The venerable cruise ship Amera arrived to day, September 9, finally allowing me to add to my personal collection of Royal Viking ships. Starting in 1972-1973 with construction of the Royal Viking Star, Royal Viking Sky and Royal Viking Sea a new design standard was set for fabulously stylish luxuary cruise ships. The three ships all lasted into this century (under many owners and with many changes of name) with the Star finally going to the breakers in 2022.
Royal Viking Line was sold to Klosters in 1984 and they ordered a fourth ship, the larger Royal Viking Sun in 1988. It is that latter ship that had eluded me until its arrival today, under its fourth name: Amera.
Perhaps more restrained than its previous fleet mates, the ship is also free from many of the excesses of current cruise ship design. Built by Wärtsilä at the Perno Shipyard in Turku, Finland in 1988 it carried the name Royal Viking Sun until 1999.
Royal Viking Lines was dissolved in 1994 but the ship was sold to Cunard Lines and continued to operate under the Royal Viking name until 1999. When Cunard was purchased by Carnival Corp the ship was moved into the Seabourn Cruise Line. The ship operated as Seabourn Sun from 1999 to 2002 when it was transferred to another Carnival brand, Holland America Line, and renamed Prinsendam. Phoenix Reisen acquired the ship in 2018 and on completion of a one year charter to Holland America it was renamed Amera in 2019.
Now registered at 39,051 gt (it was 37,845 gt when built) it now has a capacity of 835 passengers (up from 740 as built) and 443 crew members (down from 460).
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