Sailed on Norway? Not "to" but "on".

[Homeseller]

we sailed on her 3 times and were set to go on a fourth when she had a boiler blow while entering the port of Miami.

She was towed to Europe and then to India where she was cut up. A great ship.

[bostoncruisegal]

The Norway was my first cruise.  I was 20 years old in stuffed in a port hole room with 3 friends but we had a blast.

 

It was also the sailing a crew member fell overboard, and was miraculously found 10 hours later.

[CANDYAPPLE]

25 years ago this week, I took my daughter (R.I.P.) on her graduation cruise (her first, my second) She was a grand old ship built as the SS France in 1970, just when air travel was replacing trans Atlantic crossings by ship. (which I had done in 1954) I remember the date of the boiler explosion while docked in Miami, May 25th, as it is my birthday. I followed, with great interest, the saga of the renamed, " Blue Lady" to her final demise in Alang, India. No, she doesn't reside on the bottom of the ocean as someone suggested earlier! She was first towed to Germany to have a new boiler fabricated, but due to cost and all the asbestos aboard, she was deemed unsafe. At one point, NCL announced she would become a floating hotel, but that was apparently a cover story for her eventual tow to India. 

  We lost a piece of history with the end of the Norway.

[DCT61]

My first cruise ever. I went solo in a tiny inside cabin on Biscayne deck (B-136) The cost of my cruise was $1,250.00 It was September of 1983. The entertainment was: THE FIFTH DIMENSION...NORM CROSBY and SHIELDS AND YARNELL. There was a Broadway-style play, MY FAIR LADY, and a revue called SEA LEGS.  Ill never forget it. The ship was beautiful and had many places to explore. The ship went to Nassau, St Thomas and Great Stirrup Cay. I had always hoped to sail on her again...but the bigger, flashier ships called and I never got the chance. Pity.

[Lupush]

Love these old pics.  Thanks to all those who shared.

[LuvBNatC]

Just came across this thread and it's given me chills to see all the photos. I didn't think anyone much remembered the Norway.

 

Took my first cruise on her in 1988 and sailed 22 more times, the last voyage about three months before the boiler explosion.

 

I wish she had sunk while she was being towed to India. For several years she was left wide open on the beach at Alang until the possibility to refloat her was gone and the scrapping commenced. I've seen photos of her stair towers buried under a foot of white mold and bird droppings everywhere, not to mention the nightmarish photos of her dismantling. I would have preferred to think of her lying on the bottom of the ocean in peace, intact.

 

I've got 3 storage boxes of Norway memorabilia under my bed because I couldn't bear to see the stuff around the house after her terrible demise. T-shirts, mugs, a jigsaw puzzle, keychains, pins, you name it, I've got it. I could open a shop.

Edited June 10, 2019 by LuvBNatC
typo

[Diver2014]

A truly great ocean liner.  I only have one box of memorabilia from Norway but I cherish it more than any other souvenirs from other ships I've been on.  To think I almost tossed that stuff out when we moved from Miami.  I still have my 2 key chains (one for my very first cruise and one for our honeymoon cruise), the cocktail glasses, pins and lots of photos and paper items.  For those of us who were lucky enough to sail on her, the memories will always be there.

[cruisekitty22]

Wow!  Those pictures bring back great memories.  I sailed on her 3-4 times. Great ship!

[pcakes122]

My first cruise ever was on a Pool Deck suite on the Norway!  Loved it & that started my lifelong love of cruising ❤️

 

Look!  The Norway letters are for sale!

 

https://www.trinitymarine.co.uk/shop/ss-norway-stern-letters-norwegian-cruise-line-1979/

[LuvBNatC]

I'm glad bits and pieces of the ship are still out there, although having her nose on display at that yacht club in France is pretty depressing. I would burst into tears if I ever saw it in person.

 

When NCL decided to abandon the ship, they left the grand pianos, the portrait of the King of Norway (tossed on the floor of Club I), and many other valuable items onboard so as not to raise suspicions about reneging on their promise to bring her back to service when she was towed from Germany under false pretenses to her doom.

 

I wonder what became of the 2 enormous Neptune statues and the other millions of $$ in artwork that were onboard. Does anyone know if anything has surfaced on other NCL ships, or was everything left to the salvagers (bless them) and scrappers (they were just making a living, but curse them)?

 

It haunts me to this day that such a magnificent ship ended up being melted down into beer cans or whatever. At least QE II has managed to escape that fate -- so far.

[pcakes122]

22 minutes ago, LuvBNatC said:

I'm glad bits and pieces of the ship are still out there, although having her nose on display at that yacht club in France is pretty depressing. I would burst into tears if I ever saw it in person.

 

The bow tip is now back in her home port of Le Havre.  😁❤️

http://www.seatrade-cruise.com/news/news-headlines/tip-of-the-bow-of-the-former-france-back-in-le-havre.html

 

 

 

[LuvBNatC]

11 hours ago, pcakes122 said:

The bow tip is now back in her home port of Le Havre.  😁❤️

http://www.seatrade-cruise.com/news/news-headlines/tip-of-the-bow-of-the-former-france-back-in-le-havre.html

 

 

 

Oh, wow, thanks! I hadn't seen this. I was on the Norway when she sailed to Le Havre for the first time after being sold to NCL, in 1996. Every boat around came out to meet us, a fire boat totally soaked all of us standing out by the funnels, and the whole city turned out to celebrate, streaming down to the pier all day. The shops were selling and displaying all sorts of memorabilia from Norway and SS France. I'll never forget it.

 

I see they've repainted the nose her original SS France black. I'm glad that one piece of her survives and is in a place where it's honored and protected. But if I ever saw it in person, I know I'd still lose it. 😭

[TrinaLC]

Sailed her twice in the 1960s as SS France 😊 🇫🇷

[latserrof]

We sailed her a few times in the mid-90's. Right before Christmas each year, she had a Blues Cruise, featuring a dozen or so top acts playing all over the ship throughout the day and evening  -- Etta James, Gatemouth Brown, Junior Walker and the All Stars; Rocking Dopsie, Charles Brown, Wilson Picket, Son Seals, Ronnie Earle, Jimmy Dawkins,  Eddie Clearwater and more. All for no extra charge.

She also had a real NYC Checker Marathon taxi-cab aboard.

As I recall, the ship was a little difficult to get around in because she was originally built to keep the first-class passengers completely separate from the second-class passengers.

[Corby114]

Sailed on the SS Norway with my female cousin in September 1983. We had a small interior cabin on the Biscayne Deck with two bunk beds. I remember sleeping in the top bunk. I met singer Vic Diamone who was swimming in the pool nearest to the funnel. I met a nice woman and her family from Louisville, Kentucky that I am still friends with. I also met a young couple from Southern New Jersey who were one of the first grand prize winners of the New Jersey Lottery. They had a large suite and every night during the cruise we were invited to the suite for appetizers and champagne before dinner.

[LuvBNatC]

20 minutes ago, Corby114 said:

 I met singer Vic Diamone who was swimming in the pool nearest to the funnel.

 

The reason I took my first-ever cruise on the Norway was to meet the actor Jonathan Frid, who starred as Barnabas Collins in the '60s gothic soap, Dark Shadows. He was about 63 by now. It was a group arranged by a NYC travel agent who was disappointed to mail out thousands of brochures and get only about 30 fans. It was the beginning of my love affair with the Norway.

 

I spent the week playing cat & mouse with Frid, who was elusive whenever he wasn't performing (he did several dramatic readings for his group and anyone who wandered in -- he moved around the ship unrecognized, which I think disappointed him). I did have a few good conversations with him. On Thursday formal night he sat across from me at dinner. It was certainly the highlight of my life to that point. Poor Frid never found another role to top Barnabas.

 

Returned the following year with my mother on a Big Bands theme and she rode in the elevator with Helen O'Connell, who was performing that week.

 

[Kwaj girl]

Loved this ship - especially the 50's - 60's cruises with Paul Revere & the Raiders, Mary Wilson (Supremes), Gary Lewis (the Playboys), Little Anth9ony (the Imperials) and the like.  Always had a 'morning dj/radio show in the pool deck).

 

Remember the pool where yu could go downstairs, walk thru a hallway that had cabins with windows facing into the hallway and you could look into the plexiglas sides of the pool underwater?

[Diver2014]

 

What memories!  Yes, I remember looking through the plexiglass into the pool.  I also remember that pool being covered in the evenings with a dance floor.  Does anyone remember the indoor pool way down in the 'basement' as we called it in the ship?

It was always so humid in there and the water sloshed quite a bit.  I scrounged up a few photos from October of 1987....remember skeet shooting on the back deck?  I actually hit one of my clay pigeons and was so proud of myself.

And the walkathon around the deck and aerobics classes?  

[Diver2014]

a few more...….the Viking deck plan and the curvature of the hallways and the aft pool.

[Diver2014]

And remember the midnight buffet?  It would open at 11:45pm for photos only then at the stroke of midnight, the hoardes were let in to devour it.  Yes, those are lobsters.

[Diver2014]

a few more......

 

 

[Diver2014]

from Little Stirrup Cay.  It's nice to know that Norway's tenders Little Norway I and II are still in use.  I always though the weight of them on the bow was so much that I couldn't see how the bow stayed up in the water.

[LuvBNatC]

21 minutes ago, Kwaj girl said:

Remember the pool where yu could go downstairs, walk thru a hallway that had cabins with windows facing into the hallway and you could look into the plexiglas sides of the pool underwater?

 

I think those cabins were on Fjord Deck. I had one once. It had a window onto the circular hallway around the pool, and I could see the swimmers through a window in the pool. It made me remember to make sure my butt cheeks weren't sticking out of my suit whenever I was hanging out in that pool!

[LuvBNatC]

15 minutes ago, Diver2014 said:

 

What memories!  Yes, I remember looking through the plexiglass into the pool.  I also remember that pool being covered in the evenings with a dance floor.  Does anyone remember the indoor pool way down in the 'basement' as we called it in the ship?

It was always so humid in there and the water sloshed quite a bit.  I scrounged up a few photos from October of 1987....remember skeet shooting on the back deck?  I actually hit one of my clay pigeons and was so proud of myself.

And the walkathon around the deck and aerobics classes?  

 

 

The basement pool was on Dolphin Deck and you could only get to it by a plain little stairway behind a door in front of the Windward Dining Room. It was always dank and deserted the few times I ventured there. During one of the major refurbs (1990? when they added the two new decks) they turned that pool area into the Roman Spa, which was 1000% more luxurious.

 

All these photos are giving me goosebumps! Speaking of the Windward Dining Room...

 

[pcakes122]

31 minutes ago, Diver2014 said:

I also remember that pool being covered in the evenings with a dance floor.

Didn't the disco have the Saturday Night Fever light up floor?!  (Or is that the Pina Coladas clouding my memory LOL)  I definitely remember you could see into the pool from the dance club.