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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.
[ 12-30-2009: Message edited by: NP ]
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
Looking at those long graceful forecastles, we would be lucky if a ship built today had one 1/3 that length. Great image!
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.
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. .
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.
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.
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.
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 ]
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.
quote:Originally posted by desirod7:My understanding is that the '79 refit was not totally vile.
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