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» Cruise Talk   » Ocean Liners and Classic Cruise Ships   » King of the Hill

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Author Topic: King of the Hill
desirod7
First Class Passenger
Member # 1626

posted 12-30-2009 06:16 PM      Profile for desirod7     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Top of the heap

Would it not be wonderful to have a back to back cruise on both. Photo taken when ships were in prime and bells of the ball. Now: one gone another in limbo.


Posts: 5727 | From: Philadelphia, Pa [home of the SS United States] | Registered: Oct 2000  |  IP: Logged
NP
First Class Passenger
Member # 8721

posted 12-30-2009 07:12 PM      Profile for NP     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
NOW that's the top of the top of the heap

[ 12-30-2009: Message edited by: NP ]


Posts: 84 | From: Paris | Registered: Mar 2007  |  IP: Logged
desirod7
First Class Passenger
Member # 1626

posted 12-30-2009 07:56 PM      Profile for desirod7     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by NP:
NOW that's the top of the top of the heap


'If they can make it there, they can make it everywhere'

fitting it is New York Harbor


Posts: 5727 | From: Philadelphia, Pa [home of the SS United States] | Registered: Oct 2000  |  IP: Logged
dougnewman
First Class Passenger
Member # 11349

posted 12-30-2009 08:07 PM      Profile for dougnewman   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I'm with NP. I want QE2 and FRANCE, not QE2 and NORWAY.
Posts: 2072 | From: Long Island, NY, USA | Registered: Sep 2007  |  IP: Logged
lasuvidaboy
First Class Passenger
Member # 4527

posted 12-30-2009 08:20 PM      Profile for lasuvidaboy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
As John Maxtone Graham wrote of that fabulous trio; 'The Twilight of the Gods'.

Looking at those long graceful forecastles, we would be lucky if a ship built today had one 1/3 that length. Great image!


Posts: 7654 | From: Hollywood Hills/L.A. | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged
desirod7
First Class Passenger
Member # 1626

posted 12-31-2009 08:52 AM      Profile for desirod7     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by dougnewman:
I'm with NP. I want QE2 and FRANCE, not QE2 and NORWAY.

My understanding is that the '79 refit was not totally vile. When Checkers turned into a sports bar, library a perfume shop? they kept the room fittings. Suites lost the George Jetson furniture and replaced with Reagan era Ramada Inn stuff. The top decks added was the beginning of the end.

Having sailed both SSNorway and QE2? SSNorway is more liveable as a cruiseship due to a much more rational layout.
QE2 did have a better ride in rough seas and the windowed dining rooms were nice for breakfast and lunch.

According to Peter Kohler Le France's cruises were a sell-out despite the ship not originally configured for cruising. Food, service and entertainment were top notch.


Posts: 5727 | From: Philadelphia, Pa [home of the SS United States] | Registered: Oct 2000  |  IP: Logged
Anders
First Class Passenger
Member # 6373

posted 12-31-2009 09:19 AM      Profile for Anders        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by desirod7:

My understanding is that the '79 refit was not totally vile. When Checkers turned into a sports bar, library a perfume shop? they kept the room fittings. Suites lost the George Jetson furniture and replaced with Reagan era Ramada Inn stuff. The top decks added was the beginning of the end.
.


Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you, but which fittings in Checkers Cabaret were retained from the France?

Also, Checkers Cabaret was turned into the Sports Illustrated Café as late as 1998 and nothing was left over.


Posts: 258 | From: Oslo, Norway | Registered: Mar 2006  |  IP: Logged
desirod7
First Class Passenger
Member # 1626

posted 12-31-2009 09:48 AM      Profile for desirod7     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by shipsnorway:

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you, but which fittings in Checkers Cabaret were retained from the France?

Also, Checkers Cabaret was turned into the Sports Illustrated Café as late as 1998 and nothing was left over.



Chekcers was an NCL refit by Angelo Donghia.

Parts of the ceiling were left. Checkers Cabaret was not a vile room, but turning it into a strip mall sports bar ruined whatever class was left.


Posts: 5727 | From: Philadelphia, Pa [home of the SS United States] | Registered: Oct 2000  |  IP: Logged
lasuvidaboy
First Class Passenger
Member # 4527

posted 12-31-2009 12:57 PM      Profile for lasuvidaboy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The 1979-80 refit was well done-it's what happened later that was the problem. The tacky spa w/it's faux Roman decor and other changes gave the ship a mis-matched decor. You had high-end 1962 and 1979 decor mixed w/some questionable design from the 1990s.
Posts: 7654 | From: Hollywood Hills/L.A. | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged
Lubber
First Class Passenger
Member # 13710

posted 01-05-2010 12:11 PM      Profile for Lubber     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by desirod7:
Suites lost the George Jetson furniture and replaced with Reagan era Ramada Inn stuff. The top decks added was the beginning of the end.

I doubt NCL planned on keeping Norway in service as long as they did, certainly not long enough for the original France furniture and fittings to come back in style, but as it happened it's a real shame they didn't keep that stuff in storage and replace the '80s crap with it when mid-century modern decor started getting hip in the '90s. I'm sure a lot of that old France furniture is floating around Germany in retro living rooms and vintage boutiques these days.

Those funky upper decks were the first to sell out, which proves they had to come along sooner or later. A more design-sympathetic, QE2-type signal deck bump-out wouldn't have added enough real estate to keep Norway in direct competition with newbuilds, as she still was at the time.

The Roman Spa-- who knows, man. Obviously low budget.

quote:
According to Peter Kohler Le France's cruises were a sell-out despite the ship not originally configured for cruising. Food, service and entertainment were top notch.

I'm not sure if this was posted before, but here's a great
1972 Insatiable Critic article from New Yorker documenting a culinary experience aboard a westbound crossing on the France.

Stuff like that makes me not wish NCL had continued running the Norway so much as handed her back over to CMA-CGM. I don't want the Norway back; I want the France!

[ 01-05-2010: Message edited by: joe at travelpage ]

[ 01-06-2010: Message edited by: Lubber ]


Posts: 241 | From: Land | Registered: Feb 2008  |  IP: Logged
tg_lindo
First Class Passenger
Member # 806

posted 01-05-2010 03:11 PM      Profile for tg_lindo   Email tg_lindo   Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Having complete awe and affection for the France, and also feeling like a bit of a heretic for saying this......

on my last Norway cruise, we booked one of the cabins on the added-on upper decks. And you know... we really liked it! It was all about those floor-to-ceiling windows, quite high up above the sea. I'm hard pressed to think of (m)any current ships that have that feature, since balconies have become so popular.


Posts: 349 | From: San Francisco, CA | Registered: May 99  |  IP: Logged
avalon1025
First Class Passenger
Member # 5383

posted 01-05-2010 04:05 PM      Profile for avalon1025   Email avalon1025   Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
try a celebrity suite on the Millennium class ships, all windows...
Posts: 331 | From: West Hollywood | Registered: Jan 2005  |  IP: Logged
dougnewman
First Class Passenger
Member # 11349

posted 01-05-2010 09:23 PM      Profile for dougnewman   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by desirod7:
My understanding is that the '79 refit was not totally vile.
It was actually very well done. Most of the really bad changes were made in the 1990s. But I would still rather have FRANCE than NORWAY.

Posts: 2072 | From: Long Island, NY, USA | Registered: Sep 2007  |  IP: Logged

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