blacksoviet wrote:

What is the oldest ocean liner still in service?

MV Astoria is still sailing, I thought she had been scrapped but AIS is showing her on route to Lisbon.

NCL Epic news

As a result of fleet redeployment, we have had to cancel sailings on Norwegian Epic departing on 7 May 2023, through to and including 29 October 2023.

blacksoviet wrote:

What is the oldest ocean liner still in service?

I googled this and here's the top 10 oldest :
https://www.cruisebe.com/10-oldest-crui ... te-cruises

TC957 wrote:

blacksoviet wrote:

What is the oldest ocean liner still in service?

I googled this and here's the top 10 oldest :
https://www.cruisebe.com/10-oldest-crui ... te-cruises

That list is old. Two of those ships have been scrapped in the last couple years.

Marco Polo and Boudicca are scrapped.

Ocean Majesty has been laid up for some time and it’s owners are in financial trouble.

Just got home yesterday from a 5 day trip on the Carnival Breeze. Left out of Galveston and went to Costa Maya and Cozumel. Saw the Mayan ruins in Costa Maya abd did a snorkeling trip in Cozumel. Fun trip overall and it was my first cruise. Lots of good experiences. Stayed on deck 9 in a balcony room which made for some great sunsets on the sail back. Our cruise director kept mentioning that the ship was at full capacity of 3500 folks onboard and I could tell by the lines and waiting to get into restaurants and other venues on the ship but nothing was too bad. Glad I went.

Anyone else feel down in the dumps after returning home from a good vacation? Hitting me pretty hard today as I return to work tomorrow but I know I'll get back into the swing of things!

Hope you future a.net cruisers enjoy your time!

While trying to look for cruises for next year, I've noticed an interesting pattern. If I book about 120 days out, I may find better deals than if I book a year or two ahead. Of course airfare is always the wild card, but I may be tempted to try it out next year.

Any news regarding Genting Cruises as well as its German shipyard? Will they be saved?

What about Crystal Cruises? Heard that the founder of Silverseas wants to buy it. Any news? Hope it will stay as it is one of the best if not the best cruise line

11 days to go until my cruise on the P&O Iona. 3rd time lucky and hopefully won't get cancelled again.

Pre-booked in to a couple of restaurants, The Epicurean and Sindhu on the sea days.

Also booked the wifey in for a Spa treatment for her Birthday.

Dano1977 wrote:

11 days to go until my cruise on the P&O Iona. 3rd time lucky and hopefully won't get cancelled again.

Pre-booked in to a couple of restaurants, The Epicurean and Sindhu on the sea days.

Also booked the wifey in for a Spa treatment for her Birthday.

Great I still have not been on it the last time I saw it was at the shipyard in Papenburg a month before all hell broke loose with C-19. I have a few friends who have been on IONA and loved it . Hopefully you will too .

NCL's Norwegian Escape runs aground . . .

https://twitter.com/sandraacta/status/1 ... 75785?s=21


Unfortunate for all involved hope the situation ends soon .

Norwegian cancelled most of their Baltic cruises.
https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/crui ... any%20said.

Cruise lines are seeing the reality that a Baltic cruise without St. Petersburg is not an attractive option for many customers. First the lines were saying they'd simply replace St. Pete with alternative ports, but full redeployments are starting to happen.

Norwegian Getaway has cancelled the entire Baltic season, and Enchanted Princess will be based in Southampton instead of Copenhagen for this summer. I expect more to follow, and think the region is going to have another quiet summer.

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/crui ... taway.html

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/ench ... ason-33239

bananaboy wrote:

Cruise lines are seeing the reality that a Baltic cruise without St. Petersburg is not an attractive option for many customers. First the lines were saying they'd simply replace St. Pete with alternative ports, but full redeployments are starting to happen.

Norwegian Getaway has cancelled the entire Baltic season, and Enchanted Princess will be based in Southampton instead of Copenhagen for this summer. I expect more to follow, and think the region is going to have another quiet summer.

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/crui ... taway.html

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/ench ... ason-33239

When we did our Baltic cruise 10 years ago, I was expecting Stockholm and St Petersburg to be the highlights. While I really liked them, both my wife and I preferred Helsinki and Tallinn.

johns624 wrote:

bananaboy wrote:

Cruise lines are seeing the reality that a Baltic cruise without St. Petersburg is not an attractive option for many customers. First the lines were saying they'd simply replace St. Pete with alternative ports, but full redeployments are starting to happen.

Norwegian Getaway has cancelled the entire Baltic season, and Enchanted Princess will be based in Southampton instead of Copenhagen for this summer. I expect more to follow, and think the region is going to have another quiet summer.

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/crui ... taway.html

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/ench ... ason-33239

When we did our Baltic cruise 10 years ago, I was expecting Stockholm and St Petersburg to be the highlights. While I really liked them, both my wife and I preferred Helsinki and Tallinn.

I agree with you tbh..I did one years ago for work and loved Helsinki and Klaipeda, although seeing Swan Lake in St. Petersburg was special.

bananaboy wrote:

Cruise lines are seeing the reality that a Baltic cruise without St. Petersburg is not an attractive option for many customers. First the lines were saying they'd simply replace St. Pete with alternative ports, but full redeployments are starting to happen.

Norwegian Getaway has cancelled the entire Baltic season, and Enchanted Princess will be based in Southampton instead of Copenhagen for this summer. I expect more to follow, and think the region is going to have another quiet summer.

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/crui ... taway.html

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/ench ... ason-33239

Also has to do with the potential for Baltic countries to be invaded by Russia.

ArchGuy1 wrote:

bananaboy wrote:

Cruise lines are seeing the reality that a Baltic cruise without St. Petersburg is not an attractive option for many customers. First the lines were saying they'd simply replace St. Pete with alternative ports, but full redeployments are starting to happen.

Norwegian Getaway has cancelled the entire Baltic season, and Enchanted Princess will be based in Southampton instead of Copenhagen for this summer. I expect more to follow, and think the region is going to have another quiet summer.

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/crui ... taway.html

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/ench ... ason-33239

Also has to do with the potential for Baltic countries to be invaded by Russia.

Russia is having enough trouble with Ukraine. It's mainly people don't want to go to Russia right now.

ArchGuy1 wrote:

The Queen Mary is currently undergoing critical repairs and that includes removing the lifeboats. The city hopes to have the ship reopened by late 2022.
https://abc7.com/queen-mary-long-beach- ... /11547071/

I can remember when. the ship arrived in Long Beach. I was actually on the USS Long Beach (CG(N)9) at the time and we were the "Official Welcoming Ship", along with a few thousand boats of various sizes. I had recently been transferred to Operations (as a Yeoman) so the radar guys had a bit of fun and put me on the Surface radar repeater.

The min thing I remember was the reports form the pax who were far from happy with their cruise. The Queen did not have air conditioning and the Pax were rather uncomfortable as the ship crossed the equator twice, It was even a warm day when she pulled into Long Beach.

The best part for me, though, was walking past the dry dock and seeing her in her full glory. There was a fair bit of money invested in prepping her but 50+ years exposure is going to be hard on any ship.

bananaboy wrote:

Cruise lines are seeing the reality that a Baltic cruise without St. Petersburg is not an attractive option for many customers.

I'd still do Baltic without St. Petersburg. I've found the fact that you overnight in the city is pointless. Replace it with another port or another sea day. Don't Latvia and Lithuania have ports? What about Poland?

ArchGuy1 wrote:

Also has to do with the potential for Baltic countries to be invaded by Russia.

The Baltic states are NATO members. Don't think Russia wants to trigger a full scale NATO response through them.

Not even Finland is in Russia's sights.

einsteinboricua wrote:

bananaboy wrote:

Cruise lines are seeing the reality that a Baltic cruise without St. Petersburg is not an attractive option for many customers.

I'd still do Baltic without St. Petersburg. I've found the fact that you overnight in the city is pointless. Replace it with another port or another sea day. Don't Latvia and Lithuania have ports? What about Poland?

ArchGuy1 wrote:

Also has to do with the potential for Baltic countries to be invaded by Russia.

The Baltic states are NATO members. Don't think Russia wants to trigger a full scale NATO response through them.

Not even Finland is in Russia's sights.

It's not that you're overnighting that's interesting. It's that you have two days of excursions. The bad thing is that unless you have a visa, you have to stay with organized tours. One thing that was annoying when we did it that all excursions were separate from each other, i.e. no two day excursions. So, no matter which tours you took, you were seeing some things twice.

johns624 wrote:

The bad thing is that unless you have a visa, you have to stay with organized tours.

Well, and that's the thing. I'm all for enjoying a tour of St Petersburg, but the next day, unless I have a visa, it's pointless to get off the ship. It's like the cruises out to Bermuda which dock for 3 days. First day, explore the island; second day, probably catch up on something I might have missed; third day...can we go now?

einsteinboricua wrote:

johns624 wrote:

The bad thing is that unless you have a visa, you have to stay with organized tours.

Well, and that's the thing. I'm all for enjoying a tour of St Petersburg, but the next day, unless I have a visa, it's pointless to get off the ship. It's like the cruises out to Bermuda which dock for 3 days. First day, explore the island; second day, probably catch up on something I might have missed; third day...can we go now?

We did a canal cruise the first day and then went to the Summer Palace the next. The drive around the city passed most of the same sights, though.

The MV Funchal is being turned into a hotel and museum ship in Lisbon after being bought by billionaire Brock Pierce. This is very good news for a ship with historical significance.
https://pagesix.com/2021/08/19/brock-pi ... ean-liner/

Just back from a short cruise on QM2. Had a great time
the ship was at 50% capacity after sailing Caribbean to
New York and onto Southampton where I boarded.
Quite a lot of Americans , British and Germans who
had done the whole trip.

Antigen testing done at port of Southampton and very
smooth. The whole process under one hour. Great to see familiar crew after all this time. Food as good always. A few teething problems but nothing serious
and quickly resolved. The only issue is the wifi which
was terrible but Im told a new system is going in at
the next refurb.


Some pics of the cruise :

ArchGuy1 wrote:

The MV Funchal is being turned into a hotel and museum ship in Lisbon after being bought by billionaire Brock Pierce. This is very good news for a ship with historical significance.
https://pagesix.com/2021/08/19/brock-pi ... ean-liner/

IMO, this project has a number of points in it's favour;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Funchal

Size. At under 10,000t this is a relatively small project. Many of the ships we have been talking about were 70,000t+.

The ship has history. Most of the others were floating hotels.

It looks good. Most of them were best described as functional.

The guy has deep pockets. Like Bezos or Branson, he beyond the point where he can spend that much in one lifetime. Means he can indulge his passions.

bennett123 wrote:

ArchGuy1 wrote:

The MV Funchal is being turned into a hotel and museum ship in Lisbon after being bought by billionaire Brock Pierce. This is very good news for a ship with historical significance.
https://pagesix.com/2021/08/19/brock-pi ... ean-liner/

IMO, this project has a number of points in it's favour;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Funchal

Size. At under 10,000t this is a relatively small project. Many of the ships we have been talking about were 70,000t+.

The ship has history. Most of the others were floating hotels.

It looks good. Most of them were best described as functional.

The guy has deep pockets. Like Bezos or Branson, he beyond the point where he can spend that much in one lifetime. Means he can indulge his passions.

This project is still taking place despite the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Portugal has the highest vaccination rate in the world with more than 90 percent of the total population fully vaccinated.

bananaboy wrote:

Cruise lines are seeing the reality that a Baltic cruise without St. Petersburg is not an attractive option for many customers. First the lines were saying they'd simply replace St. Pete with alternative ports, but full redeployments are starting to happen.

Norwegian Getaway has cancelled the entire Baltic season, and Enchanted Princess will be based in Southampton instead of Copenhagen for this summer. I expect more to follow, and think the region is going to have another quiet summer.

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/crui ... taway.html

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/ench ... ason-33239

Both NCL and Princess cruises doesn't do Stockholm properly since both cruise lines uses Nynäshamn rather going all the way into Stockholm.
It doesn't means it's related and could just be a coincidence.

This means all those pax have to transport themselves by cruise line buses or by public commuter train. Most other cruise lines goes into central
Stockholm via 5-6 hour journey through the archipelago which starts at Tjärven lighthouse and ends at either Stadsgårdskajen or Frihamnen.

So for anyone considering doing a Baltic cruise I would recommend to choose a cruise line that goes into central Stockholm (and has a full day) there.

You can see Tjärven in the upper right corner and Stockholm at the bottom. Except the smallest ships all ships have to follow the northern route via Furusund. map source.


https://www.google.se/maps/dir/Nyn%C3%A ... 293235!3e3

NCL did Stockholm in 2012, but it might've been a smaller ship than they use now. I was on the Star.

Thunderboltdrgn wrote:

bananaboy wrote:

Cruise lines are seeing the reality that a Baltic cruise without St. Petersburg is not an attractive option for many customers. First the lines were saying they'd simply replace St. Pete with alternative ports, but full redeployments are starting to happen.

Norwegian Getaway has cancelled the entire Baltic season, and Enchanted Princess will be based in Southampton instead of Copenhagen for this summer. I expect more to follow, and think the region is going to have another quiet summer.

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/crui ... taway.html

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/ench ... ason-33239

Both NCL and Princess cruises doesn't do Stockholm properly since both cruise lines uses Nynäshamn rather going all the way into Stockholm.
It doesn't means it's related and could just be a coincidence.

This means all those pax have to transport themselves by cruise line buses or by public commuter train. Most other cruise lines goes into central
Stockholm via 5-6 hour journey through the archipelago which starts at Tjärven lighthouse and ends at either Stadsgårdskajen or Frihamnen.

So for anyone considering doing a Baltic cruise I would recommend to choose a cruise line that goes into central Stockholm (and has a full day) there.

You can see Tjärven in the upper right corner and Stockholm at the bottom. Except the smallest ships all ships have to follow the northern route via Furusund. map source.


https://www.google.se/maps/dir/Nyn%C3%A ... 293235!3e3

NCL do still do Stockholm "proper." They do use Nynäshamn on selected dates but there are plenty of examples on their website, for both smaller and larger ships.


https://www.ncl.com/uk/en/vacations?cru ... ms,cph,sto

bananaboy wrote:

Thunderboltdrgn wrote:

bananaboy wrote:

Cruise lines are seeing the reality that a Baltic cruise without St. Petersburg is not an attractive option for many customers. First the lines were saying they'd simply replace St. Pete with alternative ports, but full redeployments are starting to happen.

Norwegian Getaway has cancelled the entire Baltic season, and Enchanted Princess will be based in Southampton instead of Copenhagen for this summer. I expect more to follow, and think the region is going to have another quiet summer.

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/crui ... taway.html

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/ench ... ason-33239

Both NCL and Princess cruises doesn't do Stockholm properly since both cruise lines uses Nynäshamn rather going all the way into Stockholm.
It doesn't means it's related and could just be a coincidence.

This means all those pax have to transport themselves by cruise line buses or by public commuter train. Most other cruise lines goes into central
Stockholm via 5-6 hour journey through the archipelago which starts at Tjärven lighthouse and ends at either Stadsgårdskajen or Frihamnen.

So for anyone considering doing a Baltic cruise I would recommend to choose a cruise line that goes into central Stockholm (and has a full day) there.

You can see Tjärven in the upper right corner and Stockholm at the bottom. Except the smallest ships all ships have to follow the northern route via Furusund. map source.


https://www.google.se/maps/dir/Nyn%C3%A ... 293235!3e3

NCL do still do Stockholm "proper." They do use Nynäshamn on selected dates but there are plenty of examples on their website, for both smaller and larger ships.


https://www.ncl.com/uk/en/vacations?cru ... ms,cph,sto

Occasionally yes but when they do (at least Princess cruises' Royal-class ships) the calling time is a few hours shorter (which was what I meant with "(and has a full day)")

OA260 wrote:

Just back from a short cruise on QM2.

Nice pictures.

I'd love to do a sailing aboard the QM2 but I've grown too used to NCL's Freestyle Cruising and I can't see myself going back to anything else. Plus, given that Cunard likely expects its guest to dress a little more beyond jeans and tennis shoes at night, I'm not so eager.

We are currently on the Star Breeze anchored next to Bora Bora. I will type out something longer on the flight back to the US, but a quick "absolutly fantastic" will do for now. Great ports, great ship, great food, amazing crew.

einsteinboricua wrote:

OA260 wrote:

Just back from a short cruise on QM2.

Nice pictures.

I'd love to do a sailing aboard the QM2 but I've grown too used to NCL's Freestyle Cruising and I can't see myself going back to anything else. Plus, given that Cunard likely expects its guest to dress a little more beyond jeans and tennis shoes at night, I'm not so eager.

Same here. Blue jeans and a golf or button down flannel shirt is "dress up" for me.

einsteinboricua wrote:

OA260 wrote:

Just back from a short cruise on QM2.

Nice pictures.

I'd love to do a sailing aboard the QM2 but I've grown too used to NCL's Freestyle Cruising and I can't see myself going back to anything else. Plus, given that Cunard likely expects its guest to dress a little more beyond jeans and tennis shoes at night, I'm not so eager.

Since becoming a TA my colleagues and the training say about Cunard dress codes:

Formal for men night means dinner jacket and tie for the main dinning rooms and they will enforce it.

Informal means no tie…


You can always access the buffet and room service.

Haven’t experienced it myself… yet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What does 'dinner jacket' mean?

In most cases a suit jacket over dress shirt will be fine. There are alternatives that some fashions can provide as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Any news on when/if testing and vaccination requirements are lifted on US cruises?

tomaheath wrote:

Any news on when/if testing and vaccination requirements are lifted on US cruises?

They’re expected to continue at least through the end of the year. Probably not a bad thing - the average cruise passenger is older and cruise passengers are disproportionately overweight: the two biggest risk demographics…

Just back from a week on the lovely Regal Princess. Started off in Barcelona and ended in Rome. The ship had started off in Florida doing the TATL with a mostly US demographic doing the full cruise to Rome and some even staying on until Piraeus ( Athens ). Mostly
Europeans joined in Barcelona and some Americans also. Obviously an older crowd of around 60+ but some 30-40's too. I only saw around 3-4 families with teenage kids . It was a nice mix and capacity was around 65% so very easy to have lots of personal space. It was nice to meet new people and the crew were great. 70 crew from Ukraine onboard who everyone made an effort to chat with and see how they were . Despite their worries they provided excellent service and got extra tips.

The weather was mixed and due to high winds Gibraltar was replaced by Malaga and Livorno was skipped entirely and we headed direct to Rome and overnighted. The food was excellent and there were a good variety of things going on around the ship day and night. Entertainment shows were also good. A comedian from SA who lives in the UK was very funny.

As with Cunard the internet was really bad . Princess have a App where you can interact with things around the ship and order drinks and food to be delivered to you around the ship. This is a great idea but sadly it rarely worked. It was very buggy and picking up the wrong locations etc.. An American couple said the internet at sea is being impacted by available satellites
due to the war in Ukraine. I am not sure if that is correct though .

The one thing I will say is the boarding process was very well organised . I had taken a antigen test 24 hours before so meant I did not need to test at the port.

Here are a few highlights from the trip :

einsteinboricua wrote:

OA260 wrote:

Just back from a short cruise on QM2.

Nice pictures.

I'd love to do a sailing aboard the QM2 but I've grown too used to NCL's Freestyle Cruising and I can't see myself going back to anything else. Plus, given that Cunard likely expects its guest to dress a little more beyond jeans and tennis shoes at night, I'm not so eager.

I'm with you. The nerve of cruise lines asking their passengers to dress better than the average WalMart shopper.

Drafran wrote:

einsteinboricua wrote:

OA260 wrote:

Just back from a short cruise on QM2.

Nice pictures.

I'd love to do a sailing aboard the QM2 but I've grown too used to NCL's Freestyle Cruising and I can't see myself going back to anything else. Plus, given that Cunard likely expects its guest to dress a little more beyond jeans and tennis shoes at night, I'm not so eager.

I'm with you. The nerve of cruise lines asking their passengers to dress better than the average WalMart shopper.

I'm on vacation and I don't want to dress up to impress nobody. NCL all the way for me. I don't know how people dress on Caribbean cruises because I've never been on one but I've never thought it was bad on my Alaska/Australia/Baltic/Norwegian/Med cruises. Nothing wrong with good jeans and a button down or golf shirt.

johns624 wrote:

Drafran wrote:

einsteinboricua wrote:

Nice pictures.

I'd love to do a sailing aboard the QM2 but I've grown too used to NCL's Freestyle Cruising and I can't see myself going back to anything else. Plus, given that Cunard likely expects its guest to dress a little more beyond jeans and tennis shoes at night, I'm not so eager.

I'm with you. The nerve of cruise lines asking their passengers to dress better than the average WalMart shopper.

I'm on vacation and I don't want to dress up to impress nobody. NCL all the way for me. I don't know how people dress on Caribbean cruises because I've never been on one but I've never thought it was bad on my Alaska/Australia/Baltic/Norwegian/Med cruises. Nothing wrong with good jeans and a button down or golf shirt.

Oh, you know...bathrobes, jammies, colorful underwear...and of course those black garters that hold up black socks. Comfort is all that matters!

The Sun Viking was beached at Gandhi Breach in Pakistan for scrapping after a 50 year career. The ship entered service in 1972 for Royal Caribbean and sailed for them until the late 1990's. The ship then sailed with a variety of operators in Asia until 2020, most recently as a casino ship under the name Oriental Dragon. Wish this ship was preserved as a hotel and museum ship. Possible locations that could have happened include Miami, Daytona Beach, Oslo, Helsinki, and New York City.
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2022 ... n-scrapped

Drafran wrote:

johns624 wrote:

Drafran wrote:

I'm with you. The nerve of cruise lines asking their passengers to dress better than the average WalMart shopper.

I'm on vacation and I don't want to dress up to impress nobody. NCL all the way for me. I don't know how people dress on Caribbean cruises because I've never been on one but I've never thought it was bad on my Alaska/Australia/Baltic/Norwegian/Med cruises. Nothing wrong with good jeans and a button down or golf shirt.

Oh, you know...bathrobes, jammies, colorful underwear...and of course those black garters that hold up black socks. Comfort is all that matters!

What cruise line have you seen that on? I've never seen anything like that.

johns624 wrote:

Drafran wrote:

johns624 wrote:

I'm on vacation and I don't want to dress up to impress nobody. NCL all the way for me. I don't know how people dress on Caribbean cruises because I've never been on one but I've never thought it was bad on my Alaska/Australia/Baltic/Norwegian/Med cruises. Nothing wrong with good jeans and a button down or golf shirt.

Oh, you know...bathrobes, jammies, colorful underwear...and of course those black garters that hold up black socks. Comfort is all that matters!

What cruise line have you seen that on? I've never seen anything like that.

Atlantis Gay cruises maybe lol

The Sun Viking was beached at Gandhi Breach in Pakistan for scrapping after a 50 year career. The ship entered service in 1972 for Royal Caribbean and sailed for them until the late 1990's. The ship then sailed with a variety of operators in Asia until 2020, most recently as a casino ship under the name Oriental Dragon. Wish this ship was preserved as a hotel and museum ship. Possible locations that could have happened include Miami, Daytona Beach, Oslo, Helsinki, and New York City.
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2022 ... n-scrapped


Sad to see this. I sailed on Sun Viking on my first cruise. I also saw her in Hong Kong back in 2019 when she was the Oriental Dragon. She wasn't in good shape and I'm not surprised she's being scrapped. I would've preferred she was sunk as an artificial reef. Sun Viking was a small ship for a cruise liner, but she would've made a great dive site.

mikesbucky wrote:

The Sun Viking was beached at Gandhi Breach in Pakistan for scrapping after a 50 year career. The ship entered service in 1972 for Royal Caribbean and sailed for them until the late 1990's. The ship then sailed with a variety of operators in Asia until 2020, most recently as a casino ship under the name Oriental Dragon. Wish this ship was preserved as a hotel and museum ship. Possible locations that could have happened include Miami, Daytona Beach, Oslo, Helsinki, and New York City.
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2022 ... n-scrapped


Sad to see this. I sailed on Sun Viking on my first cruise. I also saw her in Hong Kong back in 2019 when she was the Oriental Dragon. She wasn't in good shape and I'm not surprised she's being scrapped. I would've preferred she was sunk as an artificial reef. Sun Viking was a small ship for a cruise liner, but she would've made a great dive site.

Do you think she would have been good for use as a hotel and museum ship.

Drafran wrote:

johns624 wrote:

Drafran wrote:

I'm with you. The nerve of cruise lines asking their passengers to dress better than the average WalMart shopper.

I'm on vacation and I don't want to dress up to impress nobody. NCL all the way for me. I don't know how people dress on Caribbean cruises because I've never been on one but I've never thought it was bad on my Alaska/Australia/Baltic/Norwegian/Med cruises. Nothing wrong with good jeans and a button down or golf shirt.

Oh, you know...bathrobes, jammies, colorful underwear...and of course those black garters that hold up black socks. Comfort is all that matters!

When people pay to go on a vacation they may have various preferences and ideas. Don't understand the sarcasm for those who don't want to dress more formally. Likewise we needn't be sarcastic about those who like to dress up on their vacations. I liked the informality of the buffets on Norwegian because I could eat and match some particular dietary needs I have for two of the three meals a day, and save my slack for dinner - for which it was requested we dress up just a little.

frmrCapCadet wrote:

Drafran wrote:

johns624 wrote:

I'm on vacation and I don't want to dress up to impress nobody. NCL all the way for me. I don't know how people dress on Caribbean cruises because I've never been on one but I've never thought it was bad on my Alaska/Australia/Baltic/Norwegian/Med cruises. Nothing wrong with good jeans and a button down or golf shirt.

Oh, you know...bathrobes, jammies, colorful underwear...and of course those black garters that hold up black socks. Comfort is all that matters!

When people pay to go on a vacation they may have various preferences and ideas. Don't understand the sarcasm for those who don't want to dress more formally. Likewise we needn't be sarcastic about those who like to dress up on their vacations. I liked the informality of the buffets on Norwegian because I could eat and match some particular dietary needs I have for two of the three meals a day, and save my slack for dinner - for which it was requested we dress up just a little.

Dressing up has a totally different meaning today than it did in years' past. Women love dressing up much more than men, but many older cruisers perceive the younger styles to be akin to hookers. Modern styling doesn't cut it for them. Gen X is nearing retirement age and Millennials are just passing 40. It's somewhat foolhardy to expect a Titantic-like dress code today...

The Carnival Fascination was beached at Gadani Ship Breaking Yard in Pakistan under the name Century Harmony in mid February. The Fascination was built for Carnival in 1994 and sailed until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The ship was then sold to Century Cruises in China, which planned to operate her in the Asian market. There were also plans to use the ship as a floating hotel along the lines of the Queen Mary in Long Beach or the QE2 in Dubai. The ship wad then sold to a trading company in Singapore, who then sold the ship for scrap. This is a ship with about 15 years of life left that was scrapped because the Delta and Omicron variants prolonged the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://www.cruisehive.com/former-carni ... lity/66225

ArchGuy1 wrote:

The Carnival Fascination was beached at Gadani Ship Breaking Yard in Pakistan under the name Century Harmony in mid February. The Fascination was built for Carnival in 1994 and sailed until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The ship was then sold to Century Cruises in China, which planned to operate her in the Asian market. There were also plans to use the ship as a floating hotel along the lines of the Queen Mary in Long Beach or the QE2 in Dubai. The ship wad then sold to a trading company in Singapore, who then sold the ship for scrap. This is a ship with about 15 years of life left that was scrapped because the Delta and Omicron variants prolonged the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://www.cruisehive.com/former-carni ... lity/66225

Even before COVID, the cruise industry was suffering from overcapacity. For example, Out of Long Beach (and previously San Pedro), Carnival has operated a 3-night weekend / 4-night weekday cruise to Ensenada (the 4-day adds a stop at Catalina Island) ever since I can remember. In the mid-90s, the starting price was $250pp (based on double occupancy) plus $99 per child (up to four people per cabin). Discounting in that era was extremely rare. In recent years, the starting price of that exact same cruise has been $99pp, with frequent promotions in which the third and fourth person travel free. So while the cost to travel has swelled beyond inflation over that past 25 years… the cost of cruising has dropped, and that’s not even considering inflation.

Pre-COVID, it was obvious that Carnival’s 8 Fantasy-class ships were on borrowed time; they simply could not generate enough revenue to cover the cruise line’s swelling costs. Would those ships have found homes with other operators? Maybe some of them, but again, the industry has suffered from overcapacity, and not only were budget start-up cruises faltering, but the industry’s attempt to expand into Asia has largely been too much too quickly.

So now, COVID didn’t shave 15 years off the ships life.