What happened to Carnival's Festivale?

[ranger520]

[DopeyRN1]

We first sailed on the Festivale for our honeymoon in August 1979. If I remember correctly, it was 35k tons...and the largest ship in the Caribbean. We sailed out of Miami to Nassau, Freeport and maybe St Thomas? Give me the larger ships of today.

[shipgeeks]

We sailed on her in 1999, when she was Island Breeze.  Beautiful ship, and we loved exploring all the original (even pre-Carnival) spaces and features.

I remember that as we sailed out of Port Everglades, the Captain sounded the horn, and it was the best we had ever heard.  Watchers on shore went crazy!  Later in the week, we spoke with the Captain, and he told us he did that in Messina, and set off every car alarm in the city.

We learned that she was the first ship to allow crew families to work together onboard.

Beautiful and spacious open decks.

It was the kind of ship I'd love to sail on today.

Edited January 31, 2021 by shipgeeks
correction

[rkacruiser]

5 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

we loved exploring all the original (even pre-Carnival) spaces

 

S. S. Festivale was the third of the three original Carnival Cruise Line ships:  first, was Mardi Gras, then Carnivale, followed by Festivale.  Her history is an interesting one and shows that some ships "live for another day" for many years.

 

Her life began as RMS Transvaal Castle of the Union-Castle Line for their service between Southampton to Durbin.  During her career, she was sold to other companies and experienced a total of 6 different names.  Her last was The Big Red Boat as she sailed to the scrapyard.  

 

She was a "smart looking" ship that looked like a ship.  And, her service obviously helped to make Carnival Cruise Line a dominant player in the cruise industry.  

[shipgeeks]

RK, Did you ever sail on her?

One of the rooms I really liked was the pub, with its mementos of her Union Castle days.  I could almost imagine that we were sailing from UK to Durbin.

We did some hunting for the stair rails, and door knobs, that were from either Union Castle or Carnival days.  We found some of each.  Our cabin had a Festivale door knob.

[ryndam]

We sailed on one of the earliest sailings in 1979. We had an indoor room with bunk beds. The sink was in the cabin. In the toilet room, a shower curtain and a shower head had been installed, but basically the entire toilet room was the shower. The entire room got wet when using the shower. I remember that for the entire 7-day cruise the ship sailed with a permanent list. The swimming pool could never be completely filled due to the permanent list. We knick-named the ship "Old-Top-Heavy". It's fascinating to think that in 1979, the Festivale was the 3rd largest passenger ship then sailing. Only the QE2 and Canberra were larger.

 

Rob

[rkacruiser]

57 minutes ago, ryndam said:

I remember that for the entire 7-day cruise the ship sailed with a permanent list. The swimming pool could never be completely filled due to the permanent list. We knick-named the ship "Old-Top-Heavy". It's fascinating to think that in 1979, the Festivale was the 3rd largest passenger ship then sailing. Only the QE2 and Canberra were larger.

 

I do recall reading that there were some issues that would be considered quite unusual today.  I have some brochures that feature her cruises and the "enticements" to sail aboard her:  good!

 

1 hour ago, shipgeeks said:

RK, Did you ever sail on her?

 

No, I did not.  My very early cruising years were patronizing HAL and Home Lines.  

[Lowiepete]

Oh, the Transvaal Castle.

 

I did the 12th and 13th voyages out of So'ton on her. Joined as a Callender Boy in the laundry. I'm fairly sure it was on the 13th voyage when Kennedy was assassinated.

 

My lasting memory of that day, was passing the fish preparation pantry and the ship suddenly started to roll quite heavily. All of a sudden there's a right clatter, followed by appropriate expletives, as tray after tray of prepared lemon sole slide off the end of the rack into a rosie, one atop the other. 

 

We certainly earned our £16 a month, starting at 7am Monday to Saturday in the sweat-shop. The very camp ship's Doctor took a fancy to one of the lads and we benefited as a result. Along with his salt pills in tropical waters, came a case of lager. Under drinking age we might be, but under Doctor's orders?? 🤪 

 

Regards,

Steve

 

 

Edited February 22, 2021 by Lowiepete
almost forgot, the rosie bit ...

[rkacruiser]

9 hours ago, Lowiepete said:

Along with his salt pills in tropical waters, came a case of lager. Under drinking age we might be, but under Doctor's orders??

 

Sometimes it's good to have friends whenever and wherever one can find them!

[norboy76]

I have some nice mementos from the Festivale that I was given when a friend's aunt passed away and she knew I collected ship items, here are my Festivale items, I hope will enjoy the photos.

[marco]

We did a cruise on it out of NYC when it was Dolphin's "Island Breeze" to New England/Canada.  OUr T/A said...".it's NOT going to be like HAL.....I'm not sure you'll like it".  I said, "for what it costs, and it's a 45 minute drive to the ship....we'll go".  And so we did.  While getting ready in the evening, we usually ask for a dish of some crackers and cheese for a little nosh while getting ready.  Now on HAL, we'd get a dish wish some  assorted cheeses and crackers, a cluster of grapes or a couple of strawberries or something along that line. On this cruise, we got a paper plate with 4 slices of individually wrapped American cheese and 4 packets of saltines.  We laughed and laughed!  I can't find it, but somewhere we have a photo of HAL cheese platter and a Dolphin cheese platter side by side with our caption "Yes....there is a difference between cruise lines, isn't there!!!!!"

[rkacruiser]

4 hours ago, marco said:

  OUr T/A said...".it's NOT going to be like HAL.....I'm not sure you'll like it"

 

I heard that comment from a travel agent that I had patronized for many cruises.  I'd have a Carnival cruise or two in which I was interested.  When, I visited her, she would say this and, in fact, for one cruise, she flatly out refused to book me on that cruise.  Judy retired; my account was assigned to a different agent.

 

I met the new agent thinking that I wanted to book my first Carnival cruise on Freedom, a 6 day Caribbean cruise during Spring Break.  (That timing was due to other plans that I had in Florida that year.)  Without a blink of an eye, the agent booked me on the cruise and obtained the exact veranda cabin that I wanted.  

 

When I told my friends what I had done and that it was during Spring Break, they thought I had "lost my mind".  

 

I sailed; it was a great cruise.  Spring breakers aboard?  Yes.  But, I witnessed no objectionable behavior.  I have witnessed senior citizens' behavior on HAL ships that was considerably more objectionable than anything that I saw on Carnival Freedom.  

 

That first Carnival cruise led to 3 others.  And, I hope that I might be able to sail on their new Mardi Gras soon.  

[shipgeeks]

RK, You have reminded me of our earlier days, when we had discovered the Regal Empress and wanted to sail on her.  Our local TA refused to book it for us.  "Old ship".  He could not understand that a shipgeek might really like an old ship.  So we booked it direct, and had one of our best cruises, on one of the loveliest ships around.

Did any of you sail on Regal Empress?

[rkacruiser]

20 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

Did any of you sail on Regal Empress?

 

No, never sailed on her.  But, when visitors were allowed before sailing, I visited the ship when she was Greek Line's Olympia.  A friend was sailing on the Olympia on a Solar Eclipse cruise.  I have 3 vivid memories of that visit.

 

1.  My friend was sharing a 4 berth cabin in the forward part of the ship.  The word "cramped" does not quite describe the cabin.  The bathroom was very basic.  

 

2.  Beautiful woodwork in the public lounges.

 

3.  The overpowering aroma of hot olive oil that had permeated the woodwork, I guess.  

 

I had debated about sailing on that cruise.  Because of my visit, I was glad that I had opted out.  

[norboy76]

On 4/5/2021 at 4:27 PM, rkacruiser said:

 

No, never sailed on her.  But, when visitors were allowed before sailing, I visited the ship when she was Greek Line's Olympia.  A friend was sailing on the Olympia on a Solar Eclipse cruise.  I have 3 vivid memories of that visit.

 

1.  My friend was sharing a 4 berth cabin in the forward part of the ship.  The word "cramped" does not quite describe the cabin.  The bathroom was very basic.  

 

2.  Beautiful woodwork in the public lounges.

 

3.  The overpowering aroma of hot olive oil that had permeated the woodwork, I guess.  

 

I had debated about sailing on that cruise.  Because of my visit, I was glad that I had opted out.  

I just got ahold of a really neat spoon for the TSS Festivale from 1977 I was told, I've never seen a souvenir spoon for Carnival like this one before, because the handle is in the shape of the TSS Festivale which I thought was interesting, this is the spoon.

 

[hawk/hornfan]

I sailed on the TSS Festivale in April of 1983. First cruise with my now 1st ex-wife. Had a small interior cabin with a tiny bathroom. Dining was superb. Midnight buffets were Gala's. Had a great time.

Only 1 downer. On Friday the 13th last day of the cruise at dinner, 1st seating, the ship burst a steam pipe. We were dead in water off the coast of Cuba. It was 71st anniversary of the Titanic sinking. We didn't regain power until 1 am. Most of us missed our flights. But Carnival got us rebooked. Fun times