NCL and HAL in 95/96

[Boatingmom]

I sailed HAL in 95 and NCL in 96. HAL was western carribean out of New Orleans. NCL was eastern Carribean out of PR. One of the ships was the Neu Amsterdam and the other possibly the Norway. Anybody to confirm which ship sailed for which line??? Its driving me crazy & I don't want to start going into the junk in the attic.

[etoile]

The Norway (ex-France) was owned by NCL right up until it was ready for the breakers. To my knowledge it has not actually been delivered to Alang yet but I know it's on the way. :( Some pictures and info:

http://www.maritimematters.com/norway.html

http://www.ssmaritime.com/norway-france.htm

 

The Neu Amsterdam was definitely owned by HAL. I'm not sure what's become of her, though - perhaps someone has more information? (Corrections about the Norway would be welcome too.)

[Lisa63]

HAL's Nieuw Amsterdam was sold to US Lines in 2000, and sailed for them as Patriot until the line went under a year later. She is now, last I checked, sailing as Thomson Spirit for UK-based Thomson cruises.

 

Are you certain the ship you sailed from Puerto Rico was SS Norway? While she did have San Juan and St. Thomas as ports of call, I'm pretty sure she always sailed from Miami. Could that have been the case, or might you have been on Windward?

[Boatingmom]

Thanks for the Niew Amsterdam Info. On NCL in April of 96 I am positive I sailed out of PR. The itinerary included St Thomas, Barbados, Martinique and Antigua. Could this have been the Norway? Definitly not the Windward. That does not sound remotely familiar. The New Amsterdam was the most elegant ship I've been on thus far. Teak Prominade the entire way around the ship and butler service offering Bloody Marys at 10:00am!.

[bs_kc]

I sailed the Norwegian Seaward put of San Juan in 1997...

San Juan

Santo Domingo

St. Thomas

St. Maarten

St. Kitts

St Lucia

[Lisa63]

I just checked my old Cruise Travel magazines (yes, I actually keep this stuff, lol). NCL had two ships sailing out of San Juan in 1996. One of them was Seaward, which did alternating itineraries. I'll bet this was your ship. One of the itineraries was:

 

Barbados

Martinique

St. Maarten

Antigua

St. John/St. Thomas

 

Hope this helps. If it doesn't, I have many more issues of Cruise Travel. :)

[dougnewmanatsea]

First, a clarification about NORWAY... She is, as of now, still owned by Star Cruises (now the parent company of NCL) and is laid-up off Port Klang in Malaysia. Star tried to sell her for scrap but due to convoluted legal/political issues which I won't get into here, this turned out not to be feasible. As a result, they still own her and are trying their best to find someone who wants her though at this point nobody seems to. She has become a real albatross around their neck I'm afraid.

 

Now, as for your ships... NIEUW AMSTERDAM, built for HAL in 1983, was chartered in 2000 to American Classic Voyages/United States Lines in 2000 and renamed PATRIOT. They went out of business after 9/11 which resulted in the ship being returned to HAL and briefly renamed NIEUW AMSTERDAM again. In 2002 she was chartered to Louis Cruise Lines who in turn sub-chartered her to the British tour operator Thomsonhttp://. She is now with them as THOMSON SPIRIT and has since been joined by her sister, the former NOORDAM, now THOMSON CELEBRATION. Still owned by HAL, these two have become very popular and successful ships in the UK, offering a good product and interesting itineraries at very low fares.

 

As for the NCL ship, as I recall the two ships NCL had operating from San Juan in the spring of 1996 were SEAWARD and WINDWARD... So if "your" ship wasn't WINDWARD, it must have been SEAWARD. The only reason I remember this is that I sailed in SEAWARD from San Juan in February 1996! We met up with WINDWARD at Tortola, and we were able to visit WINDWARD while her passengers were allowed to visit SEAWARD. WINDWARD was a far nicer ship - SEAWARD, built in 1988, was/is one of my absolute least favorite ships, built on the cheap in a time when NCL desperatly needed as much new tonnage as they could afford to keep up with competitors like Carnival and Royal Caribbean. So they built the biggest ship they could get for their money, the result being, in my opinion, a pretty awful ship.

 

She was renamed NORWEGIAN SEA in 1997 as NCL did away with the -WARD names and amazingly stayed with NCL until last year, when she was taken over by their now-parent company Star Cruises to open up a new market in India. She was renamed SUPERSTAR LIBRA, and in the Northern Winter she operates for the Indian market while in Summer she is being positioned in the Mediterranean for Europeans. While she is fine for India - where there is no competition - I am perplexed as to how they will sell her in the Med where there are dozens and dozens of infinitely nicer ships running very similar itineraries... And those competitors will also have the advantage of having "familiar" brand names like Costa whereas Star is not well-known at all outside Asia! So it remains to be seen how she does in Europe. In India, though, she seems to be a success - I just wonder how long it will be before the Indian market demands a better ship.