Ships in Bergen

Last week P&O's Arcadia paid a visit to Bergen. I passed her during her departure from the city, and took the following photos of her underway (including a video as we overtook her on the high-speed ferry, which I've added to the twitter feed for this blog ). For anyone interested there's plenty more info on the design and operation of this handsome ship in my previous post here .

Yesterday Royal Caribbean's  Serenade of the Seas  made another call into Bergen. I headed out to watch her sail under the Askøy bridge. With attractive lines, and a slightly sleeker profile than many of her supersized fleetmates,  Serenade of the Seas  made for a very pleasant sight in the evening sunshine. I was lucky enough a few years ago to cruise on board her sister ship Brilliance of the Seas, and really enjoyed the experience, particularly the ship itself. I'm definitely a fan of this class of ship. You can find out more about Serenade of the Seas in my previous post .

You are now looking at (what her owners claim to be) the most luxurious ship in the world. Regent Seven Seas Cruises have long been an established luxury line, but in 2016 they made this extremely bold claim with the launch of their newest ship Seven Seas Explorer . The design and conception of  Seven Seas Explorer  can be traced way back to 2008, when RSSC held a dedicated 'build your ship' cruise aboard one of their existing vessels, where regular passengers were invited to discuss ideas for the new project with senior management from the line. After many years on the drawing board, and several more in the shipyard,  Seven Seas Explorer  emerged; the culmination of 8 years of design and planning. Outwardly this is a handsome, if somewhat conservative ship. She has a length of 224 metres, a gross tonnage of 54,000 and accommodates just 750 passengers, served by a crew of 552. The following photos show  Seven Seas Explorer  as she passed my apa...

Last week the new CMV flagship Columbus called into Bergen. This is a ship that has never really settled into a role; originally built in 1988 as FairMajesty for Sitmar Cruises, she in fact entered service in 1989 as Star Princess following a takeover by P&O during construction. Following 8 years of service as Star Princess (which unfortunately included striking a rock in Alaska in 1995, causing major damage, a 3-month break from service, and a $7million repair bill) she was transferred to the P&O brand in 1997 as Arcadia. In 2003 she was used to launch the now-defunct Ocean Village cruises as (you guessed it) Ocean Village. When this venture failed in 2010, she was transferred again to sail as Pacific Pearl for P&O Cruises Australia. Most recently, in mid-2017, she became  Columbus , and took the role of flagship for the expanding British cruise line Cruise & Maritime Voyages, whose approach of buying up slightly older tonnage is satisfying an increasin...