Since 2009, RCL’s quartet Oasis-class ships, Oasis-, Allure-, Symphony- and Harmony of the Seas hold the title of being the largest cruise ships ever constructed and with a building price of  around $ 1.4 billion each, being a most valuable export article to leave Finland and France (the Oasis and Allure were built at STX Finland now Meyer Turku, […]

The spectacular new Celebrity newbuilding Celebrity Edge, to be followed by Celebrity Apex in 2020 and two more in 2022, is recognizable from afar by the orange structure that hangs from her side. This is as Richard Fain, CEO of Royal Caribbean had specified: “our new vessel needs to be recognized from as far away as possible”. So

Viking Cruises is rapidly expanding in the luxury segment of the cruise industry, It currently (2019 nvo) has 6 active ships and yet another 12 vessels on order until 2027. Built between 2015 and 2027 with delivery of at least one ship a year, Viking is set to become the world’s leading luxury cruise line. The company is

Today, Marco Polo is one of the oldest cruise ships in active service. She  dates from 1964 when her keel was laid down at the East German yard of Mathias Thesen. The following year, she was completed and started her lengthy career as Alexandr Pushkin (Alexandr Pushkin was a Soviet writer, killed at the age of 38 in a

Albert Ballin started his career with HAPAG (Hamburg Amerikanische Paketfahrt Aktien Gesellschaft) as manager of the passage department and within two years rose to Managing Director. Ballin noted that the company’s flagship Auguste Viktoria spent all winter in lay up, thus not making any money. Of course the reason for this was that passengers avoided the inclement

Caronia is one of the first luxury cruises ships of the postwar era. The (British) cruising market was divided mainly between three vessels at the time, for budget cruises the Pacific Steam Navigation Company and later Union Castle Line operated the Reina del Mar, for the middle class there was Royal Mail’s Andes and for long (expensive) cruises Caronia was introduced

The Hurtigruten company, which is the result of a merger between two Norwegian shipping companies, OVDS & TFDS, has been operating ships on expedition cruises in the Polar regions since about the turn of the century, almost twenty years now. The company set out to be the market leader in polar expedition cruising and is

One of the first brochures in my collection dating from 1975 – it is of a Dutch tour-operator specialized in cruising, Zeetours-  some last minute cruise news is included the last page: a Greek shipping Tycoon,  John Carras would introduce two brand new vessels, Danae and Daphne. Both 5 -star de luxe vessels, measuring 10,160 GRT. They would

Around 1970, Scandinavian-designed cruise ships dominated the market. Newbuildings for NCL, Royal Caribbean and Royal Viking Line were examples of this new series of passenger ships. Sea Venture and Island Venture belonged to the same breed of ships, being designed by Tage Wandborg, a naval architect from Denmark for Norwegian owned Flagship Cruises. Measuring 19,903GRT,  they carried 626 passengers

For interior photographs of Hurtigruten ships please check out the Cruiseships-page where Fram, Midnatsol, Nordnorge and Trollfjord are featured; interior photographs of the 1952 built Hakon Jarl can be found on the Static ships page. Èvery day of the year, one of the coastal express ships of the Hurtigruten-service leaves the port of Bergen, Norway, for a twelve-day trip along the coast