Cruise Ships are BIG

 I was talking to a guy at the bar at Rising Tide at Port Canaveral. As we were chatting, the newest cruise ship,  the Disney Wish, went by embarking on a test cruise. Although not the biggest ship in the world, it is the biggest for Disney Cruise Line. I made the comment that cruise ships were not always so big, and that I had been on a few small ships back in the 1980s. I did catch a picture of the new Disney Wish sitting in port.



So, of course, when I got home I started a spreadsheet, In actuality, I already had one for my cruises, I just added another sheet with ship sizes. I have included it here:


I have tried, by resizing the photos, and including a rough scale, to show the relative lengths of the ships. I have excluded the Excor from the comparisons.

Emerald Seas - 622.58 feet (Found photo on Internet)
SS Sunward II - 486 feet (Found photo on Internet)
SS Royale - 605 feet (Postcard)
SS Atlantic - 671.9 feet (Postcard)

SS Majestic - 536 feet (Postcard)

MS Sovereign of the Seas - 888.33 feet (Photo by BJ in Nassau Bahamas)



MS Freedom of the Seas - 1111.46 feet (Photo by BJ in Labadee Haiti)

MS Enchantment of the Seas - 988.71 feet (Photo by BJ at Coco Cay in Bahamas)

Oasis of the Seas - 1181 feet (Photo by BJ in Saint Thomas USVI)
Breakaway - 1068.33 feet (Photo by BJ in Belize)
Just for grins, I found these comparisons of the Oasis of the Seas to the Titanic. These were made by a guy named Malcom Oliver. There is also a Youtube video.



Early 1980s

My first cruises were out of Miami. There really were no cruise ships going out of Port Canaveral back then. You could go out of Fort Lauderdale too but I never tried that.  my first trips were with coworkers from ENSCO. My very first was on the SS Emerald Sea of Eastern Cruise Lines. This is a postcard and a photo from the Internet of the aft pool area.



Here are some photos I took from that trip. The first is another view of the aft pool taken from the deck. BTW, this was the only pool on the deck and it was not open while we were at sea.

My great friend Rick Schumann near the top of the ship. 

This cruise went to the port of Nassau in the Bahamas. They taxied us to a small private beach where we spent the day. Here are Al & Patty Siegel, Ron Cunfer, and Rick Schumann.

Interestingly, the ship was over 600 feet long and had 7 decks. It was built as a troopship in World War II and served the US Navy. It's name was the USS General W.P. Richardson. Its first cruise was to carry 5,000 fighting men from Boston to Southampton England on 12/10/1944. In all, it made 8 round-trip trips from US to Europe, typically carrying wounded and release POWs on the return trips.

Decommissioned in 1946, it went through many names owned by different companies.  The list includes La Guardia, Leilani, President Roosevelt, Atlantis, Emerald Seas, Sapphire Seas, and Ocean Explorer I. It was scrapped in India in 2005. Connection, my niece Lori has the middle name of Leilani.

The second cruise was out of Miami again, on the smallest cruise ship I have ever been on at 486 feet. It was a Norwegian Cruise Line ship called the SS Sunward II.

I took this photo of my friends Ron & Philine on the aft pool deck aboard the Sunward II. I remember that the cheap beer was Ringnes, the top brewery in Norway.


Although the ship was not long, it did have 7 decks. (This photo I obtained on Internet)

Big Red Boats in 80s & 90s

Starting in the mid 1980s and continuing into the 1990s, The Big Red Boats starting sailing out of Port Canaveral. The cruise line was called Premier and they became the official cruise line of Disney, before there was a Disney Cruise Line. Here are some more photos I took of the Big Red Boats.

The Royale in 1985...

The Majestic in 1992...

The Atlantic in 1994...

And one more postcard...

In 1985, I sailed on the Royale with my then wife Nancy. In 1989, I sailed with two buddies from work on the Atlantic. In 1992, I sailed on the Majestic with my then girlfriend Diana. In 1994 and 1995, I sailed on the Atlantic again with my brother Tom and my Mom Stella. In 1994, Tom bought mom a cover-all bingo card, and she won the 1995 trip. 

I liked taking pictures of the boats with beautiful things in the foreground...

1985, Royale, Nancy...

1992, Majestic, Diana...

1995,Atlantic, me...

The 1989 cruise was with my friends Dennis Kunkle and Darrin Roberts. The girl was someone we met on the cruise

I found this photo in my Mom's collection, the first cruise in 1994.
In 1995, since we had a free room for two people, we decided to invite my Aunt Ellie and Tom's two boys, Josh & Brandon...Here they are on the top deck of the Atlantic.

2000s

After a ten year break, I started cruising again on the cruise line Royal Caribbean,

2005, MS Sovereign of the Seas, 4 night Bahamas, Tom & I


2014, MS Freedom of the Seas, 7 night Western Caribbean, David, John, Scott Pitkethly and I

In 2014, I sailed solo to the Bahamas on a four night. It was okay but it is more fun with friends. In 2016, I sailed a five night cruise with John Pitkethly. Then, at the time, the largest cruise ship in the world came to the Port, the Oasis of the Seas. I took my ex-wife on a seven night trip to the Eastern Caribbean. We visited St Thomas and caught a ferry to St John, visiting my friends Peter & Gail, who had been living there. Peter was the Captain of the 38 foot Excor that is in the spreadsheet. Here is Nancy with Peter and Gail. 

I added this picture of the Oasis of the Seas to show that we had a balcony room, on the inside of the ship. You can see right into the boat and the balconies inside. This picture was taken in St Maarten.

My last cruise before the pandemic hit was in 2020 with Tom. I wanted to try a different cruise line and saw that there was a 10 night cruise out of Port Canaveral aboard the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) Breakaway. Here is Tom at a bar in Roatan in Honduras. You can see our ship behind him.

2020, NCL Breakaway, Costa Maya Mexico

2020, NCL Breakaway, Cozumel Mexico

And yes, the ship artwork is by Peter Max. And 10 days is a long time to be on a ship.

I created this post to have a document of the cruises I have been on, and to show that the ships keep getting bigger. They will probably get so big that when you board the ship, you will take a train on the ship to the Bahamas. The ship will never sail....

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