SS Emerald Seas from the 1980's

[Dave & Julie]

Does anyone remember if the SS Emerald Seas was a NCL ship? She sailed Carribean cruises in the 1980's. I'm piecing together our old cruises and trying to determine which ones were with NCL. Thanks.

[wesp]

From Simplon Postcards web site.

 

Wesley

 

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La Guardia - President Roosevelt - Atlantis - Emerald Seas

 

A strange looking ship at all stages of her career, the Atlantis was originally built as the wartime troopship General W.P.Richardson. She was rebuilt after the war as the American Export Lines' La Guardia, for services from the US to the Mediterranean. She was not a success, being very expensive to operate, and after further trooping to Korea, and a period as Hawaiian Textron Lines' Leilani, she was sold to American President Lines as the President Roosevelt.

 

In 1970 she was bought by Chandris Lines who cut her down to two decks above the waterline before completely rebuilding the upper hull and superstructure. She began cruising out of New York as Atlantis, but was again found to be too expensive to operate, and was sold to Eastern Steamship Lines as Emerald Seas in 1972, with their Ariadne moving to Chandris Lines in exchange to become their Bon Vivant. Eastern Steamship Lines, became Eastern Cruise Lines, then Admiral Cruise Line, both times with changes in funnel colours. Admiral Cruise Line were acquired by Royal Caribbean, who disbanded the company and disposed of the older ships, including the Emerald Seas, in 1992. She has since operated as a hotel ship in various ports since, including a short spell in Lisbon for their Expo'98 as the Ocean Explorer I.

[zimmerjulie]

The Emerald Seas, of Admiral Cruises, was my very first cruise ship. I was hooked from that first weekend.

 

Apparently she has been sailing in some capacity or another for most of the time since the 80's. She was in consideration to be a "hotel ship" for the Athens Olympics, but is not going to be doing that, after all. There was a great picture of her (as well as all the other cruise ships in the harbor that the poster visited) on the old format "What ever happened to..." forum. I don't know if it has been moved over here, or if it is still readable at the old site.

 

Although she has a different name and I could not find her by the picture captions, when scrolling through, I recognized her right away.

 

Seems that her cruise ship life may be coming to an end soon. I will always have the best of memories of the Emerald Seas!!!

[Dave & Julie]

I know what you mean. My wife and I will always have the best of memories of the Emerald Seas. We had only been married a few years when we took our first cruise. It was the SS Emerald Seas from Miami to Nassua and we had a wonderful time.

 

Next week we're cruising the NCL Star to Alaska as a belated 25th wedding anniversary celebration and nostalgia has kicked in as we think back to that first voyage. Time sure flys when you're having fun!

 

Thanks for the informative posts on the NCL Star.

[zimmerjulie]

Enjoy the Star and Alaska! As you know if you read my review, we had a wonderful time.

[pmfan]

SS Emerald Seas was my first cruise ship also. A few weeks ago I looked up information on her to see if she was still cruising. I was sad to find out that earlier this year she was scraped. On August 8 we will sail on the Adventure; she is a far cry from the Emerald Seas!