Fast Ships - Olympic Voyager and Explorer

[ranwhenparked]

By the mid 1990s, Epirotiki was in trouble. The Greek shipping company had been founded back in 1850 as a passenger and cargo carrier, linking the Aegean islands with each other and the mainland and plying the Danube, before moving into Mediterranean cruises in the 1960s, later expanding to the Caribbean and South America. By the 1980s, Epirotiki boasted the biggest cruise ship fleet in the Mediterranean, but, all of its vessels were old, converted ocean liners or ferries, and, with bigger companies with larger, newer vessels moving into their home turf, they started to fall behind. A spate of fires in the late 1980s and early 90s, which destroyed 5 of Epirotiki's ships, brought increased scrutiny to the line and harmed their reputation with travelers. They worked out a deal to replace their losses by acquiring 3 old ships from Carnival, with that company taking a considerable shareholding in Epirotiki as compensation, but it was a temporary stopgap, since they weren't any newer or more modern, and virtually all of Epirotiki's ships were going to be illegal under the new Safety of Life at Sea regulations due to come into effect by 2010.

In the meantime, Sun Line Cruises was facing similar difficulties. Unlike Epirotiki, which catered to the budget tourism market with low priced cruises, Sun Line operated deluxe, yacht-like vessels catering to the luxury market. However, Sun's ships were also older, smaller, and increasingly uncompetitive, and also facing the prospect of eventual forced retirement. The two companies came to believe that the only way small, independent cruise lines could survive against the competition from Carnival, Royal Caribbean, P&O Princess, and Norwegian was to consolidate. So, in 1995, the two companies merged to form Royal Olympic Cruise Lines.

The combined company placed an order with the famed German shipbuilders Blohm & Voss for a pair of new, modern ships – the first ever newly built ships for either of Royal Olympic's predecessors, and planned to be the first phase of a major fleet renewal to position the company for the 21st century.

The new ships would be a little unusual – at around 25,000 gross tons, only about ¼ the size of the typical modern cruise ship. The small size was designed to allow them to fit into smaller ports in the Greek islands and Eastern Mediterranean where bigger ships, from bigger cruise lines, couldn't go, helping Royal Olympic carve out a unique niche for themselves with destination-focused itineraries to unusual ports of call, focusing on historic sites and cultural enrichment learning, avoiding direct head-to-head competition with the giant lines. As part of the strategy, the new ships would also be unusually fast – with a top speed of 28 knots, faster than most express liners from the transatlantic days. The speed would minimize travel time between ports, allowing them to spend the maximum amount of time in port during the day, and quickly book it to the next city overnight. A 7-day cruise might see 6 cities visited, offering passengers who really wanted to see the sights the most bang for the buck.

The first to enter service was Olympic Voyager, introduced in 2000, and measuring 24,427 gross tons and 593 feet long. At standard capacity, she carried a relatively low 832 passengers, served by 353 crew. Power was diesel-electric, with 4 Wartsila diesels giving a combined 45,000hp. At 28 knots, she easily ranked as the fastest cruise ship in service – the only faster ship offering cruises was the 34 knot Queen Elizabeth 2, but she was technically a part-time ocean liner/part-time cruise ship.

A typical cruise itinerary from around 2000 saw Olympic Voyager leave Piraeus, Greece on a Saturday, arrive in Santorini on Sunday, Alexandria, Egypt on Monday (with bus tour connection to Cairo), Ashdod, Israel on Tuesday (with tour connection to Jerusalem), Rhodes, Greece on Wednesday, Istanbul, Turkey on Thursday, Mykonos, Greece on Friday, and back to Piraeus on Saturday - visiting 7 ports, in 4 countries, on 3 continents, in 1 week.

Olympic Explorer followed in 2001, slightly smaller at 24,318 tons and 590 feet long, but carrying 836 passengers. Performance specifications were identical.

Unfortunately, Royal Olympic found themselves caught up in a lawsuit filed by the United States Olympic Committee over their use of the word "Olympic". Since the United States was a key market for them, they agreed to settle, which required adjusting their branding to "Olympia". The ships became Olympia Voyager and Olympia Explorer during 2002, with the parent company changing names to Royal Olympia Cruises shortly after. Although the legal issues had been solved, 2001 was not a good time to be involved in the travel business, and Royal Olympia had just made the biggest investment in their history in two new ships, and were still dealing with the legacy issues of their two predecessor companies. Making matters worse, political instability in the Middle East meant a number of ports were closed to them. The new ships were also proving less popular than expected, the troubles in the region might have been a factor, but the baffling decision to build them with only a very small percentage of private balconies might have been an issue as well.

Royal Olympia collapsed in bankruptcy in March of 2004. The company was restructured and restarted operations with a handful of its smaller, older ships, but the new Olympia Explorer and Olympia Voyager were lost to creditors.

Olympia Explorer wound up sailing under charter for Colorado State University's Semester at Sea program of educational cruises, under the new name Explorer, remaining with them from 2004-2015, now under Bahamian registry.

In 2015, she was acquired by Cyprus-based Celestyal Cruises and renamed Celestyal Odyssey, under Maltese registry, however, she remained in the fleet only a few months, going to the newly established Chinese cruise line Diamond Cruises in the fall of 2015.

After a refit, she resumed operations under the Chinese flag in early 2016 as Glory Sea.

Olympia Voyager was renamed Voyager in 2004, reregistered in the Bahamas and laid up for a time, before returning to service in 2005 with Spanish-based Ibero Cruises, a Carnival subsidiary, as their Grand Voyager.

She was reregistered again in Italy during 2008, then reflagged in Portugal during 2009. In 2011, Grand Voyager was transferred to Italian-based sister company Costa Cruises, to become their Costa Voyager, back under Italian registry, and operating cruises primarily for the French market.

This lasted until 2014, when she was sold to Chinese-based Bohai Ferry company and refitted for primarily gambling cruises, reregistered in Panama, and renamed Chinese Taishan. She remains in service with Bohai Ferry running gambling cruises for the Chinese market, but had her flag state changed to Liberia during 2017.

[Jawzx2]

I went on a 12 day Mediterranean cruise with Hemmings in 2012 aboard fhe then-very-new Celebrity Equinox. I'm pretty sure we were docked next to Costa Voyager when we stopped in Istanbul. I remember thinking it was a svelte little rig compared to Equinox, and the name rings a bell, as does the look, those stacks are pretty distinctive. I might have pictures stored away on DVD...

[ranwhenparked]

@jawzx2 Ooh, Solstice-Class, very nice. Those have got to be some of the slickest ships out there now.

These are basically the speed boats of the cruise ship world, the hull design is really sleek in terms of hydrodynamics, and they've also got oversized propellers, combined with a low superstructure and those streamlined funnels for reduced wind resistance, plus those powerful engines - its a really unusual design that I don't think anyone's going to copy any time soon.

[Jawzx2]

@ranwhenparked interesting fact: when a solstice-class ship hits the brakes (reverse thrust) hard coming in hot to the port to make her sunrise slip appointment in Istanbul it sets up a pretty severe resonance in the forward observation lounge. Virtually unnoticeable on the rest of the ship, but the windows in there had quite a thrum and the floor took up the song too. Step outside, and the only clue was extra smoke from the stacks and a slight, low hum. Something with the superstructure really makes the obs lounge boogie though. The lawn and central gallery are pretty cool.

[ranwhenparked]

@jawzx2 That is really odd. I've personally only been on some of Celebrity's older ships - Zenith and Galaxy - but the Solstices are ones I've been really wanting to try for years now, just keep putting it off, thought maybe 2020 was the year, and then ... yeah. I'd probably try to stake out a place up there coming into port just to experience it, my luck, it would come in slow and lazy.

[BaconSandwich]

Something I find interesting is the ratio of crew to passengers. I always thought there would be a lot less crew - like a ratio of 1:5 or 1:10. I would think that reducing labour costs would be a big deal. I guess it doesn't matter as much when the crew is basically treated like indentured slaves.

[ranwhenparked]

@baconsandwich it depends on the line, generally the lower budget it is, the higher the number of passengers to crew - also, giant mega ships in general, since the number of crew needed in certain departments doesn't increase proportionally with the size of ship or number of passengers. That's part of what wrecked economies of scale for small operators in the 90s and 00s, the crazy expensive, small, ultra luxury ships of today are the same size as the ordinary, middle class ships of 40-50 years ago, because that's what you have to charge now to make money on something less than 80,000 tons. Luxury lines - Silversea and Seven Seas, etc, like to brag about having a nearly 1:1 ratio. It will be 3 or 4:1 on Carnival or Norwegian.

[Chariotoflove]

@ranwhenparked I like the idea of a historical site focused cruise itinerary. I’m sorry it didn’t work out for them.

[Jawzx2]

@chariotoflove Others still do it. My cruise on Celebrity was that style. More days, and days at sea as opposed to port (even though the big ship is not slow with a top speed of 24 knots), but we hit Rome, Athens, Naples, Santorini, Mykonos, Kusadasi, and an overnight in Istanbul. The big Equinox had to use launches in the smaller ports, which limited shore access a bit compared to ships that can dock in those places, but we still got a good amount of time to catch the sights and explore museums and take tours (many organized by the cruise line). It's a pretty smooth way to visit a big spread of historical places if you don't mind being on a cruise ship. I had never taken a cruise before, and I'm not sure I ever would again, it's just not really my style, but the ship was comfortable, clean, spacious, and had generally excellent food on board.

[Chariotoflove]

@jawzx2 I took one cruise on a high school trip. Not sure it’s my style either, but I like the itinerary. And for a guy in a wheelchair, it might be the best way to see all that stuff. I’ll have to think about it.

[ranwhenparked]

@chariotoflove Celestyal Cruises operates on pretty much the exact same business model as Royal Olympia did - in fact, they do a very similar 7 day/3 continent itinerary for around $1000 on the Celestyal Experience, which is a very nice ship (ex Costa Romantica/Costa neoRomantica).

Assuming ships are allowed to sail again, of course, and assuming Greece opens back up to international travel so you can fly there to catch the ship, and assuming Celestyal doesn't go bankrupt due to the shutdown. Lot of assumptions there.