Prinsendam's conversion into Amera

[ski ww]

Thanks for posting the video, did I miss the pool on the back deck or is there no pool?

[Copper10-8]

30 minutes ago, ski ww said:

Thanks for posting the video, did I miss the pool on the back deck or is there no pool?

 

No more poolss on Amera - beer serving area now

 

 

Petra Kaiser, Phoenix Reisen's asst to the president, was the godmother

 

 

 

Edited August 19, 2019 by Copper10-8

[Sir PMP]

48 minutes ago, ski ww said:

Thanks for posting the video, did I miss the pool on the back deck or is there no pool?

Aft pool is still there..

[whogo]

17 minutes ago, Sir PMP said:

Aft pool is still there..

I agree, the other pool was eliminated.  The aft pool is shown on Phoenix Reisen's Amera deck plan. I think there is a bit of the little pool in this post dry dock photo:

[KirkNC]

Funny how the Germans can buy the ship for?$$$?million , invest another ?$$$? million in renovations and sell cabins for less then $1,000 for a one week cruise and still make money.  HAL was charging that much or more before the sale and losing money.....hum.

[Sir PMP]

1 hour ago, KirkNC said:

Funny how the Germans can buy the ship for?$$$?million , invest another ?$$$? million in renovations and sell cabins for less then $1,000 for a one week cruise and still make money.  HAL was charging that much or more before the sale and losing money.....hum.

That's why their(Seattle) story doesn't add up..we want big ships only, ho,ho,ho..

[kazu]

3 hours ago, KirkNC said:

Funny how the Germans can buy the ship for?$$$?million , invest another ?$$$? million in renovations and sell cabins for less then $1,000 for a one week cruise and still make money.  HAL was charging that much or more before the sale and losing money.....hum.

 

HAL wasn’t losing money on this ship.  They were making it big time. this ship had the highest percentage or profit per passenger in the fleet.  Mind you, it’s a small ship so it wouldn’t score with total profits with the new big ships they want to launch.

 

Seattle and the head cheese didn’t want to put the money into the new maintenance that would be needed at the 30 year mark nor does the current Seattle attitude that spent a whole 3 days on the ship want a ship this small that won’t have it’s Crow’s Nest destroyed, maintained some of the HAL standards and just didn’t fit in.

 

Prinsendam maintained a lot of stuff that has been gone from the other ships.   It might not have had a lot of bells and whistles but the crew was the best - they knew you in 24 hours (if they didn’t know you already) and what you liked.

 

Personally, I think HAL (O.A to be exact) didn’t want to keep the ship.   They want bigger.

I think they have made a mistake but what do I know.  I do know I cherish the time and the fantastic itineraries I had on that ship.  My big regret is that I waited because of the price tag and the age.  

 

A bit personal but to make the point DH doesn’t care what ship we go on.  He cares about itinerary like I.  I warned him the ship was old the first time we were going.  He was very sceptical but couldn’t resist the itinerary.

 

We got on the ship and into our cabin and within just a few minutes, he declared he loved the ship.  After that cruise (with Captain Gundersen), any good itinerary on the P’dam was an easy sell 😉 

[kevingastreich]

Thanks for the photos! Great pix. I've never sailed her but I can see where it would be quite sad for many to see her go.

[kazu]

Samsonmo was kind enough to send me the link to more pics of the interior of the Amera.  Here is the link - https://www.cruisereiziger.nl/2019/08/19/binnenkijken-op-de-amera/

 

He reports that the total renovation cost was around 40 MILLION EUROS.

[RuthC]

Thanks for posting the link, Jacqui. That is some serious money!

[Sir PMP]

47 minutes ago, kazu said:

Samsonmo was kind enough to send me the link to more pics of the interior of the Amera.  Here is the link - https://www.cruisereiziger.nl/2019/08/19/binnenkijken-op-de-amera/

 

He reports that the total renovation cost was around 40 MILLION EUROS.

Nice bar on the aft promenade deck, great idea..

[iancal]

I really think that HAL's disposal of this ship really comes down to their long term strategy and the strategy of their corporate parent Carnival.  

 

I do not think that HAL's CEO made this decision on his own.  Just consider what HAL has been doing over the past few years.  Holding on to some of their older ships, squeezing out revenue/profit while cutting back on mtce.  Once their new builds are within sight of coming on stream, the older ships are gone.

 

This simply comes down to business and longer term business plans/strategies.  Some people may not agree with it but to suggest that it is down to one 'bad' person does not make sense in the corporate business environment.  You can be assured that the large capital  spend and investment decisions and strategies are driven by Carnival corporate or at least blessed by them. Long and short term.

 

Just think back to why HAL was on the verge of bankruptcy years ago....they did not have a long term capital plan, they were not profitable, and they could not raise dime one on the market to finance new builds that were critical to their future success.   In my experience business may be profitable at an operating level but this may not be so once all the corporate journal entries, tax, and financing charges are taken into account.   I very much doubt whether any of the ships Captains would be aware of the very bottom net net line.  This is the number that counts.  Most businesses are not satisfied with being profitable.  Their goal is to achieve best in class financial results.

Edited August 20, 2019 by iancal

[doncarlos]

20 hours ago, kazu said:

 

HAL wasn’t losing money on this ship.  They were making it big time. this ship had the highest percentage or profit per passenger in the fleet.  Mind you, it’s a small ship so it wouldn’t score with total profits with the new big ships they want to launch.

 

Seattle and the head cheese didn’t want to put the money into the new maintenance that would be needed at the 30 year mark nor does the current Seattle attitude that spent a whole 3 days on the ship want a ship this small that won’t have it’s Crow’s Nest destroyed, maintained some of the HAL standards and just didn’t fit in.

 

Prinsendam maintained a lot of stuff that has been gone from the other ships.   It might not have had a lot of bells and whistles but the crew was the best - they knew you in 24 hours (if they didn’t know you already) and what you liked.

 

Personally, I think HAL (O.A to be exact) didn’t want to keep the ship.   They want bigger.

I think they have made a mistake but what do I know.  I do know I cherish the time and the fantastic itineraries I had on that ship.  My big regret is that I waited because of the price tag and the age.  

 

A bit personal but to make the point DH doesn’t care what ship we go on.  He cares about itinerary like I.  I warned him the ship was old the first time we were going.  He was very sceptical but couldn’t resist the itinerary.

 

We got on the ship and into our cabin and within just a few minutes, he declared he loved the ship.  After that cruise (with Captain Gundersen), any good itinerary on the P’dam was an easy sell 😉 

 

[doncarlos]

that was one great cruise ! great memories !

[Storylady]

22 hours ago, kazu said:

 

HAL wasn’t losing money on this ship.  They were making it big time. this ship had the highest percentage or profit per passenger in the fleet.  Mind you, it’s a small ship so it wouldn’t score with total profits with the new big ships they want to launch.

 

Seattle and the head cheese didn’t want to put the money into the new maintenance that would be needed at the 30 year mark nor does the current Seattle attitude that spent a whole 3 days on the ship want a ship this small that won’t have it’s Crow’s Nest destroyed, maintained some of the HAL standards and just didn’t fit in.

 

Prinsendam maintained a lot of stuff that has been gone from the other ships.   It might not have had a lot of bells and whistles but the crew was the best - they knew you in 24 hours (if they didn’t know you already) and what you liked.

 

Personally, I think HAL (O.A to be exact) didn’t want to keep the ship.   They want bigger.

I think they have made a mistake but what do I know.  I do know I cherish the time and the fantastic itineraries I had on that ship.  My big regret is that I waited because of the price tag and the age.  

 

A bit personal but to make the point DH doesn’t care what ship we go on.  He cares about itinerary like I.  I warned him the ship was old the first time we were going.  He was very sceptical but couldn’t resist the itinerary.

 

We got on the ship and into our cabin and within just a few minutes, he declared he loved the ship.  After that cruise (with Captain Gundersen), any good itinerary on the P’dam was an easy sell 😉 

Thanks Jacqui for sharing the Amera pictures. We both had some incredible voyages aboard the Prinsendam. She was such a beautiful ship, but upper management never understood how much she was loved. Orlando groaned when I told him that the Prinsendam was our favorite. Too bad, especially now when big ships aren’t wanted in many of the European ports. As you mentioned before, the Prinsendam was the only HAL ship to be able to sail into Venice with the new ban on ships over 55,000 tons. Barcelona, Dublin, Santorini, Dubrovnik, Bruges and Amsterdam are limiting the ships coming in as these huge ships bring too many tourists into their cities and are causing overcrowding. When HAL passengers wanting to see Venice start cruising on some of the smaller ships, are they going to come back to HAL? And I really don’t see any HAL cruisers moving to Seaborn.

[Floridiana]

The MS Amera has Venice on her itineraries. She also has a 125 day world cruise scheduled. Did the Prinsendam do world cruises?

[kazu]

3 minutes ago, Floridiana said:

The MS Amera has Venice on her itineraries. She also has a 125 day world cruise scheduled. Did the Prinsendam do world cruises?

 

The Prinsendam did more Grand Cruises than world cruises.  I think she did one once, but it was a few years ago.

 

HAL has given the World Cruises to the Amsterdam to do.  Probably because it holds more people.  And it is one of the 2 flagships.

 

Prinsendam’s Grand’s could be quite long and I am kicking myself now I didn’t got on one for at least a part of one.  😞 

[kazu]

47 minutes ago, Storylady said:

Orlando groaned when I told him that the Prinsendam was our favorite. T

 

And that says it all IMO.  

[RuthC]

15 minutes ago, Floridiana said:

Did the Prinsendam do world cruises?

As a HAL ship, Prinsendam did one once. The regulars were up in arms about it, and the World Cruise assignment returned to the Amsterdam the following year.

[Copper10-8]

1 hour ago, Floridiana said:

The MS Amera has Venice on her itineraries. She also has a 125 day world cruise scheduled. Did the Prinsendam do world cruises?

 

P-dam did world cruises/grand world voyages in 2004, 2005 and 2006. In 2007, Amsterdam resumed the GWV as she had last done in 2003

[Scrapnana]

2 hours ago, kazu said:

 

Prinsendam’s Grand’s could be quite long and I am kicking myself now I didn’t got on one for at least a part of one.  😞 

I am very glad I was able to do the 80-day Grand South America and Antarctic on the Prinsendam.  I agree about the crew being exceptional.  We had some who made us little gifts as a remembrance of the cruise.

[prescottbob]

Late to the party as usual. For another bump up / review only.

 

 

 

 

 

[kazu]

1 hour ago, prescottbob said:

Late to the party as usual. For another bump up / review only

 

Thanks!  Great videos.

 

Love that they kept the Wintergarten and didn’t even change the name 🙂 

They sure know how to launch a new to them ship, don’t they 🙂 

[ski ww]

Thanks for posting all the additional pictures & videos.

[whogo]

Oops, low bridge, unexpected reconstruction. First transit of the Kiel Canal under the new name. https://www.kn-online.de/Lokales/Nord-Ostsee-Kanal/Kreuzfahrer-Amera-legt-Mast-fuer-Nord-Ostsee-Kanal-tiefer

I did not register to read the whole article.