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Does anyone remember the Princess Italia


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Yes, I remember the Princess Italia. My folks took it a couple of times, and I did board her for a Bon Voyage party in San Francisco.

 

I recall that she was on the Amazon run also.

 

I'm sure that Host Doug will at some point chime in, and tell us more about her. He is a great source of info. Google also has quite a bit of info re Princess Italia.

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PRINCESS ITALIA... This was just a marketing name. The actual name of the ship is ITALIA.

 

This great little ship has a very long and interesting history. Rather than go into it myself, I'd suggest you take a look at this page for a good brief history and lots of photos.

 

She is still going strong at age 38 as SAPPHIRE for Louis Cruise Lines and hopefully she'll still be around for some years to come.

 

Sadly, her gorgeous original interiors were almost entirely destroyed when she was bought by Ocean Cruise Lines in 1983 and became OCEAN PRINCESS, but some of the cabins and the dining room retain some original design features.

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Didn't she run aground in the Amazon as Ocean Princess? Or am I confusing her with some other small vessel.

Yes, she grounded at Belem in 1993. That was the end of her career as OCEAN PRINCESS and indeed, the end of Ocean Cruise Line (which by then was part of Paquet, along with Pearl Cruises).

 

She was declared a constructive total loss but nonetheless she was sold for further trading and eventually wound up in the hands of Louis.

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  • 2 months later...
PRINCESS ITALIA... This was just a marketing name. The actual name of the ship is ITALIA.

 

This great little ship has a very long and interesting history. Rather than go into it myself, I'd suggest you take a look at this page for a good brief history and lots of photos.

 

She is still going strong at age 38 as SAPPHIRE for Louis Cruise Lines and hopefully she'll still be around for some years to come.

 

Sadly, her gorgeous original interiors were almost entirely destroyed when she was bought by Ocean Cruise Lines in 1983 and became OCEAN PRINCESS, but some of the cabins and the dining room retain some original design features.

I remember the Italia, but i think it may not be this one? My folks sailed on her out of New York when I was in high school, mid 1960's, and went to the Bahamas. My mother remembers portholes instead of windows, teak decks and wooden deck chairs; and she thinks an Italian crew. And the ship was old at that time; the ship line might have been Home Lines?

Please tell me, as I don't think that we are confused.

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Jeff - your ITALIA is indeed a totally different one, 40 years older than the one discussed here.

 

She was built in 1928 as Swedish America Lines' KUNGSHOLM, became Home Lines' ITALIA after World War II and was broken up in 1965 after an aborted attempt at making her a floating hotel in the Bahamas.

 

You can read an excellent history of her here.

 

Her gorgeous pre-war Swedish interiors did not survive the war - a real pity as they were some of the most unique and beautiful ship interiors of their era. The post-war ITALIA was pleasant inside, but certainly not as special as the pre-war KUNGSHOLM.

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Our fist cruise was on the Italia of Costa Cruises.

We were originally booked on the Carla C for her Thanksgiving cruise in 1974, but she was going into dry dock and Costa substituted the Italia.

We fell in love with cruising on her, and have fond memories of this friendly small ship.

The ships officers would come to the lounge in the evening and dance with the ladies, as the entertainment was very low key.

 

We sailed her again as the Ocean Princess, from Philadelphia to Bermuda in Ocotber of 1986. We had very rough seas on the last day of the cruise, and I remember laying on the cabin floor, trying to pack my suitcase, as the ship was yawing.

The small ship's interior seemed larger to us, as they had refurbished her with lots of mirrors. Her all Italian crew was gone, and we had a Russian waiter, who was on his first cruise on a western type vessel. He was so nervous and didn't understand the menu very well. I told the Philipino bartender how to muddle the fruit for a "Scotch Old Fashion". He said that he didn't know what the pestle was for.

 

I enjoyed reminiscing a bit tonight.

Ginnie

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The small ship's interior seemed larger to us, as they had refurbished her with lots of mirrors.

Quite a pity, too, as the original Italian interiors were very stylish indeed.

 

Her current ones (which mostly date to the early '80s OCEAN PRINCESS conversion) are nothing special, unless of course you love mirrors!

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She is still going strong at age 38 as SAPPHIRE for Louis Cruise Lines and hopefully she'll still be around for some years to come.

 

Sadly, her gorgeous original interiors were almost entirely destroyed when she was bought by Ocean Cruise Lines in 1983 and became OCEAN PRINCESS, but some of the cabins and the dining room retain some original design features.

 

 

I was on the Sapphire in August.

Actually she is still in a rather good shape, considering the age.

The ship is small and is not so high, so you can have easily enjoy the panorama form the deck when sailing trough the Greek Islands.

The ship was built in a very modern way, the lifeboats are located much lower than similar ships of those years.

We could feel some "personality" in that ship ...

 

Louis Cruise is keeping her in considerable good shape; one officer told me that the company has plans to run a major refurbishment in the next future.

 

I would be curious to have a look at the original interiors, anybody knows where can I find some old photos ?

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I sailed aboard the ITALIA in the summer of 1968 - my first cruise. It was on the then fairly new Princess Cruises, and the ship was brand new. It was a 14-day Mexico cruise out of Los Angeles, with port visits to La Paz, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, and Acapulco. They gave each cruise a unique name; ours was called the "Mariachi Cruise" !!

 

The ship mostly did Mexico cruises in those early years, but then slipped into doing Alaska cruises as quickly as 1970. I know this as my family visited some friends aboard the ship in Vancouver in June 1970 while she was on an Alaska cruise.

 

I also remember that the port of registry on the ship's stern was "Cagliari".

 

A very nice ship, certainly small by today's mega-ship standards. I wish we had a few more ships such as this - of a more modest size - to select from.

 

Godspeed SAPPHIRE/ITALIA !!!

 

Tom

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  • 1 month later...

My parents did their first cruise from LA in 1970 on this ship. They had just visited the Queen Mary before the cruise and the Italia looked like a lifeboat in comparison!

 

I had the pleasure of sailing on the ship Dec 1990 to Antarctica from Buenos Aires to Puenta Arenas. The expedition was led by Lars Eric Lindblad and his unbelievable staff of experts. Was a fabulous trip and very smooth!

Karen

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I know it is a year later, but we were talking about this the other day...

Mu husband was on the Princess Italia when he was a kid. It was a cruise to Mexico, and they hit a hurricane. I have SEEN the home movies. (His father strapped himself to the outside railing with a belt and kept the camera rolling.) Just watching, I almost threw up.

 

We are going to try to grab the film over Thanksgiving and burn it to a DVD. I'm hoping there are some interior shots, but I do not recall.

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  • 8 months later...

Enjoyed a Caribbean and South American cruise on Princess Italia in the Summer of 1975. I very much enjoyed the trip and the friends I made on the cruise. I also remember seeing the movie "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud" with a bunch of newly made friends in the wonderful ship's cinema. Thank you for being a resource for tapping into some very fond memories.

:)

PS

And a special 'Hello to Pat R. from Nacogdoches, Texas!

:D

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  • 1 year later...

Greetings!

 

I believe the Italia may have been the ship my parents and I sailed on in the summer of 1968 to Alaska. Our cabin had a bunk bed and also a single bed under the porthole, and I remember it having lots of beautiful dark wood. I am not sure about all the ports we visited, but I know we went to Skagway and took the White Pass & Yukon, and the ride in those days was longer than what they do now. I think we also visited Anchorage and perhaps Ketchikan. At some point during that vacation we visited Vancouver BC and stayed at the Empress Hotel.

 

Childhood memories are a funny hodgepodge - I remember the horse races on the ship, and being terribly disappointed when we disembarked in Alaska. I fully expected to be greeted by people attired as they were on Eskimo Pie wrapper, and instead, the young men on the pier were in tee-shirts!

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That was the sister ship to the Princess Carla, which I took in the late 1960's from LA to Ensenada. As I recall, Boise Cascade owned the two ships at that time, and they were later sold to the Princess Lines. A highlight of that cruise was taking a lifeboat to Guadalupe Island to visit the sea lion rookery there. That island has since been protected, as I understand, is not able to be visited anymore. Crews were Italian, and one had to get used to eggs being cooked in olive oil, but Compari was poured free on board.

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Hello. I'm hoping to talk to people who may have been a passenger on the Princess Italia in 1969. I'm a public radio reporter in Juneau, and we're working on a narrative podcast about the history and future of the cruise industry. Think: This American Life but about cruise ships in AK. One of the episodes will focus on that pivotal summer back in '69. I'm lining up interviews with local folks in Juneau who remember that time. But I'd love to include stories from passengers, too. Ideally, I'm hoping to speak with people who may have been aboard that first Princess ship in '69. But if you were a passenger during those early days of commercial travel (1960s or 70s), I'd love to hear from you as well. 

 

I'm curious about what brought you to AK? What were your impressions about the town? We'd have a quick background phone call and then a longer recorded interview. 

 

If you'd like to reminisce or have questions, my email is elizabethj@ktoo.org. I can also be reached at 907-463-6443.

 

Thanks!

 

Elizabeth Jenkins 

 

 

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