Albatros (ship, 1973)
 The Albatros off Eckernförde
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The Albatros is a cruise ship that sails for the German tour operator Phoenix Reisen . She originally belonged to the Royal Viking Line as the Royal Viking Sea and replaced the turbine ship of the same name Albatros (ex Sylvania ) at Phoenix in 2004 . Her home port is Nassau in the Bahamas .
history
Construction and commissioning
Today's Albatros was commissioned on November 1, 1969 as the third ship of the Royal Viking Star class , which also includes the two sister ships Black Watch and Boudicca , for the Royal Viking Line at the Wärtsilä shipyard in Finland . When it was launched, it was given the name Royal Viking Sea, following the naming practice of Royal Viking . After the test drives, she left Bergen on January 19, 1974 for her maiden voyage to Newcastle. At that time she measured 21,847 GT with a length of 177.70 m and was used on worldwide cruises. The ships of the Royal Viking Star class differed from other cruise ships of their time in that they had a two-story cinema / theater hall in the front hull area (which still exists on the Albatros today), a restaurant high up in the ship with large viewing windows, and a glazed lounge above the bridge (today's Caribbean lounge of the Albatros ) and a disproportionately high number of suites. In addition, the number of passengers was deliberately kept low at around 550 in order to appeal to a more affluent audience.
renewal
Faced with the choice of building a fourth ship or expanding the existing ones, the Royal Viking Line decided in the early 1980s to expand all three ships in the class. By installing an additional midship section of 93 ft (27.77 m) in length, space was to be created for more cabins - including nine balcony suites for the first time - and the restaurant was to be enlarged so that a meal session could be accommodated despite the additional guests. The Royal Viking Sea was rebuilt from March 11 to June 5, 1983 at AG Weser in Bremen.
In fact, for a fraction of the cost of a new ship, space for an additional 600 passengers was created on all three ships combined. However, the enlargement was less popular with the guests, as it lost the original, comparatively intimate atmosphere on board.
On its first trip around the world after the renovation, the Royal Viking Sea rescued 151 survivors of the sunken Indian ferry Dojo off the coast of Celebes on November 29, 1983 .
Sale and change of shipping company
As a small luxury shipping company, the Royal Viking Line came under increasing financial pressure in the 1980s and was finally bought up by the Kloster Group in 1986 , which gradually transferred the three sister ships of the Royal Viking Star class to its subsidiaries. The Royal Viking Sea came to the Royal Cruise Line , received the new name Royal Odyssey and changed its home port from Oslo to Nassau (Bahamas). At the same time, by converting the previous officers' quarters on the bridge deck into suites, the capacity was increased to 850 guests.
But Kloster's financial situation also deteriorated and in 1994 the group had to file for bankruptcy. To raise capital, the Royal Odyssey was sold to the Actinor investor group and chartered back for two years. Possibly due to poor maintenance, she suffered two machine accidents off the west coast of the USA, which put her out of action for about a month each: on May 2, 1996 off San Francisco and on July 17, 1996 off Vancouver. In addition, a cruise had to be canceled in April 1997 because 350 passengers suffered from food poisoning.
With the expiry of the original charter contract, the ship's odyssey began through the hands of several shipping companies:
- Nov 1997 to Dec 1998 as Norwegian Star for the Norwegian Cruise Line (operating area: Caribbean)
- Jan 1999 to Jun. 2001 still as Norwegian Star for the Norwegian Capricorn Line (only ship of the company, shipping area: Australia and Oceania)
- Nov. 2001 to May 2002 as Norwegian Star 1 for Star Cruises (operating area: Caribbean)
- Jun. 2002 to Nov. 2002 as the casino ship Crown for Crown Investments ( operating area: East China Sea)
- Nov. 2002 to Feb. 2003 due to insolvency of Crown Investments launched in Shanghai
- Jun. 2003 to Nov. 2003 under the label Mare Nostrum (although it was officially called Crown ) for Halkion Viajes (shipping area: Mediterranean)
- Nov. 2003 to Feb. 2004 launched in Genoa
Use at Phoenix Reisen
At the beginning of 2004 the ship was sold to the Dutch company Cruise Club , which chartered it to the current operator Phoenix Reisen. Shortly before, Phoenix had parted with its first Albatros - the former transatlantic liner Sylvania (Bj. 1957) of the Cunard Line - and was looking for a replacement that was as similar as possible. After the first season, the new Albatros was extensively rebuilt from September 28 to December 20, 2005 at Blohm + Voss in Hamburg, including the replacement of the machinery and almost all public areas redesigned.
Since Cruise Club went bankrupt in November 2008, the Albatros has been owned by MS Albatros Shipping Ltd .; the charter to Phoenix Reisen was not affected by the change of ownership. One of the captains of the ship has been the Norwegian Morten Hansen since 2006. When he took command of Artania , which was also chartered by Phoenix Reisen, in 2013, the series Crazy About the Sea , which had been filmed on board since 2009, moved with him to the larger ship. Since season 7 (shot in 2016), the Albatros appears again as the second ship in the series.
On its westward voyage around the world on February 4, 2017 , the Albatros rescued six fishermen from their sinking boat Losemani Fo'ou in the South Pacific about 400 km off the coast of Tonga and brought them to Auckland, New Zealand.
Current routes
In spring and summer, the albatross is usually on the move in the North and Baltic Seas. In autumn she goes to the Mediterranean and Black Sea, before going on a world trip (or another big trip with more exotic destinations) over the winter.
The previous winter trips were / are:
- 2007/08 - world tour, westward
- 2008/09 - Circumnavigation of Africa
- 2009/10 - world tour, westward
- 2010/11 - world tour, westward
- 2011/12 - world tour, westward
- 2012/13 - Circumnavigation of Africa
- 2013/14 - Circumnavigation of South America
- 2014/15 - world tour, westward
- 2015/16 - world tour, eastward
- 2016/17 - world tour, westward
- 2017/18 - Circumnavigation of South America
- 2018/19 - world tour, westward
- 2019/20 - world tour, westward
- 2020/21 - Circumnavigation of South America
- 2021/22 - Circumnavigation of Africa / South Atlantic
Furnishing
- Denny-Brown fin stabilizers
- six bars, three salons and two restaurants, plus an outdoor pizzeria
- Shopping (perfumery / drugstore, jewelry, fashion)
- sporting activities (golf tee, fitness center, boccia, shuffleboard, table tennis / table football)
- large cinema (two decks high)
- Night club (disco)
- Library
- Wellness area (sauna, steam bath, whirlpool, solarium, massage)
Literature, media
- Parts of the shooting for the Erkan & Stefan film Death comes crass took place on the Albatros .
- For ARD , Bayerischer Rundfunk shot episodes 1 (season 1) to 80 (season 3) of the TV documentary series Crazy About the Sea on the Albatros in 2009 and 2010 with a crew from MOVING TIMES film production . From January 2010, the first 50 episodes were broadcast on ARD. Another 30 episodes were filmed from autumn 2011 and broadcast from October 11, 2012. The ship is not referred to by its actual name in the series, but always as the White Lady . With episode 331 (season 8), the film crew, who had meanwhile exclusively accompanied Artania , returned to the Albatros for a few episodes .
photos
The albatross in the Magdalenenfjord / Spitsbergen
The albatross in the Sognefjord / Norway
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Ship data of the Albatros ( Memento of December 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Det Norske Veritas .
- ^ A b Equasis - France Ministry for Transport: Administrative data of the "Albatros". Retrieved June 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Publications. Retrieved February 28, 2018 .
- ↑ a b Description of the ship on the Phoenix Reisen website , accessed on April 13, 2012
- ↑ a b c d technical data, biography of the Albatros (1973) , accessed on April 13, 2012
- ^ Kurt Ulrich: Monarchs of the Sea - the Great Ocean Liners. Tauris IB, 1999, ISBN 1-86064-373-6 .
- ^ A b c d Philip Dawson: Cruise Ships: An Evolution in Design. Conway Maritime Press, 2000, ISBN 0-85177-660-4 .
- ↑ a b c d Albatros , Castles of the Seas, accessed April 13, 2012.
- ↑ Welcome on board , accessed April 13, 2012
- ↑ Crazy About the Sea - Season 4.fernsehserien.de, accessed on December 19, 2013 .
- ↑ Crazy About the Sea - Season 7.fernsehserien.de, accessed on December 4, 2019 .
- ^ German cruise ship saves Fischer from Tonga , Spiegel, February 4, 2017, accessed on February 5, 2017.
- ↑ Phoenix Reisen website , accessed December 4, 2019
- ↑ Crazy about the sea , press information about the protagonists of the first season (PDF; 4.2 MB).
- ↑ Information on the TV series “Crazy About the Sea” , fernsehserien.de.
- ↑ Information on the series ( Memento from October 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), Das Erste.