''Empress'' (formerly ''Nordic Empress'' and ''Empress of the Seas'') is a

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...

owned by

Cordelia Cruises Cordelia is a feminine given name. It was borne by the tragic heroine of Shakespeare's ''King Lear'' (1606), a character based on the List of legendary kings of Britain, legendary queen Cordelia of Britain, Cordelia. The name is of uncertain origi ...

, an Indian

cruise line A cruise line is a company that operates cruise ships that operate on ocean or rivers and which markets cruises to the public. Cruise lines are distinct from passenger lines which are primarily concerned with transportation of passengers. Though ...

. She is the sole ship of her class. She entered service with then-

Royal Caribbean International Royal Caribbean International (RCI), also formerly known as Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL), is a cruise line brand founded in 1968 in Norway and organised as a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group since 1997. Based in Miami, Flori ...

in 1990, transferred to

Pullmantur Cruises Pullmantur Cruises was a cruise line headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It began operations in the late 1990s as an offshoot of the Madrid-based travel agency Pullmantur. In 2006, Pullmantur Cruises, through its parent company, was purchased by U.S ...

in 2008, and then returned to Royal Caribbean International in 2016. In December 2020, she was retired from the Royal Caribbean fleet and sold to Cordelia Cruises.

History

The ship was ordered by

Admiral Cruises Admiral Cruises was a cruise line A cruise line is a company that operates cruise ships that operate on ocean or rivers and which markets cruises to the public. Cruise lines are distinct from passenger lines which are primarily concerned with t ...

and was intended to be called the ''Future Seas'' and join the other Admiral ships, the and the . 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. 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. ''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 The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

, which was then combined with 3 and 4 day cruises from

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

. In 1999, following the sale of the ''

Song of America MS ''Celestyal Olympia'' is a cruise ship owned by the Cyprus-based Celestyal Cruises, formerly Louis Cruise Lines. In April 2012 she was named ''Louis Olympia'' after operating as the Thomson Destiny for Thomson Cruises. She was built in 198 ...

'', the ''Nordic Empress'' took over the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

route. In 2000, Royal Caribbean announced that the ''Nordic Empress'' would be undertaking a series of cruises in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. Shortly after these cruises were put on sale, Royal Caribbean decided to replace the ''Nordic Empress'' with the ''

Splendour of the Seas ''Marella Discovery'' (formerly ''Splendour of the Seas'' and ''TUI Discovery'') is a former Royal Caribbean International Vision-class cruise ship now sailing for Marella Cruises. The second in the line of the Vision-class ships, she features a ...

'' on the South American itineraries, leaving the ''Nordic Empress'' in the Caribbean.

2001 engine room fire

In June 2001 the ''Nordic Empress'' suffered extensive engine room fire damage while sailing 140 miles north of

. Subsequent investigation revealed the cause of the fire was failure of a loose bolt in a fuel line

flange A flange is a protruded ridge, lip or rim (wheel), rim, either external or internal, that serves to increase shear strength, strength (as the flange of an iron beam (structure), beam such as an I-beam or a T-beam); for easy attachment/transfer of ...

assembly that had been improperly repaired. 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 Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...

. 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. 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 A flash fire is a sudden, intense fire caused by ignition of a mixture of air and a dispersed flammable substance such as a solid (including dust), flammable or combustible liquid (such as an aerosol or fine mist), or a flammable gas. It is charact ...

that was quickly extinguished with fire hoses. 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 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. Actress

Tina Fey Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey (; born May 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, writer, producer, and playwright. She is best known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' (1997–2006) and for creating the ...

and then recently married husband

Jeff Richmond Jeffrey Wayne Richmond (born January 7, 1961) is an American composer, actor, director, and producer. He composed the music for, and directed multiple episodes of '' 30 Rock'', a sitcom created by and starring his wife, Tina Fey. He also executiv ...

were reportedly on board at the time. The incident was recounted in Fey's autobiography,

Bossypants ''Bossypants'' is an autobiographical comedy book written by the American comedian Tina Fey. The book topped ''The New York Times Best Seller list'', and stayed there for five weeks upon its release. As of November 2014, the book has sold over 2.5 ...

Service under Pullmantur Cruises

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

. Her final voyage for Royal Caribbean took place on 7 March 2008, while the maiden voyage as ''Empress'' for Pullmantur Cruises took place on 15 March 2008. In November 2012, ''Empress'' was the first of the fleet to receive a brand new logo as well as new hull color scheme.

Service under Royal Caribbean

In 2016, ''Empress'' underwent a dry dock refit and returned to Royal Caribbean as ''Empress of the Seas''. On 21 December 2015, Royal Caribbean started offering 4- and 5-night ''Empress of the Seas'' cruises from Miami, originally scheduled to begin 30 March 2016, with the Bahama Islands, Key West, and Grand Cayman among ports to be visited. On 18 March 2016, Royal Caribbean announced that the reintroduction of ''Empress of the Seas'' into its fleet would be delayed until 25 April 2016. On 20 April 2016, a further delay to 28 May 2016 was announced to time to completely rebuild the ship's galleys. On 21 December 2018, ''Empress of the Seas'' rescued two fishermen who were without food, fuel or water after having set sail in the Caribbean sea twenty days earlier. Crew members operating the radar system for the Empress of the Seas had noticed an anomaly that turned out to be the small fishing boat. Royal Caribbean lowered one of its

lifeboat Lifeboat may refer to: Rescue vessels * Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape * Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues * Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen A ...

s to rescue the fishermen. In 2019, the ship was scheduled to take longer and more extended cruises to Cuba. Besides Havana, she was scheduled to visit Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba. These routes have since been suspended, the ship instead substituting other ports in the Caribbean and Bahama Islands for the Cuban ports. On 15 March 2020 the ship docked in Miami for the final time under Royal Caribbean carrying fare paying passengers.

Sale to Cordelia Cruises

In August 2020, in response to rumors that ''Empress of the Seas'' was anchored in Greece to be sold for scrap, Royal Caribbean said that the ship was still part of the fleet and is only staying in Greece for a few months. In December 2020, Royal Caribbean sold ''Empress of the Seas'' to Indian cruise line Cordelia Cruises.

In popular culture

In the novel ''

World War Z ''World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War'' is a 2006 zombie apocalyptic horror novel written by American author Max Brooks. The novel is broken into eight chapters: “Warnings”, “Blame”, “The Great Panic”, “Turning the Ti ...

'', by

Max Brooks Maximillian Michael Brooks (born May 22, 1972) is an American actor and author. He is the son of comedy filmmaker Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft. Much of Brooks's writing focuses on zombie stories. He is a senior fellow at the Modern War I ...

, the ''Nordic Empress'' is found to be heavily infested by zombies and drifting near

Dakar, Senegal Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 20 ...

by the Chinese

Type 094 submarine The Type 094 (; Chinese designation: 09- IV; NATO reporting name: Jin class) is a class of ballistic missile submarine developed by China for the People's Liberation Army Navy Submarine Force. The Type 094 succeeds the Type 092 submarine and p ...

''Admiral Zheng He.''

Gallery

File:CRUISE O8 (365)---1.jpg, alt=Empress of the Seas File:NordicEmpress1 (cropped).jpg, MS ''Nordic Empress'', featuring her original Royal Caribbean livery, anchored off the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...

in late March 2004 File:Pullmantur Empress IMG 5170 C.JPG, MS ''Empress'', in her original Pullmantur livery, docked in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

on 16 June 2010 File:Empress at Quay 16 in Tallinn 15 June 2013 (cropped).JPG, MS ''Empress'', in

on 15 June 2013

References

External links

''Empress of the Seas''
at Royalcaribbean.com

Cordelia Cruise Mumbai To Goa''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Empress 1989 ships Ships built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique Ships of Royal Caribbean International