Cunard Line

MV Caronia (formerly Vistafjord)

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Operator: Cunard Line, Ltd.
Year Built / Last Refurbished: 1973 / 1994
Length / Tonnage: 627 / 24,492
Number of Cabins / Passengers: 386 / 736
Officers / Crew: Norwegian / European
Operating Area: Transatlantic, Caribbean, Amazon, Northern Europe, Mediterranean, Black Sea
Telephone / Fax: Tel 110 4114 / Fax 130 5630

We offer our congratulations to all "Cunardoholics", who certainly can celebrate the return to the sea the beloved name CARONIA. And to our Norwegian cruising friends, we offer sincere condolences, for the passing of the name VISTAFJORD effectively ends any emotional ties with the well known Norwegian America Line....Norwegian America Cruises....Cunard/Norwegian America.....etc.

When I, (Mark Goldberg), was a kid and a teenager I spent a lot of time drawing ships...usually small to moderate sized passenger liners. Imagine my surprise and delight in the spring of 1973 when I saw the first published photos of the VISTAFJORD..."Someone's been looking through my notebooks" I cried..."she looks like something I drew!" I loved her ever since that moment.

Invited to see her during the few days she spent at New York's Pier 40 that May before she began cruising, I knew I had found THE ship...and while she may not have had the generously sized cabins with their terrific storage space of the KUNGSHOLM or GRIPSHOLM, there was a brightness to the VISTAFJORD, a jaunty panache the two stolid Swedes couldn't muster...Don't get me wrong..at the moment the KUNGSHOLM and GRIPSHOLM were IT...the finest cruise ships in the world. Those two ships, not sisters by any means but true relatives under their Swedish American Line ownership were the unattainable, the top, the summit. They were two samples of heaven on earth...I didn't want to get any closer to heaven than the KUNGSHOLM or GRIPSHOLM for a long time...and to tell the truth, I still don't. Built by the same British yard that built the KUNGSHOLM in 1966, the VISTAFJORD was similar in many ways to the French built SAGAFJORD...only designed with a greater emphasis on luxury cruising (there's that damn useless word again), the VISTAFJORD was delivered with 152 single cabins...a number of which connected privately to a cabin immediately adjacent. If those rooms had a drawback...and they did...and do...they were small...they still are...and I'll tell you more about them later.

When the SAGAFJORD, GRIPSHOLM and KUNGSHOLM were young cruise ships, their biggest competitor for the well?heeled cruise passenger was the grand daddy ? I should really say ? the grandma of the postwar cruise fleet ? Cunard's one and only, the "Green Goddess" herself...and I don't mean a salad dressing folks, I mean the amazing CARONIA of 1949...the first ship I ever worked on...though by the time I got there Cunard hadn't owned her in years and she sat at Pier 56 at the foot of W. 14th Street (an old Cunard pier, by the way) an otherwise abandoned New York City pier, victim of one engine room explosion, a few years at anchor in Brooklyn's Gravesend Bay and a parking ticket at Pier 88. By the late 1960's age and British wages had put her out of business...a problem shared with so many gracious vessels back then...and crew wages would do in late 1975 to the Swedish American Line...thus leaving Norwegian America Line and newcomer Royal Viking Lines the crown of cruising by default. In many books and certainly in mine, the Norwegian quintet couldn't hold a candle to the KUNGSHOLM and GRIPSHOLM!

All of a sudden I mention Royal Viking Line in this piece on the VISTAFJORD/CARONIA??? Well, yes...while the VISTAFJORD was being designed, three Norwegian steamship companies, mostly interested in the freight trades got together and decided that THEY knew more about high end passenger line operations than anyone else and set out to prove it with a trio of cruise ships they ordered in Finland. With hulls nearly identical to the new Royal Caribbean trio, these RVL ships would have larger cabins...Of course averaging 160 square feet of long, narrow cabins, and with floor space limited to require beds be placed in an "L" shape (less for the "extra floor space" claimed by several companies which used that lay out but to allow TWO beds in the cabin in the first place...the RVL trio did have good closet and drawer space...and for different owners the three original RVL ship's still do)...Royal Viking, offering one smiling Scandinavian stewardess (I hear tell that Norwegian men think cleaning passengers' toilets to be beneath male dignity) to serve cabins claimed to offer the finest and highest standards of shipboard service in the world...and people who had NOT sailed in transAtlantic liners where first and cabin class service meant a steward, stewardess and cabin boy agreed with RVL...since they generally knew no better...anyway...RVL and Norwegian America were left to slug it out...and in the end they both lost.

Because neither the SAGAFJORD nor VISTAFJORD could carry enough cruise passengers to earn their keep, the partners who owned Norwegian America Line insisted on a change and Leif Hoegh bought the place...and renamed it Norwegian America Cruises...That lasted for two years and then Cunard bought the line and the two ships...a pair with a deserved reputation for very high end cruises at prices to match. Cunard retained the names, their Norwegian deck and engine officers and largely German and Austrian hotel staffs and in the years since, continued to devote the sums required to keep both ships at the top of the heap.

During a world cruise a couple of years back the SAGAFJORD suffered a serious fire in her generator room and was put out of service. But before that, Cunard had injected a much needed $15 million refit into the VISTAFJORD. To my mind, she emerged from that refit as the finest cruise ship in the world (OK...with the exception of Hapag Lloyd's ms EUROPA, but unless you are fluent in German and comfortable in the ambience created by and for the elderly wealthy German market, she is not a ship you'd want to try) Anyway...and as you know, I am no fan of Cunard...not now anyway, with the former Dolphin CEO running the show and taking the company's offices out of New York City, putting a number of personal friends of mine out of work...nosiree...I don't tell you the VISTAFJORD was the world's finest cruise ship except for the EUROPA to curry favor with Cunard...I never cared what they thought of my take...I don't like their other ships and never kept quiet about that...and I'll tell you again, I think the SEABOURN SUN is the world's most overrated ship and I think the QE2, even after more facelifts than one can count, is a shockingly overpriced gimmick...But the VISTAFJORD....oops, CARONIA...she's a ship to dream of..she looks like a ship because she is one... and she treats you like a ship should treat you.

As VISTAFJORD, the now CARONIA was designed to partner the SAGAFJORD in cruise service and Norwegian America Line wanted a ship very much like that one...and why not...the SAGAFJORD proved to be a wonderful cruise ship, even if storage space in most cabins was a bit tight on long cruises...But in designing the SAGAFJORD, Norwegian America still thought...."DUAL PURPOSE" and designed the ship accordingly. Using the existing BERGENSFJORD and OSLOFJORD as models, they planned a ship that could easily offer two class transAtlantic sailings in summer...Thus the forward area on Veranda Deck would house a Lounge for First Class...the Garden Lounge, while the next rooms aft could be used by either or both First and Tourist.

To feed Tourist passengers, the line opted for the most beautiful, dramatic dining room ever planned for Tourist Class, a room subsequently considered the dining room of the best ship afloat, the impressive two story Saga Dining Room...but for all the nonsense you have read over the years, the observers of this industry and there are many who feel themselves to be "truly in the know", but truly aren't...those observers so quick to buy into the bullying of cruise line execs who want their product described as far above what it is ? the SAGAFJORD was designed primarily as a Tourist liner...but for that matter so were the GRIPSHOLM, KUNGSHOLM, STATENDAM and ROTTERDAM...Tourist liners, yes...but damn good ones. When she carried them, SAGAFJORD's First Class passengers were fed in the Club Polaris. Two class sailings didn't happen often and once the TransAtlantic Passenger Ship Conference rules no longer mattered, the SAGAFJORD never again did a two class sailing.

The lay out of the CARONIA still reflects the possibility of two class service...That forward lounge, the Garden Lounge serves many purposes. It's a lounge, yes, but also venue for trivial pursuit games on mornings at sea, a room where language lessons have happened, a place for afternoon tea with the most scrumptious sandwiches, cakes and pastries found anywhere at sea. Come evening, it's a place to meet to raise a glass before dinner ? the popular White Star Bar is right next door, but some savvy people might get a sinking feeling in there ...after dinner you will often find a concert presented in the Garden Lounge...Dancing to live music is offered in there most evenings, but if my four trips in this ship are any indication, it goes to bed early.

What had been a very popular and much used card room, where on board revenue was pretty much restricted to an occasional cocktail order, is now the Regent Shops....maybe there are enough display counters for setting up card games, because CARONIA's passengers play a lot of bridge, and there is no longer any dedicated room for them. The Ballroom has enough seats for everybody and if the shows are a bit hokey, the guest entertainers more than make up for it...traveling as a passenger on my last transAtlantic crossing in the VISTAFJORD was Big Band singer Helen Manning and one of the five dimensions of the Fifth Dimension...and both graciously offered a show...There's a real movie theater on this deck as well as a library, a book shop and a quiet casino....this is NOT a noisy ship...and she isn't a ship that much caters to the noisemakers...noise bothers the other passengers and the crew won't like it either. Yes, the CARONIA is sedate, sophisticated, refined, popular with well turned out people who appreciate people of like natures.

Also popular for cocktails is the Piccadilly Club, whose upper level was converted into Tivoli, the ship's alternative restaurant. A duplex added onto the ship during a refit at Malta, each floor of the Club offers a secluded balcony, and outdoor dining is now available up in the Tivoli. Deck space is another item in great abundance here...and from a promenade deck favored by joggers and deck chair snoozers to a big lido surrounding the outdoor swimming pool, much of CARONIA's day life lives outdoors. Beyond the full range of public rooms, the ship, as VISTAFJORD anyway, had one of the best equipped gyms at sea as well as very extensive sauna facilities and my favorite indoor swimming pool at sea. We only hope that as CARONIA, this space was retained, and more importantly, the use of the saunas, gym and pool are free....because we find the trend of charging passengers for the use of such facilities objectionable, to put it mildly.

CARONIA menus range from the eclectic to the divine and much of her food is wonderful, some of it is sublime. Meals on board are single sitting...which CRYSTAL for all it's hype, is not. This is NOT a ship for the dieter, though they will be happy to accommodate you but who would choose to forego the extraordinary European food of this classy vessel...Smoked salmon and shrimp aren't as pervasive as they once were, and neither is caviar, but they offer it more often on the CARONIA than on most other ships...CARONIA passengers pay a lot for their tickets and expect to be fed accordingly. Though on two 1989 cruises she did disappoint terribly, we found her totally improved after 1994 and she since offered some of the best and finest food we had at sea during that decade.

Expect the CARONIA's kitchens to please you. If they don't, a discreet word to the section headwaiter will do the trick. One neat touch is the availability from early morning of both luncheon and dinner menus...it allows you to plan your day's eating..not only does it give you something to look forward to...you can decide where to eat...in the dining room where you will revel in the correct, friendly service the predominantly Central European staff provide, at the buffet or even in the Tivoli...and if you like, you can certainly have lunch and or dinner in your cabin...served course by course if you like! We PROMISE you, you won't go hungry!

While it's true that most of the CARONIA's cabins don't have a lot of storage space, and a lot of them...ok MOST of them...are painfully small for their hefty price tags...and true enough the CARONIA's standard cabins don't compare at all well with standard rooms on the NORWEGIAN DREAM or NORWEGIAN WIND or the STATENDAM class ships or the SILVERSEA ships or the... well, you get my point...you don't choose the CARONIA for a big cabin...some of her rooms are all of 73 square feet.

You choose the CARONIA for service and the camaraderie of like minds...But if luxury (DANG! there's that word again) is something you must have...the CARONIA's duplex owner's suites, the penthouses with balconies, the A and B grades all have features and facilities you'll want. Cabins to avoid are the small G grades on Main Deck...those rooms, alternating with singles of the same size, are frankly unacceptable as doubles. Another reason the CARONIA is so popular in certain quarters, she still has a lot of single rooms, though most of the 152 original singles have been reconfigured as doubles, and the rooms up top, with a king bed are now reconfigured to C grade cabins, complete with added on balconies!

Pick a month...OK...you picked...FEBRUARY...the CARONIA makes a transatlantic cruise from England to the Caribbean, then spends a month or so in those waters before nosing her way up the Amazon River. Returning to Europe in late April, she'll use a variety of departure points...Southampton, Dover, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Hamburg for cruises from 12 to 16 days around Scandinavia, Russia and the fjords. In summer she'll be in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, with itineraries of all manner. Slowly migrating west, CARONIA will call in Iberia and the Canaries, then make her 18 day fall crossing to North America. She'll end 2000 with a series of Caribbean cruises.

The CARONIA is not for everyone. For one thing she can be very expensive and some people think she does not offer the kind of facilities a ship of her price range should. For other people, the high percentage of German passengers is a great turn? off. I've been lucky, when I have sailed in this ship there has usually been a congenial mix of "thirds" a "third" American, a "third" British and a "third" German. With her new name, we suspect she'll attract even more passengers from the U.K. But whatever the nationality, and the CARONIA is popular with affluent people of many nationalities, everyone seems to speak English...so you needn't have any language worry here...

The CARONIA can be quite social and here, appearances, as well as who you are, can mean a lot. Yes, some of the passengers ARE elitist, they expect you might be, too...

We certainly hope that the newest version of Cunard Line, now owned by Carnival Cruises, hasn't spoiled a winner of a ship by renaming a couple of public rooms and enhancing spaces designed to extract your mad money. We also hope that the crew, at one time perhaps the most wonderful at sea, will continue to welcome passengers to "their home". Ships do have personalities, and usually, it's the crew who either make it or break it. Replacing the hints of Scandinavia with tastes of Britain will no doubt cheer some and rile others. It's of little concern to us, however, because if CARONIA still has enough VISTAFJORD spirit in her AND if we had enough money to book one of the after Promenade Rooms like cabin 180 for six months, we would...No one would hear from us and some would think we had died and gone to heaven.