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Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines are one of the three major players in the 21st Century cruise business, the others being Carnival and Star Cruises/NCL, (the fourth group P&O/Princess having joined Carnival). They were formed by Norwegian freighter owners Isak Skaugen and Anders Wilhelmsen specifically to operate new ships in the promising US cruise trade out of Miami. Two purpose-built ships were ordered from Wartsila of Helsinki, the world leaders in modern cruise ship design at that time. Song of Norway was delivered in 1970, followed by Nordic Prince in 1972. A third ship, the Sun Viking, to slightly modified design, arrived in 1972. All ships had a distinctive funnel-mounted lounge which set them apart from other lines. Another Norwegian company, Gotaas-Larsen later joined the partnership.
Royal Caribbean operated very successfully, maintaining very high occupancy rates on 7 and 14-day cruises out of Miami. In 1978, Song of Norway returned to her builders for the addition of a new 85-foot centre section, increasing capacity from 724 to 1040 berths. Nordic Prince received a similar extension in 1980, but Sun Viking remains unchanged, since it was decided to build the larger Song of America in 1982 rather than further modify the existing fleet. In 1987, the Sovereign of the Seas was delivered, at that time the largest cruise ship in the world, which set the scene for the incredible building-spree of huge mega-ships by all four cruise leaders which continues to this day (July 2001), although there are signs of a slow-down with some current options being put on hold. Sovereign of the Seas is covered on Royal Caribbean Page 2, along with the other mega-ships.
Two other smaller ships are covered on this page, Viking Serenade and Nordic Empress. These were acquired with Admiral Cruise Line, their earlier history being covered on the dedicated page to this company. In 2002, Royal Caribbean belatedly formed a European alliance with First Choice Holidays (main rivals Carnival are already well established with Costa). Viking Serenade will transfer to this new venture, and is to be renamed Island Escape. The advance brochure for the simply-named "Island" (not Island Cruises!) is aimed at the same market as German Aida Cruises - young professionals and families who have probably not cruised before, and want an informal on-board regime. The brochure is unusual in barely mentioning the ship, and has no clear photographs of it! In July 2001 there were reports indicating that RCCL would be interested in acquiring a stake in Sun Cruises, since Carnival are apparently looking to sell their 25% stake (this did not happen). In 2002 plans were announced for RCCL and P&O Princess to amalgamate, but P&O Princess evantually teamed up with Carnival in 2003. Nordic Empress was renamed Empress of the Seas in 2005.
