Cunard Princess

Where is she now???

Cunard sold her in 1994 to Starlauro who renamed her RHAPSODY.

Starlauro has since morphed into MSC Crociere, the fourth-largest cruise line in the world after Carnival, RCI, and Star Cruises, and the second-largest in Europe after Carnival subsidiary Costa.

RHAPSODY is still with MSC, though it is expected that she and their two other older vessels, MELODY and MONTEREY, will leave the fleet in the next few years as they make way for the new mega-ships that MSC have on order (they already have four new mid-sized ships; LIRICA, OPERA, ARMONIA and SINFONIA).

In the past few years, MSC have poured a lot of money into the older ships, and RHAPSODY recently had a big refit. I think she looks far better than she ever did as a Cunarder.

You can see some excellent photos of her here.

:) Did a 14 day Eastern Med. cruise on her in Aug. '92. Nice size and not too many passengers due to her size. Lost 12 lbs due to heat and humidity walking around ashore on her stops. Hope they got the toilet back-ups fixed. Lower deck folks has a few of their cabins flooded. Cunard's code word for that problem on her PA system was "Phoenix" for plumber to cabins such and such. Remember it was about $130 a day PP for an upper deck inside cabin including Air from SFO to Rome and SFO from Athens after a few days lay over there to visit old friends from our posting there in 60-63. It must of been the weekly Greek immigrant flight on TWA's 747 as the 100 or so Greeks could not read English and they plugged up the toilets in 7 of the 8 Blue rooms with used hand towels.

:) Did a 14 day Eastern Med. cruise on her in Aug. '92. Nice size and not too many passengers due to her size. Lost 12 lbs due to heat and humidity walking around ashore on her stops. Hope they got the toilet back-ups fixed. Lower deck folks has a few of their cabins flooded. Cunard's code word for that problem on her PA system was "Phoenix" for plumber to cabins such and such. Remember it was about $130 a day PP for an upper deck inside cabin including Air from SFO to Rome and SFO from Athens after a few days lay over there to visit old friends from our posting there in 60-63. It must of been the weekly Greek immigrant flight on TWA's 747 as the 100 or so Greeks could not read English and they plugged up the toilets in 7 of the 8 Blue rooms with used hand towels.

Funny, we did a Black Sea cruise on the Princess in 1990 and my mother-in-law frequently had to walk over "squishy" carpets due to blocked up toilets. Supposedly that was to be fixed in a 1991 refit.

It was my first (and strangest) cruise, back in November of 1978. The Princess was being touted by Cunard as "the newest cruise ship in the world". I sailed her out of Port Everglades to the E. Carib. When we arrived in our first port (San Juan), we learned that the ship was having an engine problem. We were delayed an extra day in Puerto Rico while repairs were made, and then we proceeded to St. Thomas. Our itinerary was then scheduled to take us to someplace in the Dominican Republic and, I believe, the Bahamas before returning to Florida.

As we left St. Thomas, however, we found out that the engine problem had returned. Instead of the D.R., we went to Tortola in the B.V.I. For those of you who have been there, try to imagine Tortola back in 1978.

It was a small town with a dirt road, and nothing much more. I suppose there were beaches somewhere on the island, but we never saw any of these as this was an "unscheduled stop". From Tortola, we were surprised to learn that we would now be visiting another port of call that wasn't on our itinerary ... St. Croix. We found it to be a nice place, similar in many regards to St. Thomas. No excursions were offered, but luckily I ran into a friend of mine who worked at the port there and he took me on an automobile tour of the island. Not bad.

Then we learned "the rest of the story", as the famed commentator would say. The ship was not returning to Port Everglades at that time. She was returning to San Juan for further engine repairs. As for the passengers ... we were to be flown back to Florida. Our cruise was over! Chartered American Airlines aircraft would fly us to Miami. Miami? Not Fort Lauderdale, but to Miami. They would then have those of us who had vehicles at Port Everglades bused to that location from Miami International Airport.

As we stood outside the Purser's office on the ship that last day, we spoke with an elderly gentleman who had driven to Port Everglades from Michigan in order to take this cruise. He had driven all that way because he was afraid to fly! And now he was being told that the only way he would get back to Florida was by air. The poor guy was devastated! But what could he do? I don't know if anybody else out there in CruiseCritics cyber-space was on that same voyage, but it was a cruise-to-remember, believe me.

And my first cruise at that. It was another 16 years before I ever stepped onto my second cruise ship.

Jack

I spent a few nights on her when she was docked in Bahrain during Desert Storm. They were using her for troop berthing and R&R. I recall the shower and room were so small that it turned me off of cruising for a while.

I can still remember having our dancing interrupted by SCUD missile sirens--we'd just don our gas masks and keep dancing.

We did a 14 day Eastern Med cruise on her back in the 90's -- Egypt, etc -- really great

Remember that they had just installed a computerize communications system in the Radio Room. This included satellite TV. It kept going out just after we sailed from Italy. Being a recently retied communications officer U.S. Govt. I offered to take a look at the problem. Seems the operators were still doing what they had been doing with the old radio equipment and were smoking, eating and no AC in the Radio Room. I knew at that time that a computer equipment area needs to be very clean and cool, about 70 F. Somehow they cleaned up their act and cooled the area and we all had TV again. Brits too proud to say thanks as I remember.

I did a search on this ship just for fun. This was my first cruise back in the early 1980‘s. My husband and I did a repositioning cruise, just a few days long, from Vancouver to Port of Los Angeles. We lost an engine then! How funny is that? I did find out I loved cruising, despite the problems and delay. I thought all cruise ships just served caviar all the time. And then my next cruise was Carnival... Wow, that was a rude awakening. Now I am loyal to Royal, or more accurately, to Celebrity. I have fond memories of that first cruise. I'm glad I found this old thread.