Coincidentally, I have just finished uploading my photos from my cruise this past January aboard the just-beached REGAL EMPRESS:
Click here

Thank goodness you were able to capture shots of the Mirage disco. Without question one of the most cheerful, bright, and elegant lounges to ever grace our oceans.

quote:

---

Originally posted by eroller:

Thank goodness you were able to capture shots of the Mirage disco. Without question one of the most cheerful, bright, and elegant lounges to ever grace our oceans.

Ernie.

---

The conversion of the two-deck-high cinema into the disco was most unfortunate. I recall watching films there aboard the CARIBE I, including "Das Boot", made more realistic by the rolling and pitching of the ship during a storm off St. Thomas!

When I stayed in A80, there were bunk beds, no TV and no shelf unit but all else appears the same. For me the upper bunk was the clothes shelf.

My favorite room was the Commodore Club and especially the sunken side. It very much reminded me of the main saloon of a sailing ship.

The Caribe had just been refitted to create the Mermaid Lounge and Mirage Disco. The roof in the Mermaid leaked horribly and the Mirage was a dark, musty, smokey mauve cave which I avoided at all cost.

quote:

---

Originally posted by eroller:
Nice pics Doug. That was such a fun little trip. I remember my hotel feeling so luxurious after being on Regal Empress for two nights.

Thank goodness you were able to capture shots of the Mirage disco. Without question one of the most cheerful, bright, and elegant lounges to ever grace our oceans.

Ernie.

---

I think that we all had a delightful trip over to Nassau and back. My travel companions made the trip even more special. I am certainly glad that I experienced, amongst other things, the beautiful white oak paneling and heavy brass windows in the hallway to the diningroom, excellent meal service, her quirky plumbing, and even The Mirage Disco...OK maybe not the plumbing! I would truly regret if all I could say now was, "Gee, I wish I rode that ship once. I was going to."

I am surprised no photos of the library or the Stoa on forward promenade?

You really show the dichotomy of how good the original ship is and how bad the later efforts are. It is not so much that it is 80's design, but bad design of any era. Disco? SS Norway's Nordcapp lounge and Topaz dining room rival it for ugliness.

One thing about the RE is the scent which had not changed from 1969 to 1998; the 2 times I sailed her. I can understand the cabin sentiment. In '69 just before the refit we were in B54 which was an immigrant cabin with bare bulbs, exposed plumbing and the bath down the hall. I shared with 3 siblings.
My parents were in B58 around the corner which was the size of the cabin you showed.

My '98 cruise was a mid aft original single on the main deck starboard which was small, but effeicent in space. it had nice poplar casegoods, big AC dial; which worked and the tiny bathroom.

My younger sister and I, me 9 she 7yo would try to get lost in the A and B deck cabin corridors just for fun.

My parent's reserved deck chairs are where the promenade deck bandstand is now.

In Greek Line days the large-later converted to cabins first class dining room was the kosher dining room.

My grandparents crossed on her 3 times from NYC to Haifa in the late 1950's.

quote:

---

Originally posted by desirod7:

[...]
One thing about the RE is the scent which had not changed from 1969 to 1998; the 2 times I sailed her. [...]

---

Ernie - It was indeed a very fun trip, and my cabin on MSC ORCHESTRA the night afterwards also seemed very luxurious ... the good water pressure ability to properly control the temperature thereof was positively indulgent.

Rich - And quite a roller she was! We had very, very calm weather but you could still feel a decent amount of motion - not uncomfortable at all but if she moved that much in calm weather she must really have given a wild ride in a storm.

I will say it is rather odd, I think, that the cinema (and some other facilities like the dining rooms) were relatively high up in the ship, unlike most other ships of this era.

Mike - It is rather odd that this cabin was turned into a single as most other upper/lowers were not. There were only four singles on the ship that I know of - as I knew the occupants of all of them I saw them all and I liked mine the best.

nycruiser - She was a fun ship, and I am sure I will never sail in a ship like this again. There really is nothing like her left.

I saw her so many times from 1993 to 2009, in New York during the Regal Cruises days and then in Port Everglades with Imperial Majesty, but never got aboard until the very last moment ... definitely worth it.

Frank - It really would not have been as much if she had not been so "rough around the edges." Of course the company did make much of the difference, I don't think I'd have had that much alone. There are ships I can imagine going on knowing nobody beforehand and still having a great time but not this one. Definitely an experience best shared with other ship nuts.

As far as QM2 in Jan, I am not booked but I still might go but I can't commit yet.

David - The Library was open when we embarked and I did get to see it but I did not have my camera with me at the time (was on the way to or from lunch, I forget). For the rest of the cruise it was locked so I couldn't photograph it.

Two days is not a lot of time to document an entire ship but fortunately there are many, many photos out there of this ship so it is not that big a deal.

It is true that it is not just that it was '80s design that made it bad but it was bad in a very '80s sort of way with all the shiny ceilings and such. It was of course all very cheaply done and did not hold up well.

I wonder if your cabin in 1998 was M66. That was the only Main Deck single I know of. Nearly all the Main Deck cabins were totally from the 1970 refit but that was a weird cabin and it did not appear on any OLYMPIA deck plans I have seen. Having looked at it we decided it was probably some sort of office that was converted to a cabin.

Some Greek Line Olympia stories

Rollympia:

The only worse riding ship I sailed is the Sea Breeze.

When I sailed her back then she did not have fin stabilizers. From NY to San Juan in December the Gulf Stream got rough.

Chinese food type paper vomit cups were put out all over the ship and well used. On the last night of the cruise there was a costume party. Somebody wore 30 vomit cups, called it "Greek Line Chow Mein" and won first prize.

Lack of teen program;

Luzatti panel from either the Stella Oceanis or Augustus.

Photo from the SS MoorPark by Peter Knego

[ 08-11-2012: Message edited by: desirod7 ]