After receiving the sad but not unexpected news that Louis Cruises had sold their cruise ship IVORY, the former 1957-built AUSONIA, for scrap, I knew another trip to Alang was in my future. As the one-time pride of Adriatica Lines Venice to Alexandria service was being reactivated for her final voyage to India where she [...]
As this MONA LISA/KUNGSHOLM Decked! is revisited eight years on, the lovely liner is dead-headed to Piraeus to destore fittings prior to being sold. It appears that two attempts to bring the ship to Sweden (the first to her former home port of Gothenburg and the second, to Stockholm) have officially collapsed. The ex KUNGSHOLM, [...]
The 1955-built mini-liner MV WAPPEN VON HAMBURG, after a long life and years of neglect, is about to embark upon a new life along the San Francisco waterfront as the MV AURORA. Part one of this Decked! feature details this handsome ship’s history from German coastal liner to pioneering cruise ship and Christian accommodation vessel [...]
Join Peter Knego on his latest Sea Trek aboard the 1955-built MV AURORA (ex WAPPEN VON HAMBURG, DELOS, PACIFIC STAR, POLAR STAR, XANADU, EXPEX, FAITHFUL) as she is towed from her recent moorings at Rio Vista in the Sacramento River Delta to her new home, Pier 38 on San Francisco’s revitalized waterfront. Click here to [...]
This is a top to bottom virtual tour of the MS PHILIPPINES (former AUGUSTUS) as the ship is today. Some of the original furnishings have since been replaced with stackable conference seating and the ship has been moved to a new slip with direct access from the back patio of the Manila Hotel. Recent reports [...]
The MS PHILIPPINES is the last surviving genuine Italian ocean liner, having spent the past 34 years in Asia, either laid up or in part time use as an adjunct to the Manila Hotel. This page shows the beautifully preserved ship in her original guise as Italian Lines’ proud motorliner AUGUSTUS of 1951. MS PHILIPPINES, [...]
This is the fourth and final page in our comprehensive Decked! top to bottom tour of the NORWEGIAN EPIC, one of the most anticipated and, to some, controversial, new cruise ships to come along in years. Decks 6 and 5 are devoted to public spaces such as the main entertainment venues, the casino, several dining [...]
The third of four pages of the Decked! top to bottom tour of Norwegian Cruise Lines’ NORWEGIAN EPIC covers much of the non-villa suite accommodation, the remarkable and innovative “Studio” cabins and the suite of public spaces on Deck 7. Norwegian Cruise Line Dawning Of A New Norwegian Epoch: MV NORWEGIAN EPIC Sea Treks Blog [...]
The second of four pages in the comprehensive Decked! tour of NORWEGIAN EPIC covers the top deck areas, including the ship’s Aqua Park with its three massive water slides, the pools and sports deck facilities as well as the Garden Cafe, playroom and spa. Norwegian Cruise Line Dawning Of A New Norwegian Epoch: MV NORWEGIAN [...]
The first in a whopping four Decked! installments covers the NORWEGIAN EPIC’s ship-within-a-ship Villa Complex. The massive block-like structure atop the bridge was conceived from the inside out, which explains why it is so unapologetically angular. Norwegian Cruise Line Dawning Of A New Norwegian Epoch: MV NORWEGIAN EPIC Sea Treks Blog by Peter Knego Quadruple [...]
