Norwegian Cruise Line

SS Norway

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Operator: Norwegian Cruise Line
Year Built / Last Refurbished: 1962 / 1996
Length / Tonnage: 1,035 / 76,000
Number of Cabins / Passengers: 1,016 / 2,032
Officers / Crew: Norwegian / International
Operating Area: Winter in Caribbean, Summer in Europe (some years)
Telephone / Fax: Tel 110 4603 / Fax 110 4604

AN OLD FAVORITE STILL CHARMS!!!!

More has been written about this vessel than almost any other and she deserves every word of accolade! The NORWAY is as close to a cherished institution as any cruise ship is likely to become...and deservedly so!!! She is still the longest liner ever built and YES, the NORWAY is a fabulous ship!!! If I need to tell you that the NORWAY began life and spent the first part of her career as the celebrated French Line flagship FRANCE, you probably don’t need to be reading this at all, for by now everyone who has ever picked up a cruise guide, anyone who has looked at anything about cruise ships has somewhere along the line heard that the NORWAY used to be the FRANCE...but don’t take her because she was the FRANCE...take her because she IS the NORWAY...a great lady of the seas in her own right!!

Don’t listen to the snobs, to the pundits who lament the loss of her French Line identity... yes, she was christened FRANCE by Yvonne DeGaulle, wife of President DeGaulle, and yes, public relations men encouraged an aura of mystique to shroud her internal aesthetic deficiencies, and yes, she was the last French transatlantic liner. Today she is better than ever...a truly GRAND cruise ship...Don’t listen to anyone who “pooh-poohs” what she is now...What they won’t tell you, those pundits who want you to think they know all about ships and cruising, is simply this: She has never looked better! Intuit that we love her, and you’d be onto something. Suspect it has anything to do with her former incarnation and you’d be wrong...Yes, when she was the FRANCE she was accused of having the best French restaurant in the world - and maybe one of her dining rooms WAS the world’s best French restaurant...but that was almost THIRTY years ago and food styles surely have changed since then...even in France!

The food that won such paeans of praise was served in the Chambord restaurant, the First Class restaurant, now a room called the Windward dining room, and the food was great...but we don’t eat that way anymore and menus on the NORWAY offer things people like to eat...things people do eat...only here they usually taste a lot better than you’re used to having them taste and that is one more reason we so like sailing in the NORWAY. When she was the FRANCE, her decor was dreadful...and frankly, my dear...unless you spoke French....most of the crew really didn’t give a damn about you...but NOW...hail to the NORWAY...we think she is a whole lot better than the FRANCE ever was - and she has never BEEN better!

Any accolades won by the NORWAY’s public spaces cannot be proffered to the original designers of the FRANCE. Tip your hats instead to Tage Wandborg, that brilliant maritime architect almost single handedly responsible for the modern cruise ship - at least cruise ships as most of you know them. Irrepressible and resolute, and unwilling to let difficulties be other than anything other than invitations for original solutions, Wandborg saw a moribund cold-weather liner, five years into a period of lay up, and recognized at once the chance to change the world of cruising and cruise ships forever. He systematically renovated original spaces into rooms and deck areas suitable for Caribbean cruising...He remade two glass enclosed promenades...ideal for cold, clammy, rainy and foggy North Atlantic crossings, into a pair of sleek “avenues”...Fifth Avenue on one side and Champs Elysee on the other...They are on International Deck and equipped with wrought iron cafe chairs, tables, and comfortable sofas...these “avenues” also serve as traffic arteries from which guests enter Checker’s Cabaret, Club Internationale, the Windjammer Bar, the Card Room and the Library as well as a variety of small shops.

With entertainment somewhere between the big band era and the contemporary, the recently rehabbed Checker’s is a red and black decorated room with a good size dance floor... a pleasant spot to take a turn to music, while the Club Internationale is a two story high dual tiered lounge that HAS to appeal to the discerning every bit as much as it calls out to the romantic...Against a soft pastel decor evocative of the Spanish Caribbean of the 1940s - Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico... the air of romance is irresistible when the trio that plays in here is on...Forgive us a digression, but the Richie Franks trio that played in here when we last sailed in the NORWAY sounded like they had just come from New York City’s Cafe Carlyle...and we’d say they are the finest trio we’d heard in the last thirty years!!! If there is a touch of whimsy to this room, it is that we expected to see Carmen Miranda or Maria Montez appear any minute!!!

The real charm of the Club Internationale, though is this...it’s probably the most sophisticated room at sea...its siren song plays well to anyone in search of quiet music and a good chat with friends - new or old...or a couple, tête a tête, oblivious to the world who hear the music but see only each other’s eyes...it’s THAT sort of place...But the NORWAY has so much else to offer... on International Deck, you will see any number of shops, so let’s talk about them for a moment....staffed with some of the friendliest sales people we’ve met at sea, the shops are inviting and. have surprisingly fair prices....shop the NORWAY and something will catch your eye...we defy you to leave empty handed!!! Co-author Goldberg particularly likes this ship’s fitness center...High up on Olympic Deck, there are no bells and whistles here...it’s a simple, no nonsense gym with good equipment and windows facing to the sides and rear of the ship. Not feeling active enough to pump iron for a couple of hours? OK...a few decks below on Pool Deck. is a large casino, the photo gallery and another large multi purpose lounge, the North Cape. One deck deeper in the ship is a very 70's looking disco called Dazzles...a room that didn’t see much custom during our recent westbound transAtlantic cruise...our last outing in this ship...

Way, way down in the ship, where the FRANCE’s first class indoor pool used to be, is the Roman Spa... pillared and marbled and outfitted with everything but toga clad women feeding you low calorie grapes, it is managed and staffed by the ever competent Steiners of London and the friendly group working down there can offer just about any beauty and therapy treatment you could think of...and if you can’t think of any, they’ll help you find one. If, however, your beauty treatments don’t extend beyond rest and relaxation in a deck chair, you’ll appreciate that there are enough areas on board where you can lounge without being invited to spend money (AND THESE DAYS, that’s becoming harder and harder to do..on a cruise we took right after the NORWAY crossing, every second activity was some a seminar or other offered by a member of the ship’s sales staff - beauty seminars, shopping seminars, pearl seminars...but not HERE...on the NORWAY you can escape the pressures to part with your money...and that’s something else we just LOVE about NCL...none of that cynical “cruise passengers are stupid” mentality we have encountered at several other lines...) ANYWAY...there’s.....a small library, an ice cream parlor, a children’s playroom and there are nooks and crannies galore. Getting a deck chair outdoors ought not to be a problem, unless you insist on a poolside seat. The length of the ship makes for excellent promenading and there’s a dandy jogging and circuit up on Olympic Deck....and wedged between deluxe cabins up on Sky Deck is an intimate outdoor area with pool and bar....there’s a similar, but larger pool aft on Pool Deck...oodles of public rooms and public spaces here!

Let’s start with al fresco dining...after all, every morning from, say 6:30 AM there are hot buns and danish to accompany your eye opener cup of joe...and it’s served...well it’s NOT served, it’s set out for you to help yourself...and then about an hour later comes buffet breakfast...This is all available in The Great Outdoor Restaurant, the NORWAY’s concession to the growing (but unexplainable) popularity of standing in line to bus your own food. Though this space, abundant with stainless steel service areas, could feed the hungry boys in uniform like a mess hall in a troop ship, NCL staff try their best to beautify the buffets with flowers, food sculptures and the like...but NCL had a simple choice...to cater to up to 2,200 passengers on warm sunny cruises in the Caribbean., it was either THIS or NO dining on deck... Food is plentiful, for the most part tasty, and the opening hours are so liberal that you could really set your OWN meal hours and NEVER once go down to your reserved table in one of the two Dining Rooms...At the Great Outdoor Restaurant some sort of food is available for the snatching through 6pm.!!!

The Bistro, a cozy room located on Pool Deck aft, is a dinner only restaurant where reservations are recommended. The Bistro’s menu is different from the dining rooms’, and though there is no extra charge to dine here, a $5.00 per person gratuity is suggested...The dress code mimics that of the dining rooms on any given evening...It’s a GREAT idea, the Bistro...as is the adjacent Wine and Cheese Bar (for some reason always empty...maybe it was the discreet cards saying “Cheese is complimentary for bar patrons)...NEVERTHELESS...so cordial is the attitude here we can not image ANYONE in the mood for a taste of cheese is going to go hungry.

There are two main restaurants on the NORWAY, each has merits and each has drawbacks. The forward dining room, Windward, was the FRANCE’s old first class restaurant. Many passengers enjoy making a grande descent into the Windward, so, ladies, take care not to trip on your gown....one false step and you’ll land in a diner’s soup...Don’t laugh...but we have seen some gals tumble into the room....making QUITE AN ENTRANCE...though probably NOT what they had in mind (of course there is also a BACK way in...via elevator)....Welcome to the Windward Dining Room! And with a full load, it can get quite a crowd and it CAN be noisy...In order to maintain the room’s original dimensions, NCL had to up the capacity of the room by adding tables and chairs....so beware...there are no dedicated tables for two...But such annoyances are really VERY minor unless you need to make a spectacle of yourself and enjoy the reaction of strangers when you rant...and thus, noise and crowds can be overlooked when you are wined, dined and coddled by the charming dining room staff...Aft is the Leeward Dining Room...Just as before, when award winning food popped out of her kitchens, and it has always been a two story eatery...but now upstairs and downstairs are joined by a slowly sweeping spiral staircase...People eat well here...in fact the menus in both dining rooms are the same, here there are tables for two, the room is much less noisy...and the lighting softer and lower...it feels somehow small and cozy though it isn’t, nor is it a decorative triumph, but it’s not the walls you come to look at when you come in here...you come for the food, service and company. The wonderful food and service are equal to the Windward Dining Room, which is a good thing because NCL will arbitrarily assign you one room or the other, and if your sailing is at capacity, you will have difficulty switching from one room to the other...As for the Wine List...quite a few of the offerings are quite easy to swallow as are the prices...which we found generally quite fair...AND...there are deals to be found!!

OK!!OK!! Enough about where you eat and is it furnished to your taste? It’s how the FOOD tastes that matters here and well, kids...we gotta tell you, the food we ate aboard the NORWAY was nothing short of a triumph!!! We’ve been in a lot of NCL’s competitors this year and last (okay, we are sailing so often our mailman almost began to stamp our incoming mail “UNKNOWN at this address)...and we consider NCL’s food better than their competitors....tastier and more skillfully prepared and we find portions, flavor and variety are well thought out....NCL really lives up to its advertising and we have found very few companies that do. Rather than attempt extravagant and complex creations, NORWAY’s chefs stick with the tried and true....whipping up people pleasers, things passengers like to eat and they do it extraordinarily well!!! American palates will not be disappointed, nor were those of our several British friends traveling with us...they raved about the food, too!

With 20 cabin types, and differences in layout, location and size within any one type, a handbook could be issued on which cabins to pick and which to avoid. Many cruise enthusiasts look for cabins that were allotted to first class in the old days.....I think that’s a silly game to play nowadays....because NCL has brought all the cabins up to acceptable standards. Nevertheless, if space is important to you, “A” grades and “C” grades on Viking and Norway Decks will give you plenty of room for both occupant and baggage. Sun Deck, Sky Deck and balconied cabins on Fjord Deck were added during various refits of the liner, and honestly, some people complain about either vibration or a sense that the room doesn’t quite move in the same way as does the rest of the ship. Just as in similarly added-on sections on the SAGAFJORD (now called SAGA ROSE, and VISTAFJORD, they DON’T move in quite the same way and THAT’s why some people feel a tad disconcerted in these digs. We prefer them for their generous sized bathrooms, unobstructed views from floor to ceiling windows (in cabins without balcony like FJ 55 and 56), and proximity to the open decks. Many of them have private verandas....some of the suites located all the way forward or all the way aft have verandas that wrap around the side of the cabin.

If you’re in the market for a suite, consider the Viking Deck Owners Suites for space....Sun Deck Owners Suites for their balconies, or P1 suites on Sky Deck for views of the aft deck activities below. Here’s a suite deal....the four S1 suites on Fjord Deck have balconies, but with a very limited view owing to a lifeboat housed just outside....BUT, other than that, they are identical in size and amenities to the higher graded P2 penthouses. An added bonus to booking categories S2 or higher is the concierge service, giving you an on board person with authority to handle most any request you might have. The least expensive cabins on the NORWAY have bunk beds and in the world of cabins, are tiny tots at best....but you’ll still get great service in them and if you (and be honest with yourself here) don’t spend any appreciable time in your cabin, they might serve you well. All cabins have televisions, fair to excellent storage depending on category selected, and private facilities. Keep in mind that within any category, there are differences in the kind of beds, some bathrooms have showers, others bathtub/showers, and outside cabins have either one or two portholes, or windows....the NORWAY isn’t a newbuild prefab ship, after all....and such differences were the norm in ships during “the good old days”. I’d be hesitant to suggest you ask your agent for a “category guarantee” on the NORWAY (a plan by which you pick a cabin type, then are assigned a cabin closer to sailing), because there are so many differences. So ask an agent who really knows this ship.... there are so many really terrific cabins. A final note.....all port side cabins are nonsmoking.

The NORWAY spends most of the North American winter working 7 day cruises from Miami...she’s famous for this. But stay tuned, for 1998 holds some extra special items for her travel plans...I like her two 16 day transAtlantic trips...they are 14 night cruises featuring an additional 2 night hotel stay... her April 18th eastbound sailing from Miami to Marseilles via St. Maarten, Funchal, and Malaga followed by the 2 night stay in London, Paris or MonteCarlo... (passenger chooses where to spend those nights), or the westbound October 8th departure from the USA with a 2 night hotel stay in either London or Barcelona before boarding the ship at that Spanish port for Malaga, Funchal, St. Thomas and Miami. Either way, costs at per person brochure rates ranging from US$3,239 for an inside cabin with upper and lower berths to $8,239 (each) for an owner’s suite...but expect great discount offers to crop up...

If you want to cruise through Europe and you’re no fan of long stretches at sea? Then consider one of the NORWAY’s 12, 14 or 15 day summer 1998 cruises...many of the 12 night trips offer 2 night pre-cruise or post-cruise stays in desirable European cities... she has itineraries through the Mediterranean like the Lisbon to Marseilles trip...after a pre-cruise stay in either London or Lisbon, she’s scheduled to sail on June 7th for Ajaccio on Corsica, Genoa where trips to Milan or Portofino will be offered, Livorno, for optional side trips to Florence or very nearby Pisa for a glimpse at that crazy, leaning Tower...then there’s Civitavecchia for Rome...a city that needs no introduction from me...nor does Monte Carlo, Nice or Cannes...a short train or cab ride from near the dock at Villefranche, itself a short tender ride from the comfort of the massive and homey NORWAY...then there are visits to Palma de Majorca and Barcelona before the cruise ends at Marseilles. With June 24th and 25th at a hotel in Monte Carlo, the June 26th sailing is a roundtrip from Marseilles, and though it omits Lisbon, the ports called are the same as those on the trip I just catalogued for you. Do you like that itinerary but think June is too early in the season for you to travel?

Consider taking the trip in late September...most of the tourists are already long gone and you need not buck the crowds of summer to enjoy that itinerary...this time from Barcelona on September 28th. There are five other cruises planned and each of them, the Marseilles to LeHavre trip or the London to Barcelona offer truly compelling itineraries and who wouldn’t like to take them both??? From Marseilles on July 8th sail to nearby Villefranche where an overnight call allows more than a glimpse of the fabulous French Riviera before you head on to Barcelona and Lisbon. Then the Norway leaves Iberia behind when she steams north for Ireland and visits Cork and Waterford...yes THAT Waterford, where you can buy more crystal than you could possibly carry. Next is a call at Southampton whence Bournemouth, Salisbury, Winchester and Stonehenge are nearby and even London is a 90 minute train ride away. Then there’s a stop at Channel Island Guernsey...home of famous Guernsey cattle...The cruise winds down with a call at Cherbourg where optional visits to D Day landing sites may be made and then there’s Le Havre.

If summer heat gets to you and you want refreshing cooler weather, you may get some on the NORWAY’s August 11th cruise “Great Cities of Norther Europe” cruise from Southampton. Stay two nights in London before joining the ship for a cruise that takes in Hamburg, Oslo, Flam, Bergen, Amsterdam and LeHavre before the ship returns you to Southampton on August 23rd. Or remain aboard or embark on that date for the “British Isles” cruise...That’s a 12 nighter to Amsterdam, Invergordon...you know...so you can motor over to Loch Ness to hunt for the MONSTER...Greenock for a side trip to either Glasgow or Edinburgh, Waterford, Cork and LeHavre before returning to Southampton on September 4th. Finally, lovers of “Wine and Romance” need look no further than this special ship’s September 4th outing from Southampton... Visit Cherbourg and the nearby sites including Bayeux, Bordeaux for the wine country, Cork, Waterford, Guernsey, LeHavre and Amsterdam before returning to Southampton on September 16th. Brochure rates for these trips are similar to those for the transAtlantics but with so many discounts flying around...shop around for the best price.

We cannot say enough nice things about the crew on this ship.....they have the right attitude.....friendly, efficient, never pushy....Maybe 90% of the charm of this ship is the feeling you get on board, from the captain to the cruise director and on down the ladder. NCL has been the underdog of the giant Caribbean cruise lines for so many years....and their efforts to be the best in their league are appreciated....and they are SO good they deserve all the praise we can give them!!!

The ship rides beautifully.....cutting effortlessly through the waves...riding in a hull so perfectly designed that it leaves almost no wake behind...even at 25 knots...a speed the ship easily reached and maintained one day this past September, 1997!!!. The food is very good. The entertainment is varied and excellent. The prices for liquor, souvenirs and the like are fair. We just cannot find anything much to complain about. This ship has seen them all...passenger types, we mean...and handles us all with rare aplomb. She may be the only ship I could comfortably recommend to any person looking for a cruise.

It is simply NOT possible not to enjoy your time aboard this ship! The NORWAY has never looked better. The NORWAY has never BEEN better... and it seems she just gets better with age! Want to cruise? Try the NORWAY? Like crowds, shopping, clubbing, sunning, sports, swimming, socializing, eating? Try the NORWAY. Like private moments in uncrowded spots? Try the NORWAY. She’s so big she has it all..or almost all! TRY the NORWAY!! You’ll go back to her again and again. We know we do!