The First Royal Caribbean Ships 

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line was formed in 1967 by two Norwegian shipowners, Sigurd Skaugen and Anders Wilhelmsen after the ideas of a well known Miami shipbroker named Edwin Stephan. Two ships were ordered, and eventually, a thirth shipowning company, Gotaas-Larsen (also Norwegian) entered the business and a thirth ship was able to taken as an option. Sadly, the same year Anders Wilhelmsen died and his son Arne Wilhelmsen entered the company in his place. Where the money came from the three parties, the general ideas were those of Stephan. He wanted the ships to be easily recognizable and he suggested that something based on the Seattle Space Needle should be built on top of the ships. This proved to be too costly, and because the designers also found the funnel the most ugly part of a ship in general, the proposal was made to wrap a lounge around it. With Norwegian tradition in mind, it was called the Viking Crown Lounge.

The three ships that were built were all financially backed by one of the three shareholders, who also gave the ships names they liked so there was nothing like a general naming-plan. The Song of Norway (Skaugen) was delivered first in 1970, the Nordic Prince (Wilhelmsen) followed in 1971 and the last one became Sun Viking (Gotaas-Larsen). RCCL instantly became the premier cruise line sailing out of Miami, leaving competition far behind. But not all was well, because the first problems between the shareholders and Stephan arose about how to run the company. It was not untill the 1990's that these problems were solved and the company became a true cruiseline based on firm ideas.

The first ship, Song of Norway, was launched at the 7th of december 1969. She was named by Magnhild Borten, wife of Per Borten, at that time Prime Minister of Norway. Her first cruise started in Miami at the 7th of november 1970 and took her, of course, into the sunny Caribbean. Eight years after her launch, the ship was lenghtened and rebuilt.

Song Of Norway was sold to the British company Airtours Sun Cruises, sailing under the banner of My Travel, and renamed Sundream in 1996. Her first cruise under her new name took her to the Mediterranean in may 1997. In 2003, Airtours ceased their cruise-operations, selling then ship to Louis Cruise Line. Louis chartered her out to the Israelian company Caspi Cruises under the name Dream Princess. In 2006, her name was changed to Dream because Princess Cruises was not really happy with her former name. She recieved her new name after she was briefly chartered as a faculcy of the Tulane University in New Orleans after the hurricane Katrina.

In 2007, the ship was sold to the Clipper Goup and renamed Clipper Pearl. She was chartered to peaceboat in 2008 for a few months, before being named Clipper Pacific in august of that same year. One year later, she was sold to International Shipping Partners under again a new name, Festival. In november 2009 she was chartered to Quail Cruises as a excursionship under the new name of Ocean Pearl.

Nordic Prince was the second of the Royal Caribbean ships to enter service. Her carreer was somewhat the same as her slightly older sister, being lenghtened in 1980 and being sold to Airtours in 1995 under the name of Carousel. Like her sister, this was the time the Viking Crown Lounge was removed from the funnel because this was a feature of Royal Caribbean. When Sun Viking was sold by Royal Caribbean, she kept her crown lounge strangely enough.

In 2004, after the discontinuation of Airtours Sun Cruises the ship was also sold to Louis Cruise Line and the ship was renamed Aquamarine. Between 2006 and 2007 she was chartered by the German Transocean Tours under the name of Arielle, before this was reverted to Aquamarine for Louis.

The picture on top of the page is Sundream at the Northsea Channel near Buitenhuizen in 2004. Below is Arielle, sailing for Transocean Tours in front of IJmuiden, 2006.