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Latest News...Cunards newest ship Queen Anne set sail for her homeport of Southampton after officially joining the luxury cruise lines iconic fleet. Cunard took ownership of their stunning 3,000-guest ship during a traditional handover ceremony at the Fincantieri Marghera shipyard in Venice on Friday (19 April). Crowds joined together at the Fincantieri Marghera shipyard to wave an emotional goodbye...
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I returned home from Finland this weekend after having attended the handing over ceremony. Like her sister ship, the 2004-built Color Fantasy (75,027grt), the Color Magic (75,100grt) blew me away. Color Magic will soon be introduced alongside her sister on the line service between Oslo (Norway) and Kiel (Germany). She can carry 2975 pax in 1016 cabins, served by 298 crew. The service speed is 22 knots and power comes from four Wärtsilä engines delivering a total of 42,400 BHP.
The on board standard is very high for a cruise ferry; in fact the reference for the interior outfitting is Royal Caribbean's Voyager class. Color Magic/Fantasy boast such features as a circular observation lounge on Deck 15, a 160m long, 3-deck high promende, and a dramatic 2-deck high main dining room with a glass wall facing aft (a la Celebrity).
I took some photos which PamM was kind to help me upload to the net. Hope they will be of interest.
MS Color Magic - Aker Yards, Rauma Sept. 6, 2007
[ 09-10-2007: Message edited by: shipsnorway ]
Color Magic maiden arrival in Oslo
Pam
Lovely, thanks. One can imagine all the blasting going on and feel the goose bumps. A great day!
quote:Originally posted by BigUFan:That is very interesting. Who would have thought that a ferry would have that much of a high-end appearance, although it does clearly rip off Royal Caribbean.
The other way around. The concept of the 'indoor prom' etc came from ferries; Silja Serenade & Symphony.
Joe at TravelPage.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7Zuv7aFdPM
quote:Originally posted by PamM:The other way around. The concept of the 'indoor prom' etc came from ferries; Silja Serenade & Symphony.Pam
Indeed.
Some video clips (and links) about Silja Symphony - nothing against RCI but honor to whom honor is due.
These ships are BTW also very suitable as a pre- or post cruise program. One could also combine that with Birka Paradise - or a roundtrip to Turku - on the Stockholm - Turku route the ship stays in the archipelago most of the time.
quote:Originally posted by shipsnorway:Photos from Color Magic's maiden arrival in her home port of Oslo today, where she met her sister Color Fantasy, can be found here:Color Magic maiden arrival in Oslo
Nice pictures. TUSEN TAKK.
Galaxy, Pam, I nearly forgot to thank you for posting the link to the video clips - it made my day.
[ 09-10-2007: Message edited by: Ernst ]
quote: Originally posted by PamM:The other way around. The concept of the 'indoor prom' etc came from ferries; Silja Serenade & Symphony.Pam
You really do learn something new every day. I don't know if there are many ferries on this side of the Atlantic designed in that manner. Most of the ferries I've ever seen are river or bay ferries. I wonder if the ferries being used to do the Maine-Halifax runs are anything like these. I suspect not, or at least not to that level, as that's not a really long journey either.
quote:Originally posted by Cunard Fan:Wow! For ferry they are very good looking!
Don't be fooled by the term ferry. There are many nice ferries in Scandinavia offering an onboard experience which is certainly comparable to some cruise ships. Actually, these ferries are certainly closer to the past 'liners' than any cruise ship. Giving all that ship enthusiasts should maybe pay more attention to these vessels.
But what about that aft Restaurant? Multi layered like RCI's, mind you other ships like Millenium class and so have multi story aft dining rooms but when you look at the details.. it looks so close to what RCI does with the Eagle/Freedom class. The main difference i see is the shape of the glass looking through the stern.
The bridge design on the magic and fantasy are even copies from the eagle/freedom class. However, these ships are not 100 % carbon copies, they do have some unique spaces about them which is good. What i have said is not to take away from how the interior looks, it's just how close it looks to RCI's.cruiseshipluver
I always heard that since the ferry and rail services in Europe operated so efficiently and gave literal downtown-to-downtown service, that air travel (with the airports generally being distant and outside the main cities) was more expensive and less used. Any truth to that?
quote:Originally posted by cruiseshipluver:As I have said before, these Ferries take so much from RCI it isn't funny. [...]
Well, the 'same people' built them. (no patent violations )
quote:Originally posted by dmwnc1:Northern Europe, Scandanavia, and the British Isles being surrounded by water offer the opportunity to have a greater number of very large ferries and ferry travel, where the USofA (mostly a solid land mass with two distant coasts) makes air and train travel a more viable option. [...]
There are nevertheless some itineraries where one could imagine that a ferry service might make sense. (e.g. New England - Florida)
quote:Originally posted by dmwnc1:I always heard that since the ferry and rail services in Europe operated so efficiently and gave literal downtown-to-downtown service, that air travel (with the airports generally being distant and outside the main cities) was more expensive and less used. Any truth to that?
Difficult to awnser - low-cost airlines sometimes offer very, very attractive prices. (but not always) Railways are not necessarily that cheap on longer trips. (and some are not that 'nice' - depends a lot which country we talk about)Also, a lot of Scandinavian ferries actually get quite some passengers who do roundtrips.
I am still I guess relatively new to ships other then old liners (at least compared to most here), it wasn't until a couple years ago that I started getting interested in the modern shipping industry so I am still not very good with ferrys. To me it used to seemed like most ferrys (except some of the older ones) were just ugly boxes that float. I am glad to be wrong.
I have been on ferrys twice in my life between the mainland and Victoria, BC, but that was years ago and I don't remember them being very interesting. I sure now though I would find them interesting as I find just about every ship very interesting.
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