Royal Founders

[aloha of the seas]

I have been seeing many different groups that people belong to on this website. I have been thinking, is there a group for those of us who have sailed on RCCL original fleet: Song of Norway, Nordic Prince & Sun Viking. You could even make it more exclusive by including the Song of America and say all the ships that were not "of the seas".

 

If there isn't such a group, does anyone have any interest in forming such a group. After all we were there when RCCL got it all started and we can exchange some fond memories of the old ships and old ways.

 

Good Sailing, Murf

[Fury1995]

Count me in.

 

First cruise on Royal Caribbean was in 1980. M/S Sun Viking (have the original ship's manifest). First cruise on Royal Caribbean for my parents was the Sun Viking as well, in 1974. Back then, most cruises were two week cruises out of Miami.

[sea-cruise]

Count me in too. My favorite ship (even though it had the 70's blue & lime green colors and the cheesy plastic grass on the lido deck) was the Song of Norway. :D

[Trainman-2]

We sailed several times on the Song of America but RCI has no record of the sailings anymore and we have only one or two family photos.

[GXmanDC]

I am not eligible to join Royal Founders, but I would love to read the stories.

 

Not related to RCI, but on the topic of memories:

On my last cruise the couple in the stateroom acroos the hall met as crew members on the Royal Viking Line in the late 1980's. I loved hearing their stories about the ships and how different the cruise lines were back then. My favorite: they were on different ships, but realized that one would be leaving the Port of San Francisco while the other was coming into San Francisco. They "met" near the Golden Gate Bridge by each going to a predetermined place on the top deck and waving at the other.

[Aquahound]

Count me in if Song of America is included. I was pretty young. But I still remember some of it, like the bus in the sports bar.

[bubbie617]

We go waaaaayyyy back to 1983. Our first cruise was on Song of America when she was less than a year old. We have also done Sun Viking (loved the size!), Nordic Prince (twice) and Song of America a second time. A little off topic, but we sailed on the 11th sailing of Sovereign of the Seas. It was truly breathtaking to go aboard and see the first Centrum and the glass and brass. That was more than 20 years ago.

[negc]

We began sailing with Royal Caribbean in 1983 and it is probably easier to list the ships in the fleet that we haven't sailed on rather than those we have: Sun Viking, Monarch and Majesty of the Seas, Vision of the Seas, Serenade of the Seas, Adventure and Navigator of the Seas, and Independence of the Seas.:)

[glgolfer]

Our first 2 cruises were on the Song of Norway in 1987 and 1988.

Here's where she's been since RCI sold her. She has an interesting job starting this year.

http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/RCI_SongOfNorwayPCs.html#anchor336507

 

We loved the ship and the artwork. We did Western in 87, Southern in 88 and the Panama Canal full transit in 93 with Captain Bang.

[shipknotshore]

My 1st cruise was on the Nordic Prince. I thought she was just beautiful and huge. Not by todays standards would she be considered any where near huge. I remember there were more pax and crew on the ship than in the town I was born and raised in!!

[srlucado]

I need to learn to read more carefully.

 

I thought the title of this thread was "Royal Flounders"--and I thought, "What the heck is a Royal Flounder?"

[aloha of the seas]

After having another cruise cancelled in 1984 my travel agent tried to convince me that there was a great cruise line sailing out of Florida. I was reluctant to fly down there, but eventually she convinced me. First ship was the Song of Norway. We enjoyed that so much we booked the Nordic Prince right after that. Later on we did the Song of America and the Sun Viking to complete the original fleet. Good Sailing, Murf

[suzyluvs2cruise]

We fell in love with cruising on our first cruise on the Song of America in 1987. :)

We've been cruising ever since and have enjoyed 254 wonderful days at sea.

[COMBOY]

Count me in. I sailed on the Song of Norway in 1980, 1981 and 1982 and Song of American in 1986. Remember climbing those outside stairs up to the Viking Crown Lounge??

[cruzr4vr]

Our first cruise was on the Song of America when she was on the west coast doing the Mexican Riveria in 1992. Letty

[glgolfer]

comboy: my wife called them the Marilyn Monroe stairs as it was always windy.

[CruiseKeeper]

Our first was the Song of America; do you ever forget your first time? That's what started it for us and we sailed the SOA 2 more times. Count me in.:)

[morgan1312]

Our first was on Nordic Prince to Bermuda for our honeymoon, it was a fantastic cruise and got us hooked, took a while back then to afford another cruise, since we had 3 teenage girls between us to raise, but we're heading out on our 12th in about 3 weeks and it will be our 10 yo grandson's 7th (all with us), so in recent years it's our only form of vacation.....which is fine by me!

[Fury1995]

Count me in. I sailed on the Song of Norway in 1980, 1981 and 1982 and Song of American in 1986. Remember climbing those outside stairs up to the Viking Crown Lounge??

 

comboy: my wife called them the Marilyn Monroe stairs as it was always windy.

 

Exactly.

 

And if memory serves me.... it wasn't just the stairs that were windy, everywhere on deck was really really windy.

[isujim]

Yes I first sailed on the Nordic Prince.........great cruising experience.

[jebl]

First cruise was in '86 on Nordic Prince. It was our 25th anniv. I remember some of the fun pool games like Spoon Diving. DH (now deceased) and I got into a game where we had several couples, honeymooners, married 5 yrs, 10 yrs and us at 25 yrs. Wives were blindfolded and had to pick our their own husbands by feeling their head and chest. I was the only one who missed...I picked the honeymooner!!!!! He was the only other guy with no chest hair like my DH.

 

Being on a smaller ship like that we saw some of the people more often got to know them a little better.

 

I sure do miss those days.

[sea-cruise]

I participated in the "fill your bathing suit with ping pong balls" game and I won, but I couldn't move because I had so many stuffed inside the suit. :cool:

How about those portholes in the deep end where everyone could see you swimming in the pool? I wasn't aware of them until we were down on that deck walking down a hall and wondered what they were.....and we saw legs kicking underwater. Yikes! :eek:

P.S. You're right about those outside stairs to the Crown Lounge! They should have given us prizes for arriving up there with our hair still attached to our heads.

[twoputt.plusone]

My first cruise was on the Nordic Prince. :)

 

2P.P1

[linkerbink]

My first cruise was on the Song of America to Bermuda in 1996. I've now completed 6 RCL cruises, with 2 more in the wings. I LOVED the SOA...you could tell she had been around a bit, but was a lovely ship and a nice size for a first-time cruiser.

[reedoll]

my mother and i sailed on song of america to celebrate my 30th birthday in 1991. was the first cruise for both of us - had a great time and met some interesting people. was the first of many cruises since then on several different lines, including rccl, hal, princess and celebrity.

 

marie