MS Amera

MS Amera (formerly Seabourn Sun, Royal Viking Sun and Prinsendam) is a cruise ship for Phoenix. She was launched in 1988 as Royal Viking Sun for the Royal Viking Line, and was renamed Seabourn Sun when Seabourn Cruise Line acquired the ship in 1999. In 2002, Seabourn wished to concentrate on smaller vessels[2] and transferred the ship to Holland America Line, which was renamed as Prinsendam.

Amera
History
Name:
  • 1988 – 1999: Royal Viking Sun
  • 1999 – 2002: Seabourn Sun
  • 2002 – 2019: Prinsendam
  • 2019 – onwards: Amera
Operator:
Port of registry:
Builder: Wärtsilä Marine Perno Shipyard, Turku, Finland[1]
Yard number: 1296
Launched: May 1988[1]
Christened: 8 January 1989[1]
Acquired: 26 November 1988[1]
In service: 1988 – onwards
Identification:
Nickname(s): 2002 – 2019: Elegant Explorer
Status: In service
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type: Cruise ship
Tonnage: 38,848 GT
Length: 674.2 ft (205.5 m)
Beam: 91.8 ft (28.0 m)
Draught: 23.6 ft (7.2 m)
Decks: 9 passenger decks
Speed:
  • 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) (max)
  • 18.5 knots (34.3 km/h; 21.3 mph) (service)
Capacity: 740 passengers
Crew: 460
General characteristics (2002-2019)
Capacity: 835 passengers
Crew: 443
General characteristics (as Amera)
Class and type: Lloyd's Register Cruise ship
Tonnage: 39,051 GT
Length: 672.57 ft (205.00 m)
Beam: 95.14 ft (29.00 m)
Draught: 23.78 ft (7.25 m)
Decks: 9 passenger decks
Installed power: Wärtsilä-Sulzer, 4 x 7.179 PS
Speed:
  • 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) (max)
  • 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) (service)
Capacity: 835 passengers
Crew: 440

Royal Viking Line

She was launched in 1988 as Royal Viking Sun for the Royal Viking Line. She was the largest ship in the fleet at the time she entered service.[3]

Cunard Line

In 1994 Cunard purchased Royal Viking Sun and the Royal Viking brand when Royal Viking Line ceased operations. Cunard continued to operate her under the same name and initially retained the vessel's original livery. Later, Cunard did repaint her funnel in their colours, retaining the Royal Viking logo. [4]

Seabourn

In 1999 Cunard and Seabourn were merged by parent company Carnival Corporation. It was decided to move Royal Viking Sun to Seabourn, and after an extensive refit she was renamed as the Seabourn Sun. Her last cruise for Seabourn was a circumnavigation of South America in 2002.

Holland America Line

After another extensive refit in 2002, Seabourn Sun was renamed Prinsendam for Holland America Line - another division of the Carnival Corporation.

On 1 February 2007, Prinsendam was hit by two 12-metre (39 ft) tall rogue waves near Cape Horn. There were around 40 injuries, with some requiring hospitalisation.[5]

Prinsendam is one of two Holland America Line ships that have undertaken cruises to Antarctica and due to her low height above the waterline is one of only a handful of cruise ships that can transit the Kiel Canal.

On 22 March 2012 Prinsendam, was en route to Portimao, Portugal, when she received a distress call from the Portuguese fishing boat Dario, which was sinking with eight people aboard. When the ship arrived, the Dario's crew was entering a life raft. The Portuguese Coast Guard directed Prinsendam to pick up the fishermen and stand by for a helicopter to take the eight men to shore.[6]

Phoenix Reisen

In summer 2018, the company announced that it had sold Prinsendam to Phoenix Reisen. However, the ship was chartered back to HAL, and operated scheduled cruises until 1 July 2019.[7] Her last port call as Prinsendam was on 1 July 2019 in Amsterdam. On 2 July 2019 she entered Dock 11 at Blohm+Voss in Hamburg for conversion and left the dock on 11 August 2019. On 12 August 2019 she left Hamburg for Bremerhaven for her first cruise on 16 August 2019 with Phoenix.[8]

  • Royal Viking Sun
  • Prinsendam

References
  1. (in Swedish) Fakta om Fartyg: M/S Royal Viking Sun (1989), retrieved 7 December 2007.
  2. "Seabourn Sun To HAL". Findarticles.com. 2 June 2009. Archived from the original on 22 May 2008. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
  3. http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/CunardLine.html
  4. "Royal Viking Sun on Unofficial Cunard Archives". Chriscunard.com. 11 July 2019.
  5. Liu, Paul C. (2007). "A Chronology of Freaque Wave Encounters" (PDF). Geofizika. 24 (1): 57–70. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
  6. "Prinsendam Engages in Successful Rescue Operation | Holland America Blog". Archived from the original on 31 March 2016.
  7. "Holland America Cruise Ship Leaving the Fleet in 2019". cruisefever.net. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  8. https://www.phoenixreisen.com/amera.html
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