Good evening Rob, everyone, and a very happy new year to all!
Encouraged by Isabelle, this is my first posting. And it has to be about my favourite ship of all time, the Ocean Liner Society's 'Ship of the Century', the matchless (sorry!) S.S.Rotterdam (strictly we should say 'V of 1959' to distinguish her from forebears and successor). Beware, I can bore for Britain on this subject!
In brief though, in answer to your question Rob, yes, she survived to the end having been very little altered at all.
Only one of her many public rooms had been reconfigured and that was in 1968 when the Cafe de la Paix was effectively eliminated to make room for a lido buffet (subsequently extended and now to be the cheaper dining option in her new life)! She retained almost all of her original furniture, all of her art works, fixtures and fittings and really all that had been changed were furniture fabrics.
Stephen Payne referred to her as the perfect ship - he mentioned to me once that the reason she'd not been altered during her sailing life was that there was no reason or need to change anything. Her withdrawal in September 1997 from the Holland America fleet (on the same day that Canberra finished for P&O) was in response to SOLAS. HAL was going through a process of huge change with fleet renewal and expansion. Rotterdam was a steamship, nearly 40 years old and would not pass SOLAS. It was a miracle that Premier stepped in and spent the money on what was a very sensitive SOLAS compliance job.
They operated her as their flagship, S.S.Rembrandt, for three years during which the standards on board were immaculately maintained. Almost everything was carefully conserved. I think the only casualty of note was the specially woven First Class Smoking Room carpet, now, of course, restored.
When Premier went belly up in September 2000 the crews on the other ships trashed them but Rembrandt was recognised as so special that she was carefully cosseted and delivered to Freeport unharmed.
There is a lot more story to tell and its getting late!
One salutary message: it has taken 10 years to get the gorgeous, matchless Rotterdam from lay up in Freeport to where she is now.
Best, David