Off topic - Anyone here ever cruise on the old Radisson Diamond?

[angela miller]

My first regent cruise was on the beautiful Diamond in July 1996.It was my husbands and my 25th wedding anniversary! Transatlantic from Barcelona to Miami. What a beautiful trip and wonderful memories.

[Smitty A]

We had a great cruise on her back in 2002 i think.  Wonderful ship!   We always said the turtles swim faster but it was a great ship. Last we saw her she was a stationary gambling ship in Hong Kong harbor. Toasted her with champagne as we sailed by

 

 

 

[ClayS]

As far as I know, she is still there. On my Apple TVs, one of the screensavers is a flyover of Hong Kong harbor. You could see her front and center, still looking as beautiful as can be.

[CardowMD]

Did Diamond May 2004 from Barcelona to Rome with my mom and sister. The weather was fantastic. Still remember getting on tender to go into port, riding under the hull. What awaited us was a spectacular view of Portofino. Stayed in touch with many people I met on this trip.

[Dolebludger]

On 2/14/2023 at 12:30 PM, Wendy The Wanderer said:

That's funny, Richard.  The Diamond was our first non-PG cruise, in 2004, and I remember being shocked that we had to sign for a beer at lunch.  Quite put out, we were!  Can't remember, but I'm thinking wine was included at dinner because I don't remember signing.

Radisson was experimenting with its drink policy back in 2003 - 2004. As I posted before, our Diamond cruise in 2003 was the first Radisson cruise with full open bar, and it was an experiment that was later adopted fleet wide. Before that, the only constant was a stocked and restocked fridge in the rooms and suites with alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, plus all drinks at dinner. On some cruises, drinks would be included at lunch — apparently not all. Also, Radisson never prevented guests from BYOL, which most lines started doing in 2001. 
 

I was told that the Diamond was originally designed and built as a floating accommodation for conventions. Don’t know if that is true, but the design of the ship seemed more suited for that than a regular cruise ship. It was an interesting ship. But nowhere the lux level of Regent’s t three newest ships.

[mcpepe]

My ex and I sailed her in November 2004. Neil Broomhall was Captain. Had a great time!

[GolferMike]

We did 3 Cruises on the Diamond, W Caribbean, A Panama Canal, London to Barcelona. She was a wonderful ship. It had the most beautiful dining room. We were on a Xmas cruise. They had the greatest Xmas Buffet and reset the Compass Rose before dinner. It was a lot of effort.  but appreciated. The lounges were usually empty because you paid for pre-dinner drinks, different than now.  I wish she was still in the Regent fleet, but alas.

[fudgbug]

On 2/13/2023 at 2:56 PM, fudgbug said:

We LOVED the Song of Flower and the Hanseatic when it was Radisson!

 

Same here! We LOVED the Song of Flower and the Hanseatic.  Sailed Diamond once and really enjoyed the dining room.  The rest of the ship? Meh!  At the time, our cruise was in the Caribbean and a volcano was erupting so we missed a port.  To this day I remember the ash on the ship's deck.

[cruisinsince75]

On 1/5/2024 at 11:29 AM, ClayS said:

As far as I know, she is still there. On my Apple TVs, one of the screensavers is a flyover of Hong Kong harbor. You could see her front and center, still looking as beautiful as can be.

I've seen that too!  We had her booked, but she got sold before we were able to cruise on her.  We got a nice offer from RSSC that made up for it, but we still would have loved to sail on her at least once.