CrownCast Cruise Articles

Where are the older ships?

Many of us think back longingly back to the times when luxury cruising was the only way to go. My wife and I never had the chance to cruise on any of these pre-Sovereign of the Seas Royal Caribbean ships that have been sold and re-christened, thankfully non of these ships have gone to the breakers. If you have taken a cruise on any of these ships and you are interested in being on the podcast and talking about it send me an email. We would love to have you on.

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Re-christened Ships:

RCCL official postcard of Viking Serenade.

MV Viking Serenade

• The Scandinavia was delivered in 1982 from Dubigeon-Normandie in Nantes for DFDS Seaways subsidiary Scandinavian World Cruises. She operated a cruise-ferry service from New York to Freeport (Bahamas) which was not successful.
• DFDS Seaways transferred her to their Oslo-Copenhagen service briefly in 1984.
• Then she was sold on to Sundance Cruises in 1985 as the Stardancer. The Stardancer was Sundance Cruises only ship. Sundance soon merged with Eastern Cruise Line to form Admiral Cruises.
• She then became the Royal Caribbean Viking Serenade when Admiral was merged with them
• More recently she was renamed Island Escape and operates a seven day Mediterranean cruises as part of a Royal Caribbean/First Choice Holidays joint venture.

She was built as a car ferry, her chunky ferry looks were further modified when the funnel was shortened and an RCCL “sky lounge” were fitted. Recent postcards describe her as weighing 40132 gross tons, having a length of 635 feet, and carrying 1946 passengers (maximum 2560).

Official RCCL postcard P42072

MS Song of America -

• She was sold to Airtours, sailing as MS Sunbird.
• She is now British-based Thomson Cruises Thomson Destiny owned and managed by Louis Cruise Lines.

Song of America was 37,584 tons. 705 feet in length. 93 feet wide and had a 22.3 foot draft. For the first time, the Viking Crown, the trademark of all Royal Caribbean ships, completely surrounded the funnel providing passengers a 360 degree view.

Postcard of Song of Norway following lengthening (Wolf Enterprises)

MS Song of Norway -

• The vessel was constructed in Helsinki, Finland in 1970. Named Song of Norway, she was the first ship built for cruise line Royal Caribbean International.
• The vessel was lengthened in 1978, due to the high demand for cruising, and sailed on seven- and fourteen-day cruises out of Miami.
• In 1996, surpassed by the significantly larger ships in the Royal Caribbean International fleet, the ship was sold to Airtours/MyTravel (which is now largely owned by Carnival Cruise Lines), who operated the vessel under the name Sundream.
• In October 2004 she was sold, refitted and became MS Dream Princess for Caspi Cruises (Israel) and operated the 2005 season from Haifa.

Dream Princess is not currently cruising. Following Hurricane Katrina, the vessel was chartered by Tulane University, to provide accommodation for students. On 14 December 2005 she left for New Orleans, Louisiana arriving to the Orange Street Wharf in January 2006

Astral Graphics postcard 670 of Nordic Prince following lengthening.

MS Nordic Prince -

• In 1995, Nordic Prince was sold to Airtours Sun Cruises. She now sails as The MS Carousel.

Prior to being stretched Nordic Prince was: 18,416 tons. 550 feet long. 80 feet wide with a 22 foot draft. After being streached, in 1980, she was: 23,200 tons and 637 feet long.

Astral Graphics postcard 671 of Sun Viking.

MS Sun Viking -

• She was transferred to Star ownership in January, 1998. There she sailed as SuperStar Sagittarius, for just a few brief months.
• She then sailed the South Korean Market for Hyundai as their Hyundai Pongrae.
• She was then sold again to Asia Cruise Line. In October of 2005 the cruise ship Omar III made her first call to Singapore the ship is chartered from Hong Kong.

Sun Viking was 18,556 tons. 563.2 feet long. 78.8 feet wide with a 20.6 foot draft. Unlike her sister’s (The Nordic Prince and the Song of Norway) the Sun Viking still maintains her Viking Crown Lounge while they were removed from the other two prior to sale.

All of the wonderful pictures on this page are the property of Ian Boyle from his http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/. website where you can find Simplon Postcards, the passenger ship website, a fantasitic website which is devoted to images of passenger ships of all sizes. All images are copyrighted, Non-commercial websites may use many of the images for private use but permission must be sought prior to copying and the origin acknowledged accordingly. Please contact Ian Boyle for permission. Thank You