The Royal Princess of Princess Cruises!
At least one ship of the 1980's is still in active service despite the recent Covid19 crisis that has caused many ships to be scrapped prematurely. The Royal Princess was built in 1984 for Princess Cruises and was launched by Princess Diana of Wales. She had a long career for Princess Cruises until she was transferred to the P&O fleet in 2005 and renamed Artemis. She only remained in the P&O fleet for a few years as she was sold to Phoenix Seereisen in 2009. Phoenix immediately sent her to drydock to be rebuilt, luckily she kept most of her appearance except for the diagonal support bars just below the bridge that were removed to make space for new balcony cabins.
Over the years I have photographed her many times in several ports, yet I 've never been onboard. The photos above show her in Zeebrugge, first as Royal Princess in 2004, next as Artemis when leaving Zeebrugge under a perfect sunny sky with rainbow. From 2009 onwards I photographed her as Artania in Rotterdam, Antwerp and Zeebrugge. My first view of her as Artania was in Rotterdam. In Antwerp there is the possibility to follow the ship from the shores of the river Schelde, I photographed her passing the Liefkenshoek fort with the nuclear powerplant of Doel in the background as seen below.
Next is a collection of photos taken after the Covid crisis in 2021 when most cruise lines started to sail again after a pause of almost 2 years.
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