Cunard Countess
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cunard Countess was the name of a luxury cruise ship that was operated by the Cunard cruise lines. Countess was well known for her amenities, which, during the time that the ship operated under that name, were of high standards, and included an onboard hospital. Countess had a sister ship which was almost a carbon copy of it, but not as famous: the Cunard Princess.
[edit] History
Countess was built in Denmark during the middle 1970s. The ship was prepared for passenger use in Italy.
Soon afterwards, Countess began service with Cunard, after being registered in the Bahamas. Countess became one of the better known cruise ships to cross the Caribbean sea and middle Atlantic ocean, becoming a staple at the San Juan ship dock in Puerto Rico, at Miami, Santo Domingo and many other places around the area.
With a size of more than 17,000 gross tons, Countess was an imposing ship. One of her strongest competitors in the Caribbean during the 1980s was the equally famous and large Carla C. Today's cruise ships are much larger, ranging from 40,000 tons to 160,000 tons.
In 1996, just prior to Carnival's buy-out of Cunard in 1998, Cunard Countess was sold to Awani Cruises, and renamed "Awani Dream II". The Awani cruise company ran into financial trouble, however, and soon after, the ship formerly known as Cunard Countess was headed on its way to another company, the Royal Olympic cruise company.
Royal Olympic decided to pay homage to the Countess's former name by naming her Olympic Countess.
