[ 04-08-2002: Message edited by: Oceania ]

Well, Cunard, this is interesting. Get something to drink, take a seat, and get ready for a long story. To tell you what Countess was like, I must give you the entire story, as it would otherwise be difficult to understand their position in the fleet. The marketing of the ships changed several times. The quality was much, much lower than on Cunard now. Cunard spanned the entire range then from budget (Countess and Princess, QE2 Transatlantic Class), what we would now call premium (Sagafjord, Vistafjord, QE2 First Class), and luxury (Sea Goddesses, QE2 Grills). Initially, Cunard marketed Countess, Princess, and QE2. All were called "Cunard." Then came the takeover of NAC, and shortly after Sea Goddess. There were then three subsidiaries: Cunard (QE2, Countess, Princess), Cunard/NAC (Sagafjord, Vistafjord), and Cunard Sea Goddess (Sea Goddess I & II). Cunard (including the QE2, except in the Grills) was what we would today call a "standard" market cruise. Nothing special, really, but like most cruises then, very expensive. Cunard/NAC was traditional and luxurious, basically just like Caronia is now, but of course very Norwegian, and the ships had not been refurbished. Sea Goddess was Sea Goddess... Eventually, the Cunard/NAC division died, leaving Cunard and Cunard Sea Goddess. At the time, they wanted to rename Sagafjord and Vistafjord Cunard Saga and Vista. This was an effort to "bring them down" to the level of Countess and Princess... Of course that would mean much less high-qualtiy food and service, and getting rid of the Norwegians... This did not come to be, and Cunard basically marketed different things differently: one brochure covered QE2, one Countess and Princess, one Sagafjord and Vistafjord. Sea Goddess was beginning to drift away at that point... Cunard still had to juggle the Britishness of QE2/Countess/Princess, and the very Nordic atmosphere on Sagafjord and Vistafjord, as well as all the different price ranges, not to mention levels of quality, into one brand... No wonder they lost money! So they bought Royal Viking, and got the marketing agreement for the three Crown ships, and set about revitalising themselves. More divisions... There was Cunard, comprised only of QE2. There was Cunard Crown, which was Crown Dynasty/Jewel/Monarch, and Cunard Countess/Princess. This division naturally had trouble with the two very different types of product they were desparately trying to make the same... And there was Cunard Royal Viking, which was Sagafjord, Vistafjord, Royal Viking Sun, and Sea Goddess, each again with their own different style. They still lost money. Lots of it. And they were sold to Kvaerner, even though Kvaerner did not want to own a cruise line, especially an impractical, unprofitable one. But they accepted it as the price to pay for the other interests of Trafalgar House. When this happened, they began cutting costs ruthlessly. They Crown ships were given back to their owners, Effjohn, although Crown Dynasty was very briefly kept as Cunard Dynasty. Cunard Princess was sold. They held on to Countess and Dynasty, two entirely different ships, as half-hearted running mates until they found a place to dispose of them, which arrived quickly. Sagafjord had its engine fire, and was expelled. This left Cunard with five good ships, and a few big problems. One was convincing the public that Cunard meant quality, but not a certain kind of quality... So to do that, they hastily took many of QE2 cabins out of service, did the old dining-room shuffle, and made the whole ship one seating. The term "class" was banished, and quality, in theory, went up. Whether it did in reality is up to someone who was really there (I wasn't). Then, they came out with the new 1999 brochure. This was the showcase of the new strategy, supposedly to get the line to make money. It was a giant volume, which I still have, spewing the new corporate punch line, that quality came in all sizes: Small (Sea Goddess), Medium (Vistafjord) and Large (RVS and QE2). Why RVS was not medium is beyond me, but that's not important. They tried very distinctly to show they had four different products, all of the highest order, and all appealing to different tastes. They also threatened that if Cunard did not make Kvaerner money by the end of 1999, it would be shut down, and the ships sold individually. Nobody expected them to make money, and nobody knew what to expect. Then came Carnival, and we all know the story after that.

So now you know where I am coming from. I can therefore go about telling you what Countess and Princess were like. By most accounts, they were not bad. They weren't the pinnacle of luxury either. Their passengers were mostly destination-oriented Brits, who wanted to enjoy the Caribbean and Europe, in comfortable, unpretentious surroundings. And they got it, for what was, by the standards of the day, a fair, not great, but fair price. Now it would be ridiculously expensive, but then it was fair. The food and service decent but plain, the ships were comfortable but a bit plain, the entertainment was rather quiet, as was the atmosphere. If they were around today, the food would have to be better, and the price lower, and you could then call them the anti-Voyager of the Seas. They got a refit in the early 1990s too, and that made them look all fresh and tidy, so that they could keep going for another few years. The cabins in particular got attention, with lots of soft pastels and new prints. This was all done in tandem with QE2's 1994 refit. At the time, they still saw Countess and Princess as the cruising running-mates of QE2. But as QE2 got better, Countess and Princess were left in the dust, sent to Crown, and they didn't fit there. So they were sold, and I am sure there are some who still miss this ships, plain and unpretentious as they were. The end.

Chris, if you're still with me here, thanks for staying to read the whole thing. Perhaps now you know a bit more about your favorite line .