Thomson Destiny interiors, January 2007

Thomson Destiny

IMO 7927984
Name history: Song of America, Sunbird, Thomson Destiny, Louis Olympia
Built 1982, Wärtsilä Helsinki, Finland
Tonnage 37 773 GT
Length 214,51 m
Width 28,41 m
Draugth 6,80 m
1 664 passengers
1 664 berths
4 Sulzer-Wärtsilä diesels, combined 1 7060 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 21 knots

For a history of the Thomson Destiny (today sailing as the Louis Olympia), see the first entry on her.

The photographs below show a selection of interior images from the Thomson Destiny, taken during my January 2007 cruise on her. These are not my best-ever interior shots, which is partially explained by the fact this was just the third time I had conciously attempted to document a ship's interior (the first time was the Isabella back in 1994). But I think these are interesting never the less, particularly as the ship has since changed names.

The forward pool area on deck 9, viewed aft.

The aft pool area (adults pool) facing forward, viewed from part of the way up the funnel.

The Cristoffer Columbus suite sounded grand but wasn't an actual suite as there was only a single room.

Mind you, the people who had paid for the cheapest possible inside cabin did not complain. The lovely mrs Id demonstrates the correct operation of a bed.

Going downwards a bit, Blake's café on deck 7. This was a bit out of the way and we only visited it once.

The Oklahoma Lounge, aft on deck 5, was one of the two main entertainment venues.

Oklohoma Lounge looking both older and more stylish than it actually was.

The venue for the nightly shows was the Can-Can Lounge (forward of Oklahoma Lounge). We thought the song-and-dance routines performed were frankly boring, but most of the passengers seemed to love them.

Reception area on deck 4.

A stair lobby, probably the forward one on deck 4.

Next time: Volcan de Timanfaya

Thomson Destiny at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 13 January 2007

Since the winter doesn't seem to be planning an getting warmer here in the north, I think it's a good time to look at some older photos from warmer places. In January 2007 I made a week's cruise with Thomson Cruises' Thomson Destiny around the Canary Isles. Looking at the photos taken there, there is a surprisingly modest number of ship photos... but still, a few that are worth featuring here. Starting with the star of the show, the Thomson Destiny.

Thomson Destiny

IMO 7927984
Name history: Song of America, Sunbird, Thomson Destiny, Louis Olympia
Built 1982, Wärtsilä Helsinki, Finland
Tonnage 37 773 GT
Length 214,51 m
Width 28,41 m
Draugth 6,80 m
1 664 passengers
1 664 berths
4 Sulzer-Wärtsilä diesels, combined 1 7060 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 21 knots

The Thomson Destiny was built in 1982 by Wärtsilä's shipyard in Helsinki as the Song of America for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. She was RCCL's first new ship in a decade, entering service in Decemeber 1982 on week-long cruises from Miami to the Caribbean. Unusually for a cruise ship but common on ferries at the time, the Song of America was built in an arrangement where cabins were located in the fore of the ship and public rooms aft. As the ship was also designed with public rooms having higher ceiling heights than cabin areas (1½ times the height of cabin decks), this resulted in a somewhat unusual layout with some decks only existing in the front of the ship.

Following the arrival of larger tonnage in the Royal Caribbean International (as the compan ywas now known) fleet, the Song of America was sold in 1999 the UK cruise operator Airtours who at the time operated cruises under the name Sun Cruises. The ship was renamed Sunbird and begun cruising in the Mediterranean. Unlike previous old RCI tonnage sold to Airtours, the sky lounge around the funnel was not removed when the ship was sold, probably due to structural reasons. In 2002 Airtours was rebranded as MyTravel, and subsequently the Sunbird was repainted with MyTravel funnel markings in place of Sun Cruises ones.

MyTravel entered financial difficulties soon afterwards and decided to sell their cruise fleet to Louis Cruises in 2004. The Sunbird was chartered back to Sun Cruises until March 2005 when she left the Sun Cruises fleet. Almost immediately afterwards Sun Cruises' worst competitor in the lower-end UK cruise market, Thomson Cruises, took the ship under charter from Louis as the Thomson Destiny. The ship was used for Mediaterranean and Canary Isles cruising by Thomson.

In May 2012 Thomson and Louis Cruises swapped ships: the Thomson Destiny joined Louis Cruises' own fleet as the Louis Olympia, while the similarly sized but superior Louis Majesty took her place in the Thomson fleet as the Thomson Majesty. During the 2013 summer season the Louis Olympia will be used on short three- and four-day cruises around the Aegean Sea.

The photograph below shows the Thomson Destiny as Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on 12 January 2007. Click on the image to see in larger size.

The structure above the bridge was added when the ship left the RCI fleet. It did somewhat disimprove her looks, but since I got to travel in one of the suites I cannot complain.

Next time: Volcan de Tejeda (unless I take the chance to head out for some winter ship photography, in which case you'll get that).

Thomson Spirit in Helsinki, 9 July 2012

Thomson Spirit

IMO 8024014
Name history: Nieuw Amsterdam, Patriot, Nieuw Amsterdam, Spirit, Thomson Spirit
Built 1983, Chantiers de l'Atlantique St. Nazaire, Frence
Tonnage 33 930 GT
Length 214,66 m
Width 27,26 m
Draugth 7,40 m
1 254 passengers (lower berths)
1 350 berths
2 Sulzer diesels, combined 22 400 kW
2 propellers
1 bow thruster
1 stern thruster
Speed 21 knots

The present-day Thomson Spirit was originally the Nieuw Amsterdam, the first of two cruise ships completed for the Holland America Line at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard. Her sister ship was the Noordam, delivered a year after the Nieuw Amsterdam in 1984. The 1980s Nieuw Amsterdam and Noordam were the last newbuilt ship delivered to HAL prior to the company being taken over by the Carnival Corporation in 1988. Unfortunately the ships suffered from poor constuction quality and also extensive vibrations, particularly towards the stern.

Despite these problems the 1983 Nieuw Amsterdam sailed with HAL for 17 years until the year 2000, when she was sold to America Classic Voyages, a US-based company that used her for cruising around Hawaii under the banner of the historic United States Lines (however, this new United States Lines had nothing to do with the original liner operator United States Lines). The new United States Lines renamed the ship Patriot and placed her under the US flag, an arrangement made possible by the US congress' permission as United States Lines were also to build a brand-new ship at a US shipyard, the Project America.

The new United States Lines' existance proved to be exceptionally short, as the company folded already in October 2001, due to the travel downturn that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In January 2002 Holland America Line bought back the Patriot and she reverted to the name Nieuw Amsterdam. I don't know if she ever saw service during her second stint under this name. Already in May 2002 the ship was chartered to Louis Cruises and subsequently renamed Spirit. It appears that the ship was not in fact used by Louis at all and she only re-entered service in May 2003 when she was sub-chartered by Louis to Thomson Cruises and renamed Thomson Spirit.

Since 2003 the Thomson Spirit has remained in service with Thomson Cruises. In 2008 she was bought by Louis Cruises (or more properly a subsidiary of theirs), but remains under charter to Thomson. Her sister ship, the ex-Noordam, also sails for Thomson Cruises as the Thomson Celebration, but she is still owned by Holland America Line and operated under charter from them.

The photographs below show the Thomson Spirit departing Helsinki's West Harbour on the afternoon of 9 July 2012, photographed from Sisä-Hattu. Click on the images to see in larger size.

Although the Thomson Spirit has both bow and stern thusters, these are apparently not very powerful as she required tug assistance when departing. Also notice old and new HAL in this photo: on the left you can see the superstructure of the Eurodam. Had it been the Eurodam's younger sister, the current Nieuw Amsterdam, one could have taken very poignant photos...

The ship's profile is quite unusual, being a fairly sleek ship built in the early 80s when most cruise lines were already opting for larger ships with substantial superstructures. One might presume that the Thomson Spirit and her sister would be loved by ship afficiandos because of this, but that does not seem to be the case.

I seem to have taken surprisingly many upright photos recently. Mostly thanks to my camera sharpening them nicely and not overexposing the ship too badly.

Traditional "onwards to open sea, with Pihlajasaari in the background" -photo, now with added foreground rock.

The lovely dark clouds in the background contrast the ship beautifully.

Next time: Eurodam.