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24-572: Premier Cruise Line was formed in 1983 by A.E. "Ed" Merhige (Florida Export Warehouse/International Cruise Shops) and Bruce Nierenberg (NCL), two cruise veterans. The lines first ship was the former Federico C from Costa Cruises , and renamed Royale . In 1985 the line would purchase their second ship the Oceanic from Home Lines , and in 1988, the Atlantic replacing the Royale . Also in 1988

48-716: A Big Red Boat brand; the MexiCruises brand with the Seawind Crown and planned charter of the Triton and Odysseus s , and the "‘transitional’ blue-ship brand, which was intended to be the new-ship brand that would temporarily include the SeaBreeze . It was announced by president Bruce Nierenberg that new blue-hulled “new-ship” brand, was to have first newbuilding delivered by the end of 2002 with an order of or at least five ships. In March 1999, Premier bid on acquiring

72-573: A cruising speed of 22 knots. The ship was built at the Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij N.V. of Rotterdam, Netherlands . The ship was launched on launched on February 2, 1971, and entered service in November 1971, for followed by her sister ship Cunard Ambassador in 1972. The Cunard Adventurer's maiden voyage was from Southampton to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she would operate one week fly cruises around

96-674: A number of their ships back to the United States. In 1999, Premier would again rebrand, and revert back to the Premier "P" logo in red on a white funnel and introduced "Seven Star Service". The line would again plan to rebrand their primary fleet as "Big Red Boats". However, plans for the Rembrandt , to be named Big Red Boat IV , were canceled after public outcry of ruining the former Holland America flagship. The line announced they intended to be reorganized Premier Cruises Corp. with

120-476: The 1980s. The successful niche that Premier served was the family cruise line, especially attractive to grandparents sailing with their children and grandchildren. Starting in 1985, Premier partnered with Walt Disney World , providing seven-night land and sea vacations on The Big Red Boat . Premier was licensed to provide Disney characters on its ships, until the relationship ended in 1993. Disney then proceeded to start its own cruise ship line in 1995. After

144-505: The Airline took over the orders to complete the two ships. The Cunard Adventurer would be Cunard's attempt to join the modern cruise industry of the 1970s. The exterior was designed by British designer James Gardner , who had also done the exterior design of the QE2 . The Adventurer was designed to accommodate 832 passengers in a one class configuration with a crew of 412 and she operated at

168-590: The Caribbean and South America. During other seasons the ship would operate out of Norfolk, Virginia to Bermuda . The ship had a relatively incident free service under Cunard, except for colliding with Costa Lines Carla C in February 1975 in San Juan where the bow was damaged. The ship would receive the traditional Cunard livery in the final years under Cunard, where she operated cruises to Alaska. Cunard found

192-477: The Disney contract ended, Premier then affiliated itself with Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes characters to maintain its family-friendly image, and was returned to profitability under the direction of 20-year cruise veteran Jim Naik. The company had an aging fleet of Italian-designed ships competing with newer and larger liners. Mr. Naik brought Premier to profitability in his first quarter with the company. The line

216-490: The Greek Isles, In 1995 Epirotoki Line would form a new cruise company called " Royal Olympic Cruise Lines " where the ship would join this new cruise company that Epirotoki Lines would create together with another cruise company. In 1998 Premier Cruises was interested in buying the ship but Premier Cruises in the end did not manage to buy it and in the end the advertising that Premier Cruises had already made where

240-482: The company after posting profits for 1995, 1996, and 1997. New owners and new leadership followed, with Larry Magnan as president in 1998. After the acquisition, three different operations; i.e. Premier Cruise Line , Dolphin Cruise Line , SeaWind Cruises and Direct Cruises fleets were merged. Premier would rebrand themselves as Premier Cruises with a new ship profile logo, with blue funnels and blue hulls for all

264-405: The company to annualized revenues in excess of $ 200 million, an operating profit in excess of 20% and more than 3,000 employees, making Premier Cruises, with its 5,500 lower berths, the largest privately-held cruise line in the world at the time. Following new ownership of Premier Cruises in 1997, the Atlantic was sold to the newly expanding MSC Cruises . Premier's parent company, Dial, sold

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288-530: The former Eugenio C , with a costly refit of $ 25million and renamed Big Red Boat II. Towards the end of 1999, the Oceanbreeze was chartered to Imperial Majesty Cruises , who would later purchased her in May 2000. In December 1999 Premier Cruises launched new round-trip Mexico cruises from Cancun chartering Royal Olympic Cruises Triton . The charter was canceled after one month due to low interested, with

312-533: The line would also expand further purchasing the Sun Princess from Princess Cruises , renaming the ship the Majestic . All the ships would later have the "Starship" prefix added to their names in the lines marketing. The cruise line typically operated three- and four-day Bahamas trips out of Port Canaveral, Florida . The company earned over $ 20 million annually on a gross revenue of $ 100 million during

336-616: The port of Laem Chabang , Thailand, leaking oil into the Gulf of Thailand . The Big Red Boat III , formerly Carnival Cruise Line 's Festivale , was also sold for scrap. The former Frederico C (called the Seabreeze I ) was to be scrapped at India but instead sank in a storm 220 nautical miles (407 km) off the Virginia coast. Lastly, the Rembrandt , formerly the Rotterdam ,

360-548: The ship appeared was useless because it never entered operations with Premier Cruises . In April 2005 she was sold at auction to Louis Cruises . As Coral she sailed in the Mediterranean Sea and Greek islands until 2011. Louis announced in May 2013 that for the 2014 season, Coral was to be renamed Louis Rhea , to reflect the company's Hellenic heritage. However, in December the plans were cancelled and she

384-399: The ship being returned to Royal Olympic on January 2 ,2000. Premier Cruises would file for bankruptcy and cease all operations on September 14, 2000, with passengers on the still-running cruises being docked and given flights home on a first-come, first-served basis; the company's primary lender had seized its existing fleet, which had been put up for collateral. The ship seizures disrupted

408-731: The ships except the Oceanic , which would retain her red hull. Premier would also acquire the former SS Rotterdam , and renaming her Rembrandt . Premier Cruise Lines first ship the former Royale , now the Seabreeze that had been part of the Dolphin Cruise Line fleet, would return to Premier after almost 10 years. Premier Cruises (under new ownership and management led by Bruce Nierenberg) changed their business strategies and decided to cancel their marketing agreements with international marketing partners such as Thomson Holidays , Pullmantur and others and decided to reposition

432-502: The ships to be too small, and would sell both, replacing them with the larger Cunard Princess and Cunard Countess . Sold in 1977, Cunard Adventurer became Sunward II for Norwegian Cruise Line . During her refit, her Queen Elizabeth 2 -style funnel was removed and replaced by a NCL-style funnel along with the Gardner designed curves bulkheads and bow. In 1991 the ship was sold to Epirotiki Lines , and operated aorund

456-811: The vacations of about 2,800 passengers. Creditors seized Premier's Big Red Boat I in Nassau, Bahamas; Big Red Boat III in Cozumel, Mexico, and the Rembrandt and SeaBreeze in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Premier's Seawind Crown , under charter to Spanish tour operator Pullmantur Cruises , continued to operate in the Mediterranean. Most of the 1,700 passengers who disembarked Rembrandt and Sea Breeze in Halifax were flown back to their points of origin, but several hundred were allowed to board Premier's Big Red Boat II for its return voyage to New York, where it

480-484: Was later bought by Dial Corporation (of Dial soap fame), which then also owned the Greyhound Bus Company . From the company's inception, Mr. Stensby grew Premier Cruises from one to six ships, operating on itineraries in the United States, Bahamas, South America, the Caribbean and Europe. Mr. Stensby resigned as chairman and chief executive officer of Premier Cruises in the fall of 1997 after growing

504-588: Was a cruise ship built for the Cunard Line and operated from 1971 to 1977. She was the first of the company's vessels in the 20th century to bear a name that did not end in "ia" or begin with "Queen." The ship was originally intended for as a series of eight identical ships were especially designed for the Overseas National Airways. However due to financial difficulties the order was reduced to two ships, and Cunard, who had ownership in

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528-628: Was laid up in Freeport, Bahamas . She had no potential buyers and remained there until 2005, eventually being sold to the breakers and was scrapped in Alang, India in late 2005. The former Starship Majestic , now known as the Ocean Dream , was sailing out of Asia. In 2016, the Ocean Dream , which had changed hands and names multiple times and been abandoned by its owner, capsized and sank off

552-643: Was purchased by the city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands and restored and kept as a historic landmark. Timeline Costa Cruises Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.236 via cp1112 cp1112, Varnish XID 972267039 Upstream caches: cp1112 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 10:43:20 GMT MV Cunard Adventurer MV Cunard Adventurer (also known as Sunward II Adventurer , Triton and Coral )

576-408: Was reclaimed by Ocean Marine. "The shutdown cost about 270 shoreside employees their jobs at the company's Port Canaveral headquarters. Employees were informed of the shutdown upon arriving at work on Sept. 14." The SS Oceanic ( Big Red Boat I ) was still sailing until 2012 when she was sailed to Yokohama for scrapping. The Big Red Boat II , formerly Eugenio Costa , was put up for sale and

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