Photos have been placed in the Photo Library of the Gibraltar Port website at:

http://www.gibraltarport.com/photo_library.cfm#top

She is at the very top of my "must sail on" list and hope I will have some time to think about it!!

If Pullmantur is dry-docking OCEANIC for a month, that seems like they are doing something to extensively prolong her life, and not merely taking her out of service for a while.

If this really is her last season I am sure a quick weekender is easy enough to fit in from Gibraltar? She is a must sail for anyone; with an ambiance of her own and the Spanish passengers are a fun crowd to sail with. She is not all inclusive on the shorter trips from Valencia though as she was from Barcelona.

Best,

OCEANIC is still supposed to be retired/sold by Pullmantur in September this year, after having completed her season of 2- and 5-night cruises from Valencia, which is set to begin in April.

I have been informed OCEANIC is nowhere near SOLAS 2010 compliant. There is little or no wood in the interiors, but two stairways on the lower cabin decks do not extend high enough as per the new regulations. I doubt these could be extended easily as they are located below the dining room, which occupies the full width of the ship.

Additionally, OCEANIC is indeed a very expensive ship to run and maintain (but she continues to make money for Pullmantur). There also is the problem of asbestos, which can be found just about everywhere in the passenger accommodation (such as in ceilings). Two crew members are permanently assigned to asbestos clean-ups.

I'm not sure what work will by done in dry-dock in Gibraltar, but during last year's dry-docking in Malta a good amount of money was indeed spent on OCEANIC, including undertaking a full reconditioning of one of her four boilers, which apparently had been in an inoperable state since the Premier days.

Anyway, the Mediterranean Sea will be a sadder place without OCEANIC!

[ 01-07-2009: Message edited by: shipsnorway ]

Even with letters on the hull 2 meters tall, if it was not the red boat, it was the "Ocean-annic" or "Oceanny". The Atlantic suffered no less butchery as the "Ata-lannic", "Atatannic" and "Alannic".

But Madison Avenue has put BRAND as the paramount reference over individual identity. I was just having this same discussion on an Acura web board where car models lost iconic names like LEGEND, VIGOR and INTEGRA for RL, TL and TSX.

I own an Acura RL, which is sold worldwide (as Honda LEGEND outside of North America and China). When people ask me what my car is, they know not what an RL is. If I say LEGEND, they recognize it immediately, even though the LEGEND name was dropped in the US 10+ years ago!

At least with HAL it now is acceptable to say 'some DAM ship!'

quote:

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Originally posted by TampaMike:
While under Premier Cruise Lines with both Oceanic and Atlantic berthed in Nassau, it was very commonplace for passengers to argue with the sailor at the gangway because they did not know which ship they were to board. They just knew it was the 'red boat'.

*sigh*

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quote:

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Originally posted by lasuvidaboy:

Sounds like she was carrying some low-end passengers by that point.

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quote:

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Originally posted by mike sa:
Seatrader states that Oceanic is Solas 2010 compliant and therefore no further work is required in this regard ?

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While the oil price may have come down so in reliaty have the fares, take for instance Zenith, per pax her operating costs will be substantially lower than Oceanic, less crew per pax, less fuel per pax, etc etc.

What actually surprises me is that they lay up Sky Wonder but have kept Oceanic in service until now - one would have thought that SW would actually have turned a bigger profit even though she is also more expensive to run she must be better than Oceanic ?

quote:

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Originally posted by mike sa:

What actually surprises me is that they lay up Sky Wonder but have kept Oceanic in service until now - one would have thought that SW would actually have turned a bigger profit even though she is also more expensive to run she must be better than Oceanic ?

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SKY WONDER was supposed to be chartered to a German/Turkish j/v for 3 and 4 day cruises from Kusadasi and Antalya to Piraeus, Rhodes, Heraklion and Santorini between October and March, apart from a short drydocking in the first week of December. For whatever reason, the charter failed, hence the lay-up.

A shot of her leaving drydock is in the Photo Gallery of the Gibraltar Port website at:

http://www.gibraltarport.com/photo_library.cfm

Lovely photos there, especially of her bow in drydock.