When construction started on Royal Princess (III) in 2010, she followed a series of 9 Grand Class Princess vessels, of which Grand Princess (1998) was the first and both Coral Princess and Island Princess which were both introduced in 2002/ 2003. The name Royal Princess had already been used for two former ships of the line, the first one being Royal Princess of 1984. Today she still …
Funchal’s last owner, Signature Living, a hotel chain from Liverpool, had plans to operate the veteran liner/ cruise ship as a hotel in central London and later as a party club ship, sailing from Liverpool to the Mediterranean. But these plans did not materialize and still in lay up and for sale, her future looks …
Funchal (1961) – Insular Line, Classic Int., Portuscale Cruises Read More »
Club Med is a single ship cruise line, as it only operates Club Med 2. Club Med started out as a holiday resort company in 1950; it was founded by Belgian entrepreneur Gerard Blitz. Accommodations were basic, as guests would camp in huts and tents and a central area was available for meals, activities and entertainment. …
Stockholm IV was ordered by Swedish American Line (SAL) in 1944 to replace the ageing Drottningholm of 1904, and was launched two years later on September 9, 1946 at the Götaverken shipyard in Gothenburg, Sweden. She was partly financed out of the proceeds of the sale of Stockholm III to the Italians in 1941 who used her as a troopship …
Still under construction and due for delivery in spring 2021, Le Commandant Charcot will be the first electric hybrid icebreaker/ cruise ship powered by both liquefied natural gas (LNG) and marine diesel and, being equipped with the latest generation battery-packs, she will also be able to sail using electrical power only for short periods of time. She …
Le Commandant Charcot (2021) – Compagnie du Ponant Read More »
In 1951 and 1952 Messageries Maritimes ordered a quartet of combination passenger-cargo liners of the MD-type, La Bourdonnais, Jean Laborde, Ferdinand de Lesseps and Pierre Loti. Two of them would become well-known cruise ships in their later lives. Messageries Maritimes was a French Company founded in 1852 by a shipowner from Marseille M. Rostand together with …
One of the first cruises in history is said to have departed from Hamburg in 1891. It was the Auguste Viktoria which was on of HAPAG’s largest ships and mostly out of work during winter time as not many passengers wanted to experience the angry North Atlantic in winter time with its ferocious weather. So Albert …
Hanseatic Nature, Inspiration, Spirit – HAPAG-Lloyd Read More »
She was ordered in 1938 from De Schelde shipyard in Vlissingen. Planning had already begun in 1935 because of a fleet renewal program. Her keel was laid in 1939 and construction started. Little did her owners Rotterdamsche Lloyd (Royal Rotterdam Lloyd) know it would take 8 years to complete her! Construction halted during World War …
All cruise ship passengers have now made it back home, as cruising has come to a halt. Because of the Corona-virus all vessels are in lay-up scattered around the globe. However it is estimated that around the world, more than 100,000 crew are still trapped on cruise ships with nowhere to go, because most ports …
Corona – COVID-19: cruise ships in the Netherlands Read More »
The World is the first private residential community at sea, at this time the only one sailing the worlds oceans. The idea of building The World came from a well-known name in the cruise-industry, Knut Kloster, known for Norwegian Cruise Line which he founded in 1966 to open up Caribbean crusing with their 1965-built Southward. NCL later in 1980 converted …