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I'm not sure when Sun Princess was refurbished, if ever, but she would have been a great candidate for a major face lift. Instead the newer Sun Class ships were used. Anybody know why or have any thoughts?
Redesigning the funnel and stern would be costly and if P&O/Carnival decid to transfer it back to Princess, they would have to spend more money changing it back to original. The TROPICALE got a new funnel when she went to Costa was because the "wing" was a Carnival identity. Imagine the wing being yellow?
I wonder if P&O/Carnival will build some new tonnage for P&O.
With regards to ships changing ownership and their funnels, I worked on both the Sundream (ex Song of Norway) and Sunbird (ex Song of America). Onboard the Sundream RCCL made Sun Cruises take of the chart room bar from the funnel leaving an awful gap. When Sun Cruises took over the Sunbird they managed to convince RCCL to keep it. A great place to host Captains cocktails during sunset !!
Any other vessels you know of which have changed their funnels due to change of ownership ?
I remembered reading about how Royal Caribbean cited the lounge/observatory in the funnel as their trademark and had it removed when the ship changed owners. I'm glad to see however that the old Song of America did not have her lounge removed.
Here's is a picture of the A'rosa Blue formally the Crown Princess, noticed the facade on the sides of the funnel. http://www.cruiseserver.net/images/ships/see_arosa.jpg
This has always been one of my favorites, because of how she resembled a Dolphin, which is what Sitmar Cruises intended her to resemble before the merger with Princess.
Carnival Tropicale - Costa TropicaleWesterdam - Costa EuropaCrown Princess- A'rosa BluArcadia - Ocean VillageSuper Star Libera - NCL Star (well, kinda)??? Seabourn Sun - Prinsendam ?????? Viking Serenade - Island Escape ???
quote:Originally posted by M3MAN2K1:Here are some ships that have had funnel changes... with the acception on Super Star Libera
Sorry, but most of these ships did NOT have funnel changes, unless you count a new paint job as being a new funnel !
I'll give you TROPICALE - she DID get a new funnel, but COSTA EUROPA certainly didn't, they just painted it yellow and put a big "C" on . A'ROSA BLU's is just a big steel plate that obscures the actual funnel, as demonstrated by the last three photos in the second row here. So that one is sort of an optical illusion of a new funnel .
OCEAN VILLAGE still has the same funnel she's had ever since she was called SITMAR FAIRMAJESTY. NORWEGIAN STAR's funnel was just repainted in NCL colors, otherwise, it's the same one Star Cruises planned on her having. PRINSENDAM has the same funnel she's had since 1988 as ROYAL VIKING SUN. Again they just repainted it and changed the logo. VIKING SERENADE got a new funnel when she assumed that name (or at least part of it was new as it certainly is different from the original, but it might have just been modified) but has the same one as ISLAND ESCAPE.
To the list of ships with changed funnels we can add QE2, who had her funnel greatly widened. REGAL EMPRESS is on her third funnel. New funnels were installed in the conversions of FAIRSEA (II) and FAIRWIND. Also in STELLA SOLARIS, ITALIA PRIMA, COSTA MARINA, and other massive conversions where the whole superstructure was changed. Going back in time, ILE DE FRANCE had her funnels reduced from three to two, and the dummy funnel of AUSTRALIS was chopped off in making her into ITALIS. Likewise, KUNGSHOLM's forward dummy was amputated to a stump and her aft funnel heightened when she became SEA PRINCESS.
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