The Ocean Monarch is actually chartered by Golden Star Cruises for 3-day and 4- day cruises in Greece.

You can visit their website :

www.goldenstarcruises.com

Her sistership is the "Princess Danae", owned by Classic International Cruises, but chartered by numbers of travel companies, like Marsans Transtours (France ; www.marsans.fr) or VivaMare (Germany ; www.vivamare.de)

These ships are in SOLAS 2010 norms.

The Ocean Monarch has been advertised as for sale for most of this year.

She is available from September 2007.
No price is quoted.

She is fitted with sprinklers but it would appear her present owners do not intend to update her to meet the new regulations in 2010.

Regards,

Neil ( Bob ).

[ 08-25-2006: Message edited by: Neil Whitmore ( Bob ) ]

Her Name at that time was "SWITZERLAND"

I had an outside Cabin, which was big and comfortable and the Food was in one Seating
and was good. Service by Ukrainean Waitresses.

We did an Cruise starting at December 30th from Madeira to the Canary Islands for one Week.

The Ocean Monarch has had many names over the years, from when she was converted from a Port Lines passenger/cargo ship in 1972.

At one time she and her sister ship sailed for Costa Cruises as the ' Danae ' and ' Daphne '.

They had been named ' Port Melbourne ' and ' Port Sydney'

One of her past names has been ' Switzerland '.

She was owned by a Swiss company but I am not sure if they still own her.

quote:

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Originally posted by Malcolm @ cruisepage:

Yes, I mean no. Are Majesty and Monarch not sister ships or am I still confused?

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OCEAN MAJESTY was originally one of the Spanish carferries of the 1960s, and would be kin to the likes of CROWN DEL MAR, etc. No relation to the current OCEAN MONARCH.

I am still not sure if the Ocean Monarch is still Swiss owned but the 2006 brochure for Golden Star Cruises shows her as now flying the Portugues flag but staffed with Greek Officers and crew !

She has 231 cabins and carries just over 460 passengers.

Her GRT is shown as 15,800 tons and she was re-furbished in 2006.

Her sister ship now named Princess Danae and operated by Classic International Cruises also flies the Portuguese flag !

She is shown as having a mixed Portuguese and International crew.

She has 283 cabins and carries 559 passengers.

Her GRT is shown as 16,500 tons and she was re-furbished in 2004.

Both of these ships have only two passenger lifts and seven passenger decks.

The ships were built as cargo passenger ships in 1955 for the UK to Australia and New Zealand service of Port Line and carried large amounts of refridgerated cargo.

This now makes them two of the oldest passenger ships still in service.

When built they carried about 12 passengers.

quote:

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Originally posted by Neil Whitmore ( Bob ):
[..]

This now makes them two of the oldest passenger ships still in service.
[..]

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...AND they are still two of the best looking passenger ships in service.

The addition to the forward superstructure on the Princess Danae takes it nearly up the the anchor winches on her forward deck.

This area from the ships deck plans, in the latest 2006 Classic International Cruises brochure, is extra cabin accommodation with an open deck above it which is below the bridge.

She had refits in 1976, 1994, and 2004 so it could have been added at any of these dates.

This open deck may not be open to passengers as it appears to be fitted with bollards amidships for mooring the ship when in port.

From the markings on her hull she also appears to have been fitted with bow side thrusters which have also been fitted to the Ocean Monarch.

In 2007 the Ocean Monarch is expected to be joined by another classic cruise ship.

This is the World Renaissance which was built in 1965 !

She is about 12,000 GRT and carries 450 passengers.

It is expected she will be re-named Blue Monarch.

Regards,

Neil ( Bob )

[ 09-04-2006: Message edited by: Neil Whitmore ( Bob ) ]

I have just added some more exciting news to my posting above yours,. which I have just received.

Regards,

I heard tonight that she will be cruising next year with the Ocean Monarch and doing seven day cruises.

Regards,