Oh, fantastic! I was too young to see them as Cunarders but loved them as Sitmar, Princess and in the case of SYLVANIA, Phoenix Reisen ships. I did get to see the LEONID SOBINOV and FEDOR SHALYAPIN in layup in the Ukraine and they were very much still the SAXONIA/CARMANIA and IVERNIA/FRANCONIA. Great ships with lots of character.
Thank you, Justin. Glad you enjoyed this short video. SO agree that FAIR P was beautiful to look at. She was even better in the Sitmar colors with that yellow stack. I miss those ships, too.
The SS France was an amazing steam ship that was still in use until recently. A boiler explosion ended its career. It would have been astronomically expensive to fix it.
She had soul. Wasn't terribly exciting on the inside but those promenades and outer decks were fantastic. I do miss her. My first visit was as a kid in April of 1974 when she was FAIRSEA.
I remember those Bon voyage greeting and the Horn salute from Ports of Call back in the early 80's when I sailed out of San Pedro on the Island Princess, and later the Pacific Princess! Interesting when I sailed on Carnival's Tropicale there were no greetings from Ports of Call on the 2 sailings I sailed on her!
Hah, yes! It was part of the L.A. cruise experience and sadly no more, now that Ports of Call has been torn down. Hopefully there will be a nice new replacement restaurant and vantage in its place. Thanks for posting. :)
Hi Peter. When the Scandinavia went into service she was a ferry ship with car decks accessed through her aft section. I toured the ship in Miami one weekend when she visited the port. I was a teenager then. She was an interesting ship on the inside. Later when I became a travel agent, Scandinavia became the Viking Serenade, and they gutted the car decks and added cabins to the aft section of the ship and retrofitted her Viking Crown Lounge. Years earlier, I was able to get aboard the first RCI Ships: Sun Viking, Nordic Prince and Song of Norway in Miami. Back in the day, all one had to do was show up at the pier, show some ID and walk aboard and I did that many times. I got to dine on all those old ships before I had become a travel agent in High School.
Hi Jeremy. Thanks so much for your post. I did see SCANDINAVIA in Miami from a distance way back in 1982 when boarding the CARNIVALE for a Caribbean Cruise and knew her well as STARDANCER, too. I think she was much better looking before Royal C added the Viking Crown. And while I do not love Royal C, I did love the first three ships and the SOVEREIGN trio, at least design-wise. It was the same here as for going on the ships. You just needed to sign a visitor's pass. The only exceptions back then were the Soviet ships and the QE2, where there was a ton of security involved and you needed permission from the line or ship in advance. Glad you got to experience all those lovely ships.
Thank you, Andrew! I've got the FAIRWIND on video as DAWN PRINCESS but much more and better footage taken when she was ALBATROS, so hopefully soon. Appreciate the post.
hiya peter , thank you once again for giving us a glimpse of a real former ocean liner in the sun , please keep them coming , very best wishes from nick and tracy in wigan , lancashire , england
Another nice video Peter. I will be watching for both videos. I would really prefer the older and much more beautiful FAIR PRINCESS over the VIKING SERENADE. However they are still smaller ships. Good job I really love this video.
Thanks so much, Deborah. I do hope to get to do a Decked! of FAIR P. I covered her over several visits and my footage isn't the best but I'm pretty sure I've got most of her covered on video. I've got VIKING SERENADE, too, just not sure i want to spend all that much time on the old girl as these take a lot of work but I may get to her at some point. :)
@@midshipcinema you know me by now I'm very patient, even if the video isn't the best it always counts with me. It's an opportunity to visit a ship on film that I didn't get to in the past.
I once ate at the Ports O'Call Restaurant a few years before that video was taken. Got to see Carnival's original Jubilee depart Los Angeles Harbor down the channel toward a fun cruise down to Ensenada. There was no shoreside greeting, but I could see that the passengers on deck were already putting the "fun" in "Fun Ship". This was back when Carnival still operated out of the San Pedro port; at the time, what is now the Long Beach Cruise Terminal was still the housing for the exhibit of the Hughes H-4 Hercules aka the "Spruce Goose" before it would be moved to McMinnville, Oregon.
Hi Peter. Great video (as usual). I too had the misfortune of sailing on VIKING SERENADE (I was on the four night to Ensenada, San Diego and Catalina). She was one of the most unremarkable ships I've ever been on....just plain boring. Food was average at best, and service was indifferent. The best thing about her was the paintings of MAURETANIA and UNITED STATES in one of her stair landings. I had an outside room that looked out onto the promenade deck....one day, food came up from the drain in the shower (while I was in it!). I always thought she was supposed to be the West Coast's equivalent to Miami's NORDIC EMPRESS, but she failed miserably. IMO, she was nothing more than a means to give RCCL a year-long presence on the short runs out of San Pedro. Hard to believe they kept her for 12 years.
Hah! Well, despite our experiences, she did have a loyal following. People who sailed in her were quick to brag how much better she was than the HOLIDAY and JUBILEE, her Carnival competition but the food and service were much better on the Carnival ships. NORDIC EMPRESS was like the Peninsula Hotel by comparison. Still, how nice it was for RCCL back then to have ships that weren't bigger than the islands they called at. Thanks for posting, Russ. :)
It was a very sad day when the incredibly popular TSS Fairstar left Australia on her final voyage. Many Australians were introduced to cruising through Sitmar and P&O.
Anything related to Sitmar makes my heart skip a beat. My grandma & great aunt started the family cruising trend in the 70's. Grandma camp Sitmar, Aunt Louise camp Princess. Listening to them compare cruise stories, I got the distinct impression that Sitmar was the more solid line. By the time I was old enough to cruise, Fairwind was in full Dawn Princess mode. Sadly, she was looking long in the tooth when I sailed aboard her in 1991, with some interiors & outter decks. Clearly a step child syndrome by Princess, compared to the still glamorous Pacific/Island Princess.
Marvelous!
Nice golden oldie, Peter 👍😃
Thank you, Frank. I love those classic ladies. :)
Thank you Peter .My Father worked on both the Carinthia nd Sylvania out of Liverpool in the 1960s
i used to know a bloke who was 3 rd engineer on carinthia
Oh, fantastic! I was too young to see them as Cunarders but loved them as Sitmar, Princess and in the case of SYLVANIA, Phoenix Reisen ships. I did get to see the LEONID SOBINOV and FEDOR SHALYAPIN in layup in the Ukraine and they were very much still the SAXONIA/CARMANIA and IVERNIA/FRANCONIA. Great ships with lots of character.
Oh what a treat. My favourite Knego videos!!
Thank you, Chris! A little bit of post-Cunard history in this one. I will get one of SAGAFJORD sailing up soon. :)
Great Video Peter👍The Fair Sea / Fair Princess was a really good looking ship. Sad that there are no more ships like her in active service😢
Thank you, Justin. Glad you enjoyed this short video. SO agree that FAIR P was beautiful to look at. She was even better in the Sitmar colors with that yellow stack. I miss those ships, too.
The SS France was an amazing steam ship that was still in use until recently. A boiler explosion ended its career. It would have been astronomically expensive to fix it.
Worked a couple of contracts on the Fair. Wasn't happy at first about going on the 'old' ship but ended up loving her.
She had soul. Wasn't terribly exciting on the inside but those promenades and outer decks were fantastic. I do miss her. My first visit was as a kid in April of 1974 when she was FAIRSEA.
Fantastic video! Thanks for posting! Fair Princess was very beautiful.
Thanks so much, Gary. She was a beauty.
I remember those Bon voyage greeting and the Horn salute from Ports of Call back in the early 80's when I sailed out of San Pedro on the Island Princess, and later the Pacific Princess! Interesting when I sailed on Carnival's Tropicale there were no greetings from Ports of Call on the 2 sailings I sailed on her!
Hah, yes! It was part of the L.A. cruise experience and sadly no more, now that Ports of Call has been torn down. Hopefully there will be a nice new replacement restaurant and vantage in its place. Thanks for posting. :)
Hi Peter. When the Scandinavia went into service she was a ferry ship with car decks accessed through her aft section. I toured the ship in Miami one weekend when she visited the port. I was a teenager then. She was an interesting ship on the inside. Later when I became a travel agent, Scandinavia became the Viking Serenade, and they gutted the car decks and added cabins to the aft section of the ship and retrofitted her Viking Crown Lounge. Years earlier, I was able to get aboard the first RCI Ships: Sun Viking, Nordic Prince and Song of Norway in Miami. Back in the day, all one had to do was show up at the pier, show some ID and walk aboard and I did that many times. I got to dine on all those old ships before I had become a travel agent in High School.
Hi Jeremy. Thanks so much for your post. I did see SCANDINAVIA in Miami from a distance way back in 1982 when boarding the CARNIVALE for a Caribbean Cruise and knew her well as STARDANCER, too. I think she was much better looking before Royal C added the Viking Crown. And while I do not love Royal C, I did love the first three ships and the SOVEREIGN trio, at least design-wise. It was the same here as for going on the ships. You just needed to sign a visitor's pass. The only exceptions back then were the Soviet ships and the QE2, where there was a ton of security involved and you needed permission from the line or ship in advance. Glad you got to experience all those lovely ships.
Thanks for sharing - sailed on the Fairwind on my second cruise. Would love to hear more about the Fair Princess/Dawn Princess in a future video.
Thank you, Andrew! I've got the FAIRWIND on video as DAWN PRINCESS but much more and better footage taken when she was ALBATROS, so hopefully soon. Appreciate the post.
hiya peter , thank you once again for giving us a glimpse of a real former ocean liner in the sun , please keep them coming , very best wishes from nick and tracy in wigan , lancashire , england
Greetings to you both and to Wigan, Lancashire! Thank you so much for watching and sharing in the joy of these elegant floating objects. :)
thank you peter@@midshipcinema
I remember Fair Princess from her time based in Sydney after she replaced the Fairstar.
She never quite clicked down there, even though she was a much more comfortable ship than FAIRSTAR. But FAIRSTAR was a hard act to follow. :)
such great footage of fair princess
Another nice video Peter. I will be watching for both videos. I would really prefer the older and much more beautiful FAIR PRINCESS over the VIKING SERENADE. However they are still smaller ships. Good job I really love this video.
Thanks so much, Deborah. I do hope to get to do a Decked! of FAIR P. I covered her over several visits and my footage isn't the best but I'm pretty sure I've got most of her covered on video. I've got VIKING SERENADE, too, just not sure i want to spend all that much time on the old girl as these take a lot of work but I may get to her at some point. :)
@@midshipcinema you know me by now I'm very patient, even if the video isn't the best it always counts with me. It's an opportunity to visit a ship on film that I didn't get to in the past.
I once ate at the Ports O'Call Restaurant a few years before that video was taken. Got to see Carnival's original Jubilee depart Los Angeles Harbor down the channel toward a fun cruise down to Ensenada. There was no shoreside greeting, but I could see that the passengers on deck were already putting the "fun" in "Fun Ship". This was back when Carnival still operated out of the San Pedro port; at the time, what is now the Long Beach Cruise Terminal was still the housing for the exhibit of the Hughes H-4 Hercules aka the "Spruce Goose" before it would be moved to McMinnville, Oregon.
Hi Peter. Great video (as usual). I too had the misfortune of sailing on VIKING SERENADE (I was on the four night to Ensenada, San Diego and Catalina). She was one of the most unremarkable ships I've ever been on....just plain boring. Food was average at best, and service was indifferent. The best thing about her was the paintings of MAURETANIA and UNITED STATES in one of her stair landings. I had an outside room that looked out onto the promenade deck....one day, food came up from the drain in the shower (while I was in it!). I always thought she was supposed to be the West Coast's equivalent to Miami's NORDIC EMPRESS, but she failed miserably. IMO, she was nothing more than a means to give RCCL a year-long presence on the short runs out of San Pedro. Hard to believe they kept her for 12 years.
Hah! Well, despite our experiences, she did have a loyal following. People who sailed in her were quick to brag how much better she was than the HOLIDAY and JUBILEE, her Carnival competition but the food and service were much better on the Carnival ships. NORDIC EMPRESS was like the Peninsula Hotel by comparison. Still, how nice it was for RCCL back then to have ships that weren't bigger than the islands they called at. Thanks for posting, Russ. :)
It was a very sad day when the incredibly popular TSS Fairstar left Australia on her final voyage. Many Australians were introduced to cruising through Sitmar and P&O.
Anything related to Sitmar makes my heart skip a beat. My grandma & great aunt started the family cruising trend in the 70's. Grandma camp Sitmar, Aunt Louise camp Princess. Listening to them compare cruise stories, I got the distinct impression that Sitmar was the more solid line. By the time I was old enough to cruise, Fairwind was in full Dawn Princess mode. Sadly, she was looking long in the tooth when I sailed aboard her in 1991, with some interiors & outter decks. Clearly a step child syndrome by Princess, compared to the still glamorous Pacific/Island Princess.