Yes, Peter is correct (as usual ).

When Star took over NCL they transferred Leeward to Asia and she cruised rather briefly as SuperStar Taurus. However they soon returned her to her owners, Sea Containers (parent of Silja), in a deal to get the ageing ferry Wasa Queen (that they use for their new Cruiseferries service)... I presume that Sea Containers must have forked over some money as well in addition to that old tub...

Leeward was a very handsome ship with an interesting history... She was built in 1992 as Sally Albatross incorporating machinery from the previous vessel of that name, which burned at Stockholm in 1990. The former was a car ferry-turned-cruise ship but Leeward was built especially for cruising.

She carried on the luck of her ill-fated namesake when she was grounded and half-sunk in 1994 on a day cruise from Helsinki to Tallinn, but was raised and repaired and chartered to NCL.

Apparently her bad luck has gone as soon as the name changed away from Sally Albatross...

Interestingly her original owners were a subsidiary of Silja Line, whom she has been placed with by parent Sea Containers... So what goes around comes around.

P.S. I like the name Silja Opera. Sounds very nice.

Happy Cruising,
Cruiseny

[ 07-22-2002: Message edited by: Cruiseny ]

Sorry to have said that Star "sold" the ship to Sea Containers, I meant that they "returned" her. I will edit the post.

I did not know that the charter was ended early however this agreement gave Sea Containers a means to get rid of the ageing Wasa Queen that they seemed quite desperate to sell. Silja Opera is currently in service and being useful, the other was just laid-up and so making no revenue at all.

I do not doubt that she was in poor condition after being owned by Star, everyone says everything is in poor condition once they have owned it!

Note that the above is just hearsay, I have not myself been on a Star ship so I cannot confirm poor condition myself...

However I think that they themselves are surely in poor condition!

SILJA OPERA in Visby with Peter Deilmann's DEUTSCHLAND docked behind her.

SILJA OPERA page:
http://www.faktaomfartyg.crosswinds.net/sally_albatross_1992.htm

Unfortunately the page is all in Swedish, so it's perhaps a good ideia to grab a Swedish/English (German, French, Spanish, etc for that matter) at your local library, given the amount of information available.

Best regards,

Paulo Mestre

[ 07-24-2002: Message edited by: joe at travelpage ]

Paulo, thanks for your link... Very good page... If only I could read Swedish !

Still, great photos of her through her rather chequered career... A small selection below:

Her predecessor:

Same ship, burned at Stockholm:

The new Sally Albatross, infinitely better than the vessel she replaced:

Her unique stern:

As Leeward:

Looking rather battered as SuperStar Taurus:

Silja Opera as she is today:

quote:

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Originally posted by PauloMestre:
Here's a photo of the SILJA OPERA from the Swedish website Fakta om Fartyg, Facts about Ships in English, by far the best site dedicated to ferries of all sizes and shapes on the Web ( http://go.to/faktaomfartyg ) :

SILJA OPERA in Visby with Peter Deilmann's DEUTSCHLAND docked behind her.

SILJA OPERA page:
http://www.faktaomfartyg.crosswinds.net/sally_albatross_1992.htm

Unfortunately the page is all in Swedish, so it's perhaps a good ideia to grab a Swedish/English (German, French, Spanish, etc for that matter) at your local library, given the amount of information available.

Best regards,

Paulo Mestre

[ 07-24-2002: Message edited by: joe at travelpage ]

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Personally I think she looks better than ever in the Silja livery.

I get the impression that Silja are a quality operation, those of you from that region - is this correct?

NCL, they are not a quality operation in my book... Especially post-Star. The old NCL I could deal with, the new one really cramps my style... Especially their complete ignorance towards Norway which is being very badly marketed (or really isn't being marketed).

To me that ship is still worth the investment of modernising her to a decent standard and marketing her as something special to the right clientele, not the budget bunch she is currently aimed at... The higher fares and high repeater rate that I am sure would result could pay for the refitting of things like baths, lifts, behind the scenes areas, etc. that are now way out of date, and to restore more of her original heritage to her look, removing the 1980s Scandinavian veneer for a scheme that is more in keeping with her heritage.

quote:

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Originally posted by JP:
This isn't the first time that a Sea Containers company has run a cruise ship. I wonder how many people remember the "Orient Express", their cruise ship (converted from a ferry) that ran cruises between Venice & Istanbul for a while many years ago (any pictures out there?).

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I think that the old Orient Express may actually have been the ship that Star bought or leased from Sea Containers at the same time they gave up Leeward/SuperStar Taurus. She was called Wasa Queen and if not Orient Express she was one of that ship's sisters (Pegasus, the first King of Scandinavia, The Azur).

I didn't know that Orient Express was run by Sea Containers.

quote:

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Originally posted by JP:
They also run a river cruise ship in Burma, the "Road to Mandalay".

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This ship is chartered by Orient-Express Trains and Hotels... Was the old cruise ship Orient Express conected with them too? If so it seems that an old ferry would be rather substandard for such an upscale operation.