Empress in Helsinki 11 August 2015

Empress

IMO 8716899
Name history: Nordic Empress, Empress of the Seas, Empress
Built 1990, Chantiers de l'Atlantique, St. Nazaire, France
Tonnage 48 563 GT
Length 210,81 m
Width 30,70 m
Draft 7,10 m
2 020 passengers
2 Wärtsilä-Duvant Crepelle diesels, combined 16 200 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
1 stern thruster
Speed 19,5 knots

The Empress has of course been featured here before and you can click on this link to read a short history of the ship. The photographs below show the ship passing through the Kustaanmiekka strait following departure from Helsinki. Due to my being a bit a late on the scene, you're getting a slightly different point of view from the usual photos taken at Kustaanmiekka. As per the usual, click on the images to see them in larger size.

Continuing the floral theme from the previous entry.

Still not sure if I like the current Pullmantur livery. At least it's different though.

Through the narrow bit.

Next time: Azamara Quest

Caribbean Princess in Helsinki, 7 August 2015

Caribbean Princess

IMO 9215490
Built 2004, Fincantieri Monfalcone, Italy
Tonnage 112 894 GT
Length 290,00 m
Width 36,00 m
Draugth 8,05 m
3 114 passengers (lower berths)
3 782 passengers (maximum)
6 Sulzer diesels, combined 63 360 kW
2 azipods
3 bow thrusters
Speed 21,7 knots

The Caribbean Princess is, as you can easily discern from her profile, a member of Princess Cruises ubiquitous Grand-class. Although, if you wish to be pedantic, she is in fact a one-off design; like the first three Grand-class ships (the Grand, Golden and Star Princess) she was built with the shopping cart handle -esque after superstructure, but she has an extra deck of cabins compared to the earlier sisters. Nothing else really to say about the ship - except that I find her name somewhat amusing on northern European itineraries. Also interesting that Princess felt nescessary to rename the Tahitian Princess into Ocean Princess a few years back when she moved to worldwide itineraries, but didn't feel the same thing nescessary for the Caribbean Princess in the same situation.

The photographs below show the Caribbean Princess departing Helsinki Länsisatama (West Harbour) in the afternoon of 7 August 2015. Photographed from Sisä-Hattu. Click on the images to see them in larger size.

Floral Princess (with a queen, namely Tallink's Baltic Queen, in the background).

While I'm not a fan of the Grand class or its defivatives in terms of overall design, I think the ships with the shopping cart handle look better than the ones without.

Couldn't resist those flowers.

Next time: Empress.

Arcadia in Helsinki, 7 August 2015

Finally I had some free time to dedicate to treating photos for publication. Be warned, there are quite a lot of them this time.

Arcadia

IMO 9226906
Built 2005, Fincantieri Porto Maghera, Italy
Tonnage 82 972 GT
Length 285,30 m
Width 32,20 m
Draugth 7,80 m
2 556 passengers
5 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 51 840 kW
2 azipods
3 bow thrusters
Speed 22 knots

P&O Cruises' Arcadia has, of course, been featured on this blog several times before. For a brief history of the ship, see this earlier entry. On this particular occasion, I headed out to photograph her as this was probably the last time to document her before she's applied the indignity of P&O's new blue funnel colours and Union Jack bow paint.

So, the photos below show the Arcadia departing from Helsinki Länsisatama (West Harbour) on the afternoon of 7 August 2015. Photographed from Sisä-Hattu. As per the usual, you can see the photos in larger size by clicking on them.

The photogenic flower still required one to lay down on an anthill to get it attractively in the frame. Sometimes suffering for your art is nescessary.

More flowers.

And yet more flowers.

More upright photography, this time with The Photogenic Tree.

Is it just me, or is the funnel starting to look a bit faded? Well, presumably there's no point in repainting it with the yellow as it'll soon be blue instead, but still.

More upright Photogenic Tree!

Okay, maybe one photo that actually shows the ship "properly".

But The Photogenic Tree is so appealing!

Water levels were unusually low, giving a chance to take slightly different foreground rock photos from normal.

The Japanese rose bush is always attractive.

Next time: Caribbean Princess.