Princess of Scandinavia interiors, 6-7 October 2006

Princess of Scandinavia

IMO 7361324
Name history: Tor Scandinavia, Princess of Scandinavia, Moby Otta
Built 1976, Lübecker Flender-Werke, West Germany
Tonnage 22 528 GT
Length 184,55 m
Width 26,40 m
Draugth 6,20 m
1 507 passengers
1 617 berths
420 cars
910 lanemetres
4 Pielstick diesels, combined 33 540 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 27 knots

Inside, the Princess of  Scandinavia posessed a similar feature as the Finnjet did during her later years: while most of her interiors had been rebuilt and were very stylish and up-to-date, she beautifully retained the feeling of being onboard a ship with a history. In the case of the Princess this was further enhanced by the extremely good care DFDS Seawyas had taken of the ship. In 2006 the 30-year old ship that was to be sold in less than a month was in a better condition inside than some year-old ships I've sailed on.

The photographs below were taken during a short Gothenburg-Kristiansand "party cruise" (and it was quite partyish too). As with the previous photos of this ship, these have been taken with a less good camera than my newer photos and as such the quality can be inferior to what you've usually seen here. Additionally the colours in several of the photos are severely distorted, due to the said camera taking terribly yellow-tinted photographs indoors. Furthermore, since I did not take notes on which space is decipted in which photograph, some of the spaces might be misindentified. I would appriciate any and all corrections.

Click on the individual images to view full size.

Firing up the engines on departure from Kristiansand in the morning of 7 October 2006.

Deck 9

Navigation bridge. Travelling in the company of the founder of Finnjetweb, the crew were kind enough to grant us a bridge visit. 7 October 2006.

Outdoors swimming pools are rare sights on North European ferries, but the Tor Britannia and Tor Scandinavia were built with such. The pool was closed in October of course, but climbing to deck 10 (which technically was out-of-bounds) gave nice view of the pool area. presulambly the pool has been put to good use during the ship's new Mediterranean career as the Moby Otta. 7 October 2006.

Deck 7

Forward hall on deck 7, between the commodore-class cabins and the night club. 6 October 2006.

Columbus night club with Swedish party cruisers. The two Finns, a Brit and German were on the other side of the camera. 6 October 2006.

I presume these are original 1970s artworks on the aft staircase (or possibly the midship staircase) on deck 7. 6 October 2006.

Deck 6

The arcade on port side of deck 8, connecting the Blue Riband a la carte restaurant to the Seven Seas buffet restaurant. Sadly I did not take any photographs inside the restaurants. The buffet retained some rather attractive original 1976 decorations. 6 October 2006.

Deck 5

The very chic elevator on Deck 5 central hall, facing aft. For an interesting contrast with this refined 2006-look, compare with the photograph of the (equally stylish but in a completely different way) original 1976 stylings from Fakta om Fartyg: M/S Tor Scandinavia inredning. 6 October 2006.

More of deck 5 central hall. Behind the information and bureau de change is/was the surprisingly small tax-.free shop. 6 October 2006

Deck 1

The bridge visit also gave us a chance to visit the engineering. The working spaces of the ship certainly gave a strong contrast to the sleek and clean looks of the ship's interiors elsewhere. 7 October 2006.

More of the engine room. 7 October 2006.

....and the trip is almost over: passing under the Älvsborg bridge en-route back to Gothenburg harbour.