Intrepid-Guy...Congrats!!!

[Stevie17]

Just a note to congratulate you on winning the Cruise Critic photo of the week. Way to go! It's a great shot! :)

[BarbCT605]

Congrats!

 

Here's the link to Intrepid_Guy's photo:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/community/index.cfm

[WaldosPepper]

Wow! Beautiful photo. Congratulations Intrepid_Guy! :D

[dongordon]

Congrats....great photo!

 

Don

[logcabin]

What a great photo! Congrats! What ship is that next to the Spirit?

[Seago2]

It says Braemar... It looks like a baby ship next to the Spirit. Great pic- totally anthropomorphizes them.

[electricron]

How much smaller is the Braemar vs the Spirit?

Braemar

Occupancy: 819 passengers

Tonage: 19,089 GRT

Length: 537 feet

Speed: 21

Total Crew: 320

Delivered: March 1993

 

Spirit

Occupancy: 1,966 passengers

Tonage: 76,800 GRT

Length: 879 feet

Speed: 25 knots

Total Crew: 920

Delivered: September 1998

 

:eek: Believe it or not, the Braemar was once a NCL ship! :eek:

 

The retelling of the history of the Braemar may be interesting.

The entire story can be read at http://www.cybercruises.com/braemar.htm

 

Here's just a timeline, to make it simplier.

 

Mid 80's > F-18 fighter sell to Spain.

In the agreement the need for partially compensating this acquisition with investments and American purchases in Spain was incorporated.

 

1987 > Palm Beach Cruises orders a cruise ship to be built in Spain's Unión Naval de Levanteain's shipyard. This ship eventually became known as the Crown Monarch.

 

1989 > Unión Naval de Levanteain's shipyard receives a order from Scandinavian owner EffJohn International to construct two cruise ships, with an option for a third. These two sister ships eventually became known as the Crown Jewel and the Crown Dynasty.

 

1991 > Commodore Cruise Line, an EffJohn branch, bought the registered trademark "Crown Cruise Line" from Grundstad Maritime. Commodore also bought half of the shares of the other assets of Crown, including the new Crown Monarch. The intention then was to operate the trio of Spanish built ships from Palm Beach under the Crown Cruise Line flag.

 

1992 > The Crown Jewel was delivered in July 1992.

 

1993 > In January 1993, Cunard and Crown Cruise Line entered into a ten-year agreement to operate both sister ships (and the Crown Monarch) under the Cunard Crown Cruise flag. The second sister, the Crown Dynasty was delivered (after a fire in the shipyard) in March 1993.

 

1994 > Effjohn International had losses of $30 million. Thus, in December 1994 the Crown Dynasty was bare boat chartered to Cunard, and the Crown Jewel was sold to Star Cruises (renamed as the Superstar Gemini).

 

1995 > Crown Jewel delivered to Star Cruises in May, and after a minor refit, in which she was fitted with the installations more in demand by her new Asian clientele, such as karaokes, casinos, etc. She begun her first cruise on July 20th as Superstar Gemini from Singapore.

In May 1995, the Crown Dynasty was bare boat chartered to Cunard, who renamed it Cunard Dynasty.

 

1996 > The purchase of Trafalgar House (the owners of Cunard) in May 1996 by Kvaerner. In November 1996, Cunard reached a charter agreement with Majesty Cruise Line: the ship would be delivered on March 1st 1997 and renamed from Cunard Dynasty to Crown Majesty.

 

1997 > In February 1997 Norwegian Cruise Line had appeared on the scene and, after overcoming a situation of bankruptcy in the late 1995, had been reactivated by some Norwegian investors.

On March 5th 1997 an agreement was announced between Kvaerner and NCL Holding which included three points.

First, NCL Holding purchased the Royal Majesty from Kvaerner for $110 millions in cash, and $80 millions in NCL shares. This ship is now called the Norwegian Majesty.

Second, the transfer of the charter of the Crown Majesty from Cunard to NCL Holding until to end of the contract in 1999, with delivery in the fall of 1997. There were months of frenetic activity, where the ship changed name and hands three times, leaving complete schedules unfulfilled. Eventually it enetered service in late 1997 as the Norwegian Dynasty.

And third, the construction of a new 2,000 pax cruise ship in Kvaerner Masa Yards, with delivery in June 1999.

 

1999 > The Norwegian Sky enters service. But the delivery of a larger panamax cruise ship to NCL meant that the small Norwegian Dynasty didn't fit well into the fleet so, her charter wasn't renewed and, on March 1st 1999, Commodore Holdings Limited announced the four year bare boat charter of the Norwegian Dynasty, with purchase option and with November 1999 delivery. It was renamed again to the Crown Dynasty.

 

2000 > On December 28th 2000, Commodore Holdings Ltd. signed a Chapter 11 and declared bankruptcy.

 

2001 > On April 2001, the UK-based Norwegian owned Fred. Olsen Cruises purchase of Crown Dynasty from banks acting as liquidators for Commodore Cruise Lines, then in Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States. After a transatlantic voyage, and a first small refit, afloat in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, she was sent to the Blohm + Voss yard in Hamburg. Here, she underwent a comprehensive refit and refurbishment, both on the hotel and technical sides of the vessel, and she emerged almost as a new ship. In only 47 days, Crown Dynasty became Braemar.

 

The Superstar Gemini and Braemar are sister ships, originally the Crown Jewel and Crown Dynasty.

 

What's even stranger, neither would have been built at the Spanish shipyard without the F-18 fighter sale to Spain.

[szdiver]

All I can say is "WOW" - you really did a great research job on that one.....Thanks for all the info.

[intrepid_guy]

First I would like to thank my agent... and George the bus driver that stopped long enough for me to snap that shot. I would also like to thank all my peeps that were with me that day for encouraging me to take the photo. Lastly, I want to thank Laura Sterling and all those at Cruise Critic for choosing my photo.

 

Seriously though, I thought it was so funny to see them from a distance and how small the Braemar looked, because standing next to it, it seemed pretty big (we had also seen it in Barbados the day before as it prepared to leave on its cruise). It was funny, I knew I recognized the ship but I thought at the time it was an old Sitmar ship, perhaps the FAIRSKY or FAIRSEA, I did not know till I was home that it was the NORWEGIAN DYNASTY.

 

Thanks guys for the kudos, really... I liked the shot too. One of only two I sent in to CC, the other was of the SPIRIT and DAWN together at Tortola.

 

Did you ever love a cruise so much that you wanted to be there all the time? That really was the SPIRIT for me, I never thought a cruise would surpass the NORWAY, but it did. So much so, I snapped up a room on the 1 nighter from NYC in June! Cant wait for that!

 

Thanks again,

 

~Intrepid :o

[newmexicoNita]

Wonderful picture and great picture taker as well. congratulations!!! NMNita

[electricron]

I just wanted to add, in early 1999 the Braemar (Norwegian Dynasty) was the smallest ship in NCL's fleet. By the end of 2010, if the transfers of NCL's four older ships to Star Cruises proceeds on schedule, the Norwegian Spirit will be the smallest ship in NCL's fleet.

 

In ten short years, while NCL's fleet has grown insignificantly in numbers by just a few ships, NCL's passenger capacity has grown significantly.

 

Then when you step back and reflect about the huge ships Royal Caribbean is building, and what NCL may be building soon, realize how small the Spirit will look in comparison to these new larger ships in another ten years.

 

Yes, the Spirit makes the Braemar look very small today, but the new Royal Caribbean Genesis class ships will make the Spirit look just as small.

 

If that doesn't show how many more passengers there are today, nothing will. Then imagine how many more passengers are expected ten years from today. Kind of scary, isn't it?

[intrepid_guy]

Electricron-

Imagine the Braemar next to the Genisis class ship, talk about toy boat!!!

 

~Intrepid