”. Under a reorganization of state shipping in 1974 the ship was transferred to the ownership of VEB Deutsche Fracht/Seerederei.

 

One of her more interesting trips in that era was a 33-day Caribbean cruise under charter to Sweden’s Stena Line. One of the few purposely organized to operate from Sweden to transport a shipload of lucky Swedes out of their country’s notoriously cold and dreary winter to the Caribbean sun. Even ships owned by Communist governments have expenses to meet and by 1984, after 25 years in East German service, the Völkerfreundschaft no longer made any profits and the operators could no longer cover her mounting losses.

In April 1985, she was sold to the Panamanian company Neptunas Rex Enterprises, who shortened her name to just Völker or “People”.From 11 December 1985, she spent the rest of that year plus most of 1986 laid up in Southampton, England. On 20 December 1986, she was towed to Oslo, Norway by the ocean-going Norwegian tug Bamse to serve as a barracks ship under the name Fridtjof Hansen, providing shelter for asylum seeking refugees to Norway.

In May 1989, she was sold to the Naples, Italy-based Star Lauro Societeta per Anzoni which wanted her for her hull alone. Fridtjof Hansen was towed to Genoa to be given an extensive refit. Upon her arrival there on 27 May 1989, she was given a chilly welcome by the Italian press who had not forgotten that this was the ship that sunk their pride and joy, Andrea Doria, some 30 years ago. One bold headline read “E arrivata la nave della morte” or “The ship of death has arrived”. In 1992 after lay-up, the work of refitting the former Stockholm began at the Varco Chiapella yard. It was discovered that the Swedish-built liner was in very good condition, except for the American-built replacement bow which needed the most refurbishing.After suggestions of giving her names like Surrento or Positano, the old Stockholm emerged as the Italia I in 1993.

 

October 1994 saw her come under the ownership of a new line, Nina Compagnia Di Navigazione aka Nina Cruises who decided to gut her and use the sturdy hull as the foundation for a completely new ship. She was rebuilt from the waterline up and given a modern cruise ship design given the name of Italia Prima at 15,200 gross registered tons. Nina Cruises operated her, initially for Mediterranean cruises.