Author Topic: SS Rotterdam V of 1959  (Read 22222 times)

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Offline Isabelle Prondzynski

SS Rotterdam V of 1959
« on: Dec 29, 2009, 08:40 PM »
SS Rotterdam is now set to open to the public on 15 February 2010. The success of the Rotterdam will give us great hopes for the success of the QE2 in a stationary role.

Here is the Rotterdam's web site (at this stage only in Dutch -- it is interesting to see the events already planned around her!) :

http://www.opderotterdam.nl/

The hotel link in Dutch :

https://www.cruisehotel.nl/slapen/

and in English :

https://www.cruisehotel.nl/en/sleep/

"Book now" will give a screen which is not yet totally English.

Here is a small translation service  ;D :

eenpersoons = single cabin
tweepersoons = double cabin
driepersoons = cabin for three

1 nacht = 1 night
2 nachten = 2 nights

An advance video shows some of the interiors, looking at least as good, I am told, as they did towards the end of her sea-going life :


... and also expresses hope that people would come to see and stay at the ship.

And this, I believe, shows the first emergency drill carried out there :


One of my wishes for 2010 is that SS Rotterdam will be very successful! And that QE2 will follow in her footsteps and do even better  :D  .
« Last Edit: May 31, 2010, 01:52 PM by Isabelle Prondzynski »

Offline luzparis

Re: SS Rotterdam
« Reply #1 on: Dec 29, 2009, 10:14 PM »
thank's Isabel , that's for me the good exemple for the other liner hotel !! good restoration the different spaces of the ship are the same design of the begining of her service life

Offline Louis De Sousa

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Re: SS Rotterdam
« Reply #2 on: Dec 29, 2009, 11:11 PM »

Back in 1997 when she was called Rembrandt i boarded her for a few hours.Lovely ship inside.

Louis

Offline Isabelle Prondzynski

Re: SS Rotterdam
« Reply #3 on: Dec 30, 2009, 12:43 AM »
Some photos taken of her in Rotterdam on 25 September 2009 :

http://www.cruisefans.nl/bezoekssrotterdam/bezssrd250909pagina1.html

At the bottom of the page, you will find links to two further pages of pictures.

richc1977

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Re: SS Rotterdam
« Reply #4 on: Dec 30, 2009, 11:21 AM »
I've just seen that link on another forum.

The interiors are great........I must get over there and do some panoramic photos!  The dining room is stunning.

The photographer is clearly a ship fan if you try the index page

http://www.cruisefans.nl/cruiseschepenrotterdam.html

Select any year (except 09) are you'll probably some lovely pictures of our favourite QE2, like this one - look at the angle she is at during bunkering.........

http://www.cruisefans.nl/qe2121207pagina3.html

Online Rob Lightbody

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Re: SS Rotterdam
« Reply #5 on: Dec 31, 2009, 01:08 PM »
There's lots of pages of pictures on that link you posted Isabelle, not just two!

She looks amazing!  There still appears to be work to do, but whats done looks great.

I think the interior design is utterly brilliant, blending some modern elements with her original features.  Obviously lots of effort is going into retaining what they can.  I like it better than QV, for instance, and I'm thinking I like it better than how QE2 ended up.  Its genius, especially considering they've had to dismantle much of the interior (i believe) to remove asbestos, and then re-assemble it.

Compared to QE2, her interior design was mostly intact at the end of her service life, wasn't it?
« Last Edit: Dec 31, 2009, 01:11 PM by Rob Lightbody »
Passionate about QE2's service life for 40 years and creator of this website.  I have worked in IT for 28 years and created my personal QE2 website in 1994.

Offline Isabelle Prondzynski

Re: SS Rotterdam
« Reply #6 on: Dec 31, 2009, 02:50 PM »
Thank you, Rob, for making me search the site further.

The pages for a very recent visit (27 December 2009) can be found here :

http://www.cruisefans.nl/bezoekssrotterdam/bezssrd271209pagina1.html

with loads of other pages to be opened from the bottom of this first page.

Stunning views, Rob -- I can't wait for my first visit!

Offline luzparis

Re: SS Rotterdam
« Reply #7 on: Dec 31, 2009, 04:28 PM »
i like so much her 50's 60's deco i hope i have the occasion to visit her when she open!!  :)

Cruise_Princess

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Re: SS Rotterdam
« Reply #8 on: Dec 31, 2009, 04:40 PM »
A friend has been going on about this to me for ages but I never really paid too much attention whilst mourning QE2...but when I saw the pics I was blown away....she is so lovingly cared for and looks just as she was launched all those years ago...maybe it would have been better if QE2 hadnt been given all those refits to change her so much.......would love to visit Rotterdam thats for sure....its such a lovely story for such a beautiful lady of the sea......how I wish that would happen for Qe2....

to come home....

Offline highlander0108

Re: SS Rotterdam
« Reply #9 on: Dec 31, 2009, 05:28 PM »
WOW!  I had only a passing interest in this ship until I saw what they have done here.  Stunning interiors!  Don't forget that Carnival sold her off too.  Makes me more hopeful that this could should happen to QE2 and have her in the UK as a national treasure to be experienced by all.  Hopefully, behind the scenes, efforts are at work to acquire the ship from Dubai return her home.
"There will never be another one like her" QE2's last Master Ian McNaught
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David TJ

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Re: SS Rotterdam
« Reply #10 on: Dec 31, 2009, 11:36 PM »
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
« Last Edit: Jan 02, 2010, 12:26 AM by Rob Lightbody »

Online Rob Lightbody

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Re: SS Rotterdam V of 1959
« Reply #11 on: Jan 02, 2010, 01:42 PM »
Do you think anyone at Carnival/Cunard will look at the wonderful Rotterdam conversion and at least feel some pangs of guilt that Britains last real ship of state was treated, at the end, with regard only for $$$.
Passionate about QE2's service life for 40 years and creator of this website.  I have worked in IT for 28 years and created my personal QE2 website in 1994.

Offline Tyne Turbine

Re: SS Rotterdam V of 1959
« Reply #12 on: Jan 02, 2010, 10:36 PM »
A very interesting first post David TJ. Welcome to this forum.

The interors of the vessel are quite stunning but I still think back to my, to date, only glimpse of this vessel as it sailed down Southampton Water towards the end of its HAL career when I felt that it would have benefitted from a well proportioned traditional funnel as fitted to her fleetmate from the same decade, Statendam. I suppose that would have detracted from her image of cutting edge modernity as shared with the Canberra of the same period. Still at the time I remember thinking how I far preferred the lines of her glorious pre-war stablemate, Nieuw Amsterdam.

Now I am just thankful for the magnificent preservation effort and hope it achieves the success which it truly deserves whilst wishing that I had started actually travelling on such vessels much earlier in my life to experience their delights first hand.

Regards,

Robert.

David TJ

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Re: SS Rotterdam V of 1959
« Reply #13 on: Jan 03, 2010, 10:32 PM »
Rob,

Having sent my first posting I realised that I should have closed it with one additional phrase: "... and a LOT of dosh!!!".  The long, slow journey of S.S.Rotterdam from Freeport to home port has cost hundreds of millions of Euros.  I am deeply thankful and relieved that it has all been found and spent but the reality is that it might actually have been cheaper to have built a new ship (Rotterdam Maritime Museum has the complete set of builder's plans and drawings).  Will Carnival have regrets?  No, not for one moment.  The operators of ships as commercial propositions do not see them as we do.  They have finite lives.  Thats it.  And ship preservation is a phenomenally difficult, phenomenally expensive business.  S.S.Rotterdam was and is something very special indeed - as much work of art as engineered structure and known and respected as such by a huge proportion of the Dutch public.  I am sure that public opinion and national pride have saved the Rotterdam - I don't know, but I don't think Carnival/HAL had very much to do with it.

Best wishes, David 

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Re: SS Rotterdam V of 1959
« Reply #14 on: Jan 04, 2010, 03:45 PM »
David, can you recommend ONE good book about the Rotterdam?

Re: 'work of art' - in what ways was she more of a work of art than QE2 (in 1969) ?  She certainly looks it to me, but I think that might be to do with the year into which both ships were launced.  i'm aware of the 'no expense spared' factors of QE2's interior design and the famous designers used etc.

Re 'known and respected as such by a huge proportion of the Dutch public' - more-so than QE2 is by the British?  I think this is more a reflection of the British attitude to British things, and a lack of national pride in them any more.
Passionate about QE2's service life for 40 years and creator of this website.  I have worked in IT for 28 years and created my personal QE2 website in 1994.