Fred. Olsen sells Black Prince to Venezuela

[Jens Boldt]

Fred. Olsen Cruise line agreed to sell 1966-built Black Prince to Servicios Acuaticos de Venezuela (SAVECA).
Delivery of Black Prince will take place some time after the vessel finishes its last cruise for Olsen on October, 16, in Southampton.
Black Prince will then be used as a cruise ship in Venezuelan waters.

[Jackdusty]

It will be a sad day for Fred.Olsen on the handing over of a beautiful ship that is the last of the original fleet. Pity. I will miss her.

Al Simpson

[Sinisa Aljinovic]

Fred Olsen must be happy that someone have  bought it.I saw it yesterday overhere in Split, Croatia and it look ugly, especially wheelhouse. :-(

[David Harrison]

Maybe we will not see her again if she is to sail only in Venezuelan waters, but thankfully she isn't going to the breakers.

[Kai R]

Here

[Jens Boldt]

You're right, Kai.
Olsen announced in October 2008 not to bring her up to SOLAS 2010 standards as she was considered being too old.
But I can't imagine either that SAVECA will modernize her.

Hope she keeps on cruising. I've got the impression that accomodation ships (especially when they've been former cruisers) are always quite neglected by their owners...

Regards,
Jens

[portagent]

German Shipping Gazette reports that she is sold to Ola Cruises, Venezuela.
Delivery is said to be mid October in Madeira. She will then sail as "Ola Esmeralda" in Caribbean waters.

Ola are already advertising her as their ship on their website this includes a deck plan and pictures of the cabins.  They say that the ship was last modernised in 2004 - they are clearly not going to be doing it again this year.

See http://www.olacruises.com/index.php/nuestro_barco

[Jens Boldt]

Thanks for the info, Klaus, and the link, David!:-)

So Ola Cruises is a division of SAVECA and the first Venezuelan cruise line...
If my Spanish isn't too bad...

She'll start her first cruise for Ola on November, 20, doing 3 and 4 night trips between La Guaira, (Gran Roque), Tortuga and Isla Margarita.

Sounds nice to me... I hope this will turn out to be a success for Ola.

Best regards,
Jens