Prinsendam turns 30

The Royal Viking Sun was built by Wärtsilä Marine at Turku shipyard and launched in 1988. The Prinsendam will return to Turku Finland on June 11. I hear some onboard event is planned to honor 30 years of service!

Thank you for the information.

Thanks so much ;)

Darn we will be off by then but those staying on will enjoy :)

It should be a llot of of fun :)

The Royal Viking Sun was built by Wärtsilä Marine at Turku shipyard and launched in 1988. The Prinsendam will return to Turku Finland on June 11. I hear some onboard event is planned to honor 30 years of service!

One more year and she will be gone, so sad....

One more year and she will be gone, so sad....

And the source of your news, please?

And the source of your news, please?

No more cruises after Dec 2019...

There are a lot of holes in the schedule fleetwide for fall/winter/spring 2019/20. HAL usually does not publish their full schedule as far out as some other lines. Until they publish the rest of the fleetwide schedule (possibly not until July/August of this year) any rumored departure of the MS Prinsendam is just that, a rumor.

No more cruises after Dec 2019...

I would not take that as a sure sign of her departure from the fleet. Maasdam also has no cruises listed yet in 2020, but HAL has really been hyping her new EXC voyages so I'd be surprised if she's done for either. HAL is often slow in getting their cruises posted, so I'm a little surprised that they have much up already for two years out. And I imagine that it's a little harder to nail down the unique itineraries of Prinsendam and now Maasdam, so I won't believe any of the ships will be gone until I see an official press release from Seattle. There have been so many rumors of the demise of Prinsendam, Maasdam, and Veendam here, yet still they sail....

Happy birthday. Hope she sails on.

Hope they keep her for a long time to come.

HAL President Ashford claimed on a recent Veendam cruise they expect to get a 30 year life from any ship and then evaluate whether if the ongoing maintenance costs justify keeping it in the fleet longer than that. Capt Albert mentioned a few years ago HAL was worried they would lose the Prinsendam loyalists to another cruise line, if they got rid of her after her 30 year sale date. is the new version of the Maasdam now being "groomed" to take over the "Elegant Explorer" role if the Prinsendam does leave the fleet?

2017 CCL Annual Report only vaguely mentions their intention about adding and subtracting its overall fleet inventory. So any other non-official news about any ship falls well into the realm of swirling rumors. Five years ago on the Prinsendam they predicted she would have at least five more years because the rumors were strong then that she would soon be gone five years ago. Now those five years have passed and she is still there and apparently still sailing strong.

Last fall on the Prinsendam, during a q and a with the captain and other officers, we were told that as long as she is making money, she will remain in the fleet. The expectation was she would stay at least five more years and possibly up to ten more.

The drydock scheduled for next December will be the big one they do every ten years where all the major systems, mechanics and components will be surveyed. The officers and crew were already going over the ship and doing major work behind the scenes in preparation for the drydock.

Happy Birthday!

I hope she sails with HAL for many more years.

IRRC, there were some major renovations done to her at the last drydock. Major $ spent. I suspect they plan on keeping her around (at least I hope so). Her hull also has to be inspected since she is at the 30 year mark, but my understanding is that there are no problems anticipated.

Happy to be back on her in less than a month :)

IRRC, there were some major renovations done to her at the last drydock. Major $ spent. I suspect they plan on keeping her around (at least I hope so). Her hull also has to be inspected since she is at the 30 year mark, but my understanding is that there are no problems anticipated.

 

Happy to be back on her in less than a month :)

Last fall, we were told that they were planning on replacing the hull plates that had been bent or “wrinkled” to make her look better. See my previous post, #12, regarding other items mentioned for the drydock.

I do not remember specific items for the interior, but I think there will be some. She was still looking good last fall.

Last fall, we were told that they were planning on replacing the hull plates that had been bent or “wrinkled” to make her look better. See my previous post, #12, regarding other items mentioned for the drydock.

 

I do not remember specific items for the interior, but I think there will be some. She was still looking good last fall.

Saw your post and read it before I replied and wasn't trying to be difficult.

The hull itself must pass. I've been doing some reading ;). Including the HAL blog. Bent plates are irrelevant. The hull must pass. They go through serious inspections when a ship is this age. I am sure it will the way she cuts through the waves. After all, she was built for quality. :)

Saw your post and read it before I replied and wasn't trying to be difficult.

 

The hull itself must pass. I've been doing some reading ;). Including the HAL blog. Bent plates are irrelevant. The hull must pass. They go through serious inspections when a ship is this age. I am sure it will the way she cuts through the waves. After all, she was built for quality. :)

I did not think you were trying to be difficult. I just thought you might have missed it or like me, forgotten about it.

When we were told about the hull plates, we were told the hull was in good shape and built with a thick hull and built to last. The new replacement plates were to be for cosmetic reasons. That makes me believe they are really committed to keeping her in the fleet as long as possible.

Last fall on the Prinsendam, during a q and a with the captain and other officers, we were told that as long as she is making money, she will remain in the fleet. The expectation was she would stay at least five more years and possibly up to ten more.

 

The drydock scheduled for next December will be the big one they do every ten years where all the major systems, mechanics and components will be surveyed. The officers and crew were already going over the ship and doing major work behind the scenes in preparation for the drydock.

Carnival let Cunard run QE2 until she was 40 and she would have kept going a couple more years had they not gotten that monster unsolicited offer to buy her from Dubai. The same management team ran SS Rotterdam for 38 years. Both ships much more mechanically complicated and costlier to run than Prinsendam.

She’s extremely well built and doesn’t have all the hard to market quirks of a former ocean liner given she’s a purpose built cruise ship. At the same time the market is once again embracing smaller, more upscale ships. I think unless something catastrophic happened mechanically there’s no reason to think Carnival/HAL wouldn’t keep this ship just as long as the venerable other ones they’ve owned in the past.

is the new version of the Maasdam now being "groomed" to take over the "Elegant Explorer" role if the Prinsendam does leave the fleet?

I was wondering this myself. So much focus on destinations and unique experiences, even more so than the rest of the fleet, sure seems like it could be the logical replacement for Prinsendam itineraries, especially with the zodiacs and whatnot. Definitely some one of a kind cruises to be had.

Just hope they've done some major renovations to the ship. Saw her a couple years ago and was VERY unimpressed. (Never been a fan of the S Class anyway... but yikes!)

I was wondering this myself. So much focus on destinations and unique experiences, even more so than the rest of the fleet, sure seems like it could be the logical replacement for Prinsendam itineraries, especially with the zodiacs and whatnot. Definitely some one of a kind cruises to be had.

 

Just hope they've done some major renovations to the ship. Saw her a couple years ago and was VERY unimpressed. (Never been a fan of the S Class anyway... but yikes!)

A few of us here are on her maiden InDepth voyage - 34 day FLL to Papeete - "Kon Tiki" starting mid Sept, 2018. We shall pay attention to all the details about this new brand of explorer cruising and report back - mid October 2018. It is all a mystery to us right now.

We were on the Maasdam last September (2017) and thought she was in lovely shape, except for the very strong vibrations that no one else reported on later cruises. We were having to cruise at top speed on that Panama transit cruise to avoid hurricanes, get to Panama on time and make sure she arrived in San Diego to start her new trans-pacific routes, so maybe that was just beyond her reasonable capacities for smooth sailing.

A few of us here are on her maiden InDepth voyage - 34 day FLL to Papeete - "Kon Tiki" starting mid Sept, 2018. We shall pay attention to all the details about this new brand of explorer cruising and report back - mid October 2018. It is all a mystery to us right now.

 

We were on the Maasdam last September (2017) and thought she was in lovely shape, except for the very strong vibrations that no one else reported on later cruises. We were having to cruise at top speed on that Panama transit cruise to avoid hurricanes, get to Panama on time and make sure she arrived in San Diego to start her new trans-pacific routes, so maybe that was just beyond her reasonable capacities for smooth sailing.

Thankfully she hasn’t gone through that awful refit Veendam got when they ripped out the aft outdoor pool and replaced them with the sorriest excuse for “hot tubs”. Makes her much better suited to longer cruises than Veendam- especially to the South Pacific.

Carnival let Cunard run QE2 until she was 40 and she would have kept going a couple more years had they not gotten that monster unsolicited offer to buy her from Dubai. The same management team ran SS Rotterdam for 38 years. Both ships much more mechanically complicated and costlier to run than Prinsendam.

 

She’s extremely well built and doesn’t have all the hard to market quirks of a former ocean liner given she’s a purpose built cruise ship. At the same time the market is once again embracing smaller, more upscale ships. I think unless something catastrophic happened mechanically there’s no reason to think Carnival/HAL wouldn’t keep this ship just as long as the venerable other ones they’ve owned in the past.

I hope you're right, maybe she can last another 5 years, but the Hal management is more focused on bigger is better...

Thankfully she hasn’t gone through that awful refit Veendam got when they ripped out the aft outdoor pool and replaced them with the sorriest excuse for “hot tubs”. Makes her much better suited to longer cruises than Veendam- especially to the South Pacific.

Recently on the Veedam and was surprised how well-used the aft deck turned out to be and how large those multiple hot tubs were. You could move around and even paddle a bit is some of them. Definitely an improvement over the Rotterdam aft deck bird baths and ceramic loungers.

Agree, retaining all the classic features of the Maasdam keeps her special and the aft deck pool is almost like a secret space - not unlike the Prinsendam aft pool. One real drawback on the redesgned Veendam aft deck was having such a small shaded seating area by the pizza station.

The Royal Viking Sun was built by Wärtsilä Marine at Turku shipyard and launched in 1988. The Prinsendam will return to Turku Finland on June 11. I hear some onboard event is planned to honor 30 years of service!

Thank you for posting this information as we'll be sailing on the Prinsendam then and will look forward to the celebration.

I remember talking for an hour with the Prisendam Chief Engineer last summer that he said the Prisendam was built so well and to such high standards that in today’s world she would cost the same price as Pinnacle ships.

I have no idea whether that was pride speaking or validity.

I do know that Holland America has invested a lot of money into Her with state of the art fire suppression systems, water purification systems and more.

Looking forward to 32 days on Her in October 2019.

Last summer she was looking great and we both commented looked pretty much new.

Okay! There was a tear on my favorite chair in Ocean Bar! Added to the ambiance of sailing on this historical vessel.:)