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Whereabouts of Golden Odyssey...or Fernando?


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I sailed on the Golden Odyssey in the 1980's on Royal Cruise Line. It was a very nicely run small fleet of ships with great food and service, just prior to the megaship craze; they unfortunately went out of business shortly after the owner passed away. Does anyone know where the Golden or Royal Odyssey are sailing these days? Their third ship, Crown Odyssey is with Orient Lines I believe.

 

Also, they had a phenomenal cruise director named Fernando, someone out there must remember him...

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We also sailed Golden Odyssey, HongKong to Singapore, 11-86, hitting back end of typhoon in China Sea. Green water over bridge, screws out of water, inclinometer pegged several times. Rough 24 hrs!

 

I believe she is now sailing as either Astra II or Omar II.

 

Fernando was our CD on that trip, and I believe also when we were aboard

Crown Odyssey, 8-90, Southampton to NYC (won't swear to latter). He was probably the best CD we have had.

 

Not sure, but seem to remember being told that he went to Crystal for a short time, and then retired.

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Further re Fernando.

 

I believe he was Portugese, last name deOliviera or similar.

 

Several years ago he "featured" in Cruise Travel Magazine. He certainly was a wealth of informaton on cruising and ships' history.

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Michael is correct in that GOLDEN ODYSSEY became ASTRA II and then OMAR II, but now she's MACAU SUCCESS, operating overnight gambling cruises from Macau. You can see a nice "ship tour" with photos here.

 

Royal Cruise Line did not exactly go out of business, nor did the owner pass away. The original owner was Pericles Panagopoulos, who sold the company to Kloster Cruise (the then-owners of NCL) in 1989. Royal Cruise Line remained part of Kloster Cruise until 1996 when the brand was dissolved into NCL.

 

You can read about the whereabouts of the other former Royal Cruise Line ships here.

 

After selling Royal Cruise Line, Pericles Panagopoulos went on to found Superfast Ferries, now one of the biggest and most successful ferry companies in Europe.

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Michael is correct in that GOLDEN ODYSSEY became ASTRA II and then OMAR II, but now she's MACAU SUCCESS, operating overnight gambling cruises from Macau. You can see a nice "ship tour" with photos here.

 

Royal Cruise Line did not exactly go out of business, nor did the owner pass away. The original owner was Pericles Panagopoulos, who sold the company to Kloster Cruise (the then-owners of NCL) in 1989. Royal Cruise Line remained part of Kloster Cruise until 1996 when the brand was dissolved into NCL.

 

You can read about the whereabouts of the other former Royal Cruise Line ships here.

 

After selling Royal Cruise Line, Pericles Panagopoulos went on to found Superfast Ferries, now one of the biggest and most successful ferry companies in Europe.

 

Sorry to disagree, but...When I was on board in the 80's, I attended a presentation about the future of cruising by a guy named Dick Revnes; he was introduced as the founder and owner of Royal Cruise Line. A few days later in Capri, we ran into the same guy while shopping; I made a comment about needing to hurry up because it was getting late and I was afraid of missing the ship...his response was, "don't worry, the ship doesn't leave without me." Perhaps Panagopoulos bought the line from Revnes...?

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Fernando is with Silverseas currently. Panagopulos was the money man behind the cruiseline. Revnes was a former travel agent & the front man with the title of Founding President. I was on the Crown when it was sold, the crew found out by a newspaper report while docked during our cruise, it was not a happy time for the crew. Panagopulos getting a divorce at the time & Kloster gave him an offer he couldn't refuse. The last night of the cruise we were docked overnight in Pireaus, when we went out for the day the ship was registered in Greece; when we arrived back at night it was reflagged to bahamian registry. The greek crew would then be taxed for their income, which was tax-free under Greek registry. It forced many of the excellent crew members to leave the line & go to another greek registered line. Revnes did pass away but not till years after the sale, this October he was inducted into CLIA hall of fame.

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I think his name is Fernando de Olivera. I sailed with him as a CD once on Royal Viking Line years ago. What amazed me about him was that he strived to be able to place a name with a face within 2 days of the cruise beginning. I can't seem to remember anyone's name!

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The late Richard Revnes was certainly with Royal Cruise Line, but he was not the owner. Pericles Panagopoulos owned the company, Revnes was in charge of marketing etc.

 

I wasn't aware that Mr. Panagopoulos was getting divorced at the time - I do know that he realized he couldn't compete with the huge transnational cruise corporations like Carnival, so when approached by Kloster, he sold.

 

Ironically, Kloster got very close to bankruptcy several times in the mid 1990s and eventually went under - but by then Panagopoulos was long gone from the cruise business, having taken control of the publicly-traded Attica Enterprises and using it to start up Superfast. Later, Attica bought a controlling interest in Strintzis Line which became Blue Star Ferries, Superfast's domestic affiliate. They also recently ented the ro-ro cargo market with Attica Ro-Ro, and recently became minority shareholders of the leading Greek domestic ferry operator Hellenic Seaways and Superfast's own competitor in the Adriatic, Minoan Lines. With these acquisitions, the newly-renamed Attica Group has become arguably the most powerful company in the Greek fery industry. In particular, Superfast with their big, new, fast ships managed to completely turn around the image of Greek ferries; Greek ferry operators having previously been known for rather dingy secondhand ships.

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I stand corrected on Revnes. I remember the name, but associated him with Crystal.

 

First time we were on Crown Odyssey, it was flying the Greek flag. Second time, it had been changed to Bahamian registry.

 

Royal Cruise Lines was a class act in its day. They had the best "meet and great" at the time.

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I think his name is Fernando de Olivera. I sailed with him as a CD once on Royal Viking Line years ago. What amazed me about him was that he strived to be able to place a name with a face within 2 days of the cruise beginning. I can't seem to remember anyone's name!

 

I travelled with my parents on the Golden Odyssey around 1985, then several years later as we were boarding the Crown Odyssey, Fernando sees us on the gangway and greets us by name without ever seeing our documents. I was very impressed.

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  • 11 years later...

Very nice memories of the Golden Odyssey and the Royal Odyssey. Fantastic crew and Staff. No posts on this thread for over 11 years, but still happy thoughts remain in my mind. Thanks to the previous posters for re-igniting the happiness. My favorite Alaska cruise and a short 'Mexican Riviera' cruise happened aboard these ships. And I repeat, a 'ton' of happy memories. Thanks Royal Cruise Line!

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  • 5 years later...

I believe the Tenerife Air Disaster 27 March 1977 involving a Royal Dutch KLM 747 and a PanAm 747 which collided at the airport was connected to Golden Odyssey.  It was organised as an early "Fly-Cruise" about the Canary Islands for people from the US and the PanAm charter was entirely cruise ship passengers who were intending to embark at the original island the aircraft was scheduled to land at.  Ther were some survivors on the PanAm but the KLM was a total loss.  A very sad incident.

 

Regards John

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  • 6 months later...

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