Premier Cruise Line was
originally formed in 1983 by the Greyhound Bus Company of the
USA and cruise execs Bruce Nierenberg and Bjornar Hermansen.
The first ship was the Costa liner Federico C, which was
refitted and given a distinctive red hull. She was renamed
Royale,
often described as StarShip Royale, and operated 3-day
and 4-day Bahamas trips out of Port Canaveral. The second ship,
acquired in 1986, was the superb Home Lines flagship Oceanic,
referred to as StarShip Oceanic. Subsequent purchases
in 1988 were the Home Lines Atlantic, sold by Holland
America when Home Lines were acquired, and the Sun Princess
of Princess Cruises. These became StarShip Atlantic
and StarShip Majestic. StarShip Royale was sold
to Dolphin Cruise Line as SeaBreeze in the same year,
when these newer ships arrived. The Company was earning in excess
of $20 million annually on a gross revenue of $100 million during
the 1980's. Nierenberg and Hermansen sold their shares back to
the Greyhound Corp ( which had become the Dial Corp) and left
the business. SeaBreeze rejoined the 'new' Premier Cruises fleetwhen it amalgamated
with Dolphin.
Premier became the "official
Disney cruise line", and marketed cruises as part of a package
including visits to the Disney theme parks in Florida. This connection
was severed when Disney decided to create its
own cruise line. StarShip Majestic was sold to CTC in 1994,
becoming their Southern Cross, and the
StarShip Atlantic
was sold to MSC to become their Melody. This left only
the StarShip Oceanic in the fleet before the amalgamation
with Dolphin and Seawind to form the 'new'
Premier Cruises.
Premier
Cruises collapsed
in September 2000.
Spirit of London, Sun Princess,
Southern Cross, Flamenco
1972
Premier Cruise Line Fleet
List
StarShip Royale
(Premier
Cruise Lines: 1983-88)
Premier Cruise Lines'
first ship was the StarShip Royale, previously the Costa
Line
Federico
C, built 1958.
Federico
C was the first
new ship built for
Costa
Line (Linea "C").
She worked for them from 1958 until 1983, initially on liner
voyages from Italy to South America, and then from Italy to Florida
and the Caribbean. In later years
Federico C devoted more and more time to
cruises. In 1983, she was sold to
Premier Cruise Lines, becoming
Royale and then
StarShip Royale. Premier in turn sold her to Dolphin in 1988, where StarShip
Royale was
renamed
SeaBreeze. More recently, both Dolphin and
Premier Cruise Lines were acquired by Cruise Holdings, who merged them
into an enlarged
Premier
Cruises fleet in
1997, for whom
SeaBreeze continued to operate. In September
2000, the predicted collapse of
Premier Cruises occurred. In December 2000,
SeaBreeze was reported to have sunk off
the US coast in heavy weather whilst sailing light. All crew
had been taken off by helicopter.
The
card gives the following information:- PORT CANAVERAL, FLORIDA Gross tonnage 21,000 tons - Length 606 feet - Draft 27 feet
- Cruising speed 22 knots - Double occupancy cabin capacity 770
Number
of passenger decks 8 - Modern fin stabilizer system - Fully air-conditioned
- Outdoor swimming pool - Outdoor whirlpool
Ship-to-shore
communications - Theater with first run movies - Casino Royale
Las Vegas-style gambling - Outer Limits Disco
Big
Dipper ice cream parlour - Captain Video arcade - Apollo Observatory.
Ships Registry Panama.
This
card of StarShip Royale, serial number 158
Published:
Editions FISA, Barcelona - Photo: P.Asenjo
Another
Editions FISA card of StarShip Royale, serial number 157a,
again using a photo by P.Asenjo.
John
Hinde Curteich card from the Bahamas, showing StarShip Royale,
serial number 2BH 92-B.
Two
official cards showing both Royale and Oceanic.
The
cards give the following details:- The Official Cruise Line of
Walt Disney World
Premier's StarShip Fleet - the largest and most luxurious cruise
fleet in Bahamas cruising.
Sailing
from Port Canaveral, Florida, on 3-and 4-night cruises to Nassau
and the Out Islands.
Name
entertainment on every cruise year-round.
Offering
the "Cruise and Wait Disney World Vacation Week," which
combines a cruise with a free visit to the world's #1 vacation
resort.
Bahamas
Scenic Prints postcard (serial 54-E) showing both StarShip
Royale and StarShip Oceanic, at Nassau.
StarShip Oceanic
(Premier
Cruise Lines: 1986-2000)
Oceanic was originally built for Home
Lines in 1965. The
Oceanic was completed in 1963 by Cantieri
Riuniti dell'Adriatico, Monfalcone.
Oceanic was
Home Lines first purpose-built ship, designed as a two-class
liner to operate in summer on their Canadian route from Cuxhaven,
le Havre and Southampton. By the time of her delivery, Home Lines had dropped the Atlantic liner
voyages, and
Oceanic ran 7-day cruises to Nassau from
New York through the summer. In winter she ran longer trips to
the Caribbean. She was sold to
Premier Cruise Line in 1985, when replaced by the new Homeric.
Oceanic became the sole remaining ship
in the Premier fleet in 1996, before it was enlarged again following
the amalgamation with Dolphin and Seawind in 2000.She was later
renamed
StarShip
Oceanic, but
was frequently marketed as the
Big Red Boat. This later became her official
name. Premier
Cruises collapsed
in September 2000.
Oceanic was acquired by Spanish operator
Pullmantur, who had previously chartered
the Seawind Crown.
The
card details read:- The spectacular Star/Ship Atlantic is
part of the Premier Star/Ship fleet,
sailing
from Port Canaveral on 3 and 4-night cruises to Nassau and the
Out Islands. Premier's
exclusive
Cruise and Disney Week combines the best cruise to the Bahamas
with a free
Walt
Disney World vacation.
Simplon
Postcards sc2023, published October 1992, of StarShip Atlantic.
Photographed
at Nassau by Wil Moojen.
StarShip Majestic
(Premier
Cruise Lines: 1988-1994)
StarShip Majestic
wasoriginally the 1972-built Spirit Of Londonof
P&O.
Spirit
of London was
to have been a sistership to
Norwegian
Caribbean Line'sSouthward, to be named Seaward.
Norwegian Caribbean Line pulled out of the deal after price
rises following the Italian builders' nationalization, and the
hull was sold to
P&O.
Spirit of London was eventually completed in the
autumn of 1972. When
P&O later acquired
Princess Cruises in 1974,
Spirit of London was transferred to that fleet,
becoming the
Sun
Princess. Sun Princess was sold to
Premier Cruises in 1988, becoming StarShip Majestic, one of their "big red boats", and she
retained the red hull when bought by CTC Lines in 1994 as Southern
Cross. In 1998,
she became the third ship in the
Festival Cruises fleet as
Flamenco. Following the collapse of Festival
Cruises, Flamenco was sold for $12.25 million to Cruise
Elysia, being renamed the New Flamenco. In 2007
she was sold to Club Cruise for £26 million and renamed Flamenco I.
In November 2008, Club Cruise defaulted on their payments and she was sold at
auction for just $3.4 million.