MS Empress of the Seas

MS Empress of the Seas in Grand Cayman on Monday, May 30th, 2016.
History
Name:
  • Originally ordered as: Future Seas
  • 1990-2004: Nordic Empress
  • 2004-2008: Empress of the Seas
  • 2008-2016: Empress
  • 2016-onwards: Empress of the Seas
Owner: Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
Operator:
Port of registry:
Builder: Chantiers de l'Atlantique, Saint-Nazaire, France
Yard number: G29[1]
Launched: August 25, 1989[1]
Christened: Gloria Estefan
Acquired: May 31, 1990[1]
Maiden voyage:
  • June 25, 1990 as Nordic Empress
  • May 15, 2004 as Empress of the Seas
  • March 15, 2008 as Empress
  • May 28, 2016 as Empress of the Seas (again)
Homeport: PortMiami
Identification: IMO number: 8716899[1]
Status: In service
General characteristics (as built)[1]
Type: Empress-class cruise ship[2]
Tonnage:
Length: 210.81 m (691.63 ft)
Beam: 30.70 m (100.72 ft)
Draught: 7.10 m (23.29 ft)
Decks: 9 Passenger Decks
Installed power:
  • 2 × Wärtsilä-Duvant Crepelle diesels
  • combined 16,200 kW
Speed: 19.5 knots (36.1 km/h; 22.4 mph)
Capacity: 1,840
Crew: 668
Notes: Formerly Nordic Empress and Empress of the Seas for Royal Caribbean.

MS Empress of the Seas is a cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean International. She was formerly operated by Pullmantur Cruises as Empress. The ship was ordered by Admiral Cruise Lines and was intended to be called the Future Seas and join the other Admiral ships, the Azure Seas and the Emerald Seas. However, when Royal Caribbean merged with Admiral in 1987, the Admiral brand was dissolved and the newbuild (still under construction) was incorporated into the Royal Caribbean fleet. A few signature Royal Caribbean brand elements were added, including the Viking Crown and Windjammer Cafe.

History

The ship was originally named Nordic Empress and was the final Royal Caribbean ship whose name did not end with "of the Seas" until the name was changed to match the rest of the fleet following an extensive rebuilding that ended on 8 May 2004.

MS Nordic Empress, featuring her original Royal Caribbean livery, anchored off the Cayman Islands in late March 2004

Nordic Empress was the first mainstream cruise ship especially designed for the 3 and 4 day cruise market. Her initial itinerary was a short cruise to the Bahamas, which was then combined with 3 and 4 day cruises from San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1999, following the sale of the Song of America, the Nordic Empress took over the New York City to Bermuda route.

In 2000, Royal Caribbean announced that the Nordic Empress would be undertaking a series of cruises in South America. Shortly after these cruises were put on sale, Royal Caribbean decided to replace the Nordic Empress with the Splendour of the Seas on the South American itineraries, leaving the Nordic Empress in the Caribbean.

2001 engine room fire

MS Empress of the Seas docked in Bermuda in 2006.

In June 2001 the Nordic Empress suffered extensive engine room fire damage while sailing 140 miles north of Bermuda. Subsequent investigation revealed the cause of the fire was failure of a loose bolt in a fuel line flange assembly that had been improperly repaired.[3] The broken bolt caused the flange assembly to separate, allowing fuel to leak around the engine. Moments after a low fuel pressure alarm sounded in the engine room, the leaking fuel ignited against the hot engine surfaces, causing a large explosion that was visible on the engine room CCTV.[3] The engines were stopped immediately and all fuel pumps switched off. Crew members attempting to enter the engine area to fight to fire with fire hoses were forced to turn back from the intense heat.[3] 6 minutes into the fire, the engine room overhead fire sprinkler system was activated along with the ship's general emergency alarm. The sprinklers appeared to have extinguished the fire after 4 minutes, and crew once again attempted to re-enter the engine area, only to have the residual fuel in the engine area ignite a flash fire that was quickly extinguished with fire hoses.[3] During the subsequent inspection of the engine room and surrounding areas, burning wires were discovered in an adjacent compartment. The space was evacuated before lowering watertight doors and releasing 885 kg of halon and restarting the overhead sprinkler system.[3] 3 hours after the first fire broke out, the incident was logged as resolved. The ship was able to return to Bermuda under reduced power, and was subsequently taken out of service for 2 weeks for repairs. Total expenses and lost revenue related to the fire totaled over $8.8 million.[3]

Actress Tina Fey and then recently married husband Jeff Richmond were reportedly on board at the time. The incident was recounted in Fey's autobiography, Bossypants.[4]

MS Empress, in her original Pullmantur livery, docked in Tallinn, Estonia on 16 June 2010.

On 26 March 2007, it was reported that in March 2008, the Empress of the Seas would be transferred to the fleet of Royal Caribbean's subsidiary Pullmantur Cruises.[5] Her final voyage for Royal Caribbean took place on 7 March 2008. The maiden voyage as Empress for Pullmantur Cruises took place on 15 March 2008.

MS Empress, in Tallinn, Estonia on 15 June 2013.

In November 2012, the Empress was the first of the fleet to receive a brand new logo as well as new hull color scheme, it is not known at the moment when the rest of the fleet will receive the new rebranding.[6]

In October 2015, it was announced that Pullmantur would be transferring Empress of the Seas back to Royal Caribbean.[7]

Present Status

Pullmantur refocused on Europe after concentrating passenger sourcing efforts on Latin and South America after the Spanish market went soft. As a result, MS Empress returned to Royal Caribbean after a dry dock in Spring 2016 and was again named Empress of the Seas. The Royal Caribbean "Crown and Anchor" logo was reinstalled onto her funnel. She was repainted with Royal Caribbean's livery, although without her original hull striping.

On December 21, 2015, Royal Caribbean started offering 4- and 5-night Empress of the Seas cruises from Miami, originally scheduled to begin March 30, 2016, with the Bahamas, Key West, and Grand Cayman among ports to be visited. On March 18, 2016, Royal Caribbean announced that the reintroduction of Empress of the Seas into its fleet would be delayed until April 25, 2016,[8] and on April 20, 2016, Royal Caribbean announced a further delay to May 28, 2016 to give them time to completely rebuild the ships galleys.[9]

Back with Royal Caribbean, the Empress of the Seas is scheduled for the cruise line's first sailings to Cuba, beginning in April 2017 from the Port of Tampa. [10] In May of 2017, Royal Caribbean announced that sailings to Cuba would be extended through spring of 2019. [11]

In the novel World War Z, by Max Brooks, the Nordic Empress is found to be heavily infested by zombies and drifting near Dakar, Senegal by the Chinese Type 094 submarine Admiral Zheng He.[12]


References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Asklander, Micke. "M/S Nordic Empress (1990)". Fakta om Fartyg (in Swedish). Retrieved 2008-08-02.
  2. ↑ "Empress of the Seas". Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Danieloncarevic (2013-05-27), Lessons learned - Engine Room Fires, retrieved 2016-04-29
  4. ↑ "Tina Fey's Honeymoon Ruined By Cruise Ship Fire? : Cruise Law News". 22 April 2011. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  5. ↑ "Royal Caribbean International's Empress of the Seas to Join Pullmantur Fleet" (Press release). Royal Caribbean International. 26 March 2007. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
  6. ↑ "Pullmantur Rebranding". Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  7. ↑ "Pullmantur: Another Change of Strategy; Empress Back to Royal". cruiseindustrynews.com. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  8. ↑ "Royal Caribbean Cancels Six Empress of the Seas Cruises". Cruise Critic. Retrieved 2016-03-25.
  9. ↑ "Royal Caribbean Cancels More Empress of the Seas Cruises". Cruise Critic. Retrieved 2016-04-21.
  10. ↑ http://www.royalcaribbean.com/cuba. Retrieved 2016-10-20. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. ↑ "Royal Caribbean Opens First Year-Long Program To Cuba". Retrieved 2017-05-10.
  12. ↑ Brooks, Max (2006). World War Z. pp. 242–243.
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