New Royal Viking Sun Sails to California

While “String of Pearls” or “Begin the Beguine” might be more familiar, all Royal Viking veterans should break out right now into a relieved chorus of “Here comes the Sun . . . it’s all right.”

And indeed, everything’s more than all right with the lavish Royal Viking Sun, the line’s first new ship in more than 15 years. Its maiden California arrival, Wednesday in Los Angeles, should help allay the fears of loyal repeat passengers who have had a lot to be concerned about lately.

Shortly after Labor Day, employees in RVL’s San Francisco headquarters received notices that all operations were being transferred to the Miami offices of parent company Kloster Cruise Limited, operators of Norwegian Cruise Line, which acquired Royal Viking in 1984 in the first of a string of recent cruise line consolidations.

Then in October came an announcement from Kloster Cruise that the Royal Viking Star, instead of its anticipated transfer to NCL to become the Norwegian Star with higher cabin density and cheaper, shorter sailings, would still be converted to a 900-passenger ship but retain the Royal Viking name. It would also offer two meal sittings, a larger spa and casino and substantially reduced prices (from $1,265) for seven-day cruises from New York to Bermuda.

Beginning of the End?

Knowledgeable cruise people were dismayed at this misuse of the Royal Viking name, which had always designated a luxury product with single meal sittings, first-class service and shipboard spaciousness. Combining a high-quality name with a mass-market product, so the thinking went, could confuse the public and spell the beginning of the end for one of the world’s finest cruise lines.

Then, in an 11th-hour change of heart, the company announced in late November that the Royal Viking Star would be renovated and redecorated, but only “six or seven cabins at the most” would be added, along with a top deck spa. The ship will keep its present name, on-board ambiance and single-meal sittings.

“We want to maintain Royal Viking Line as it is,” Einar Kloster, chairman of the board of Kloster Cruise, said aboard the brand-new Sun as it was preparing to sail for the United States. “We’re going to push RVL upwards; it would be corporate suicide if we did anything else.”

The luxurious new ship had set out from the Wartsila shipyards in Turku, Finland, on Nov. 26, headed for San Francisco and its Jan. 8 christening by actor James Stewart and his wife, Gloria, followed by a sold-out, 100-day around-the-world cruise.

En route it called in London, anchoring on the Thames opposite the Royal Observatory in Greenwich to host a gala dinner attended by Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and some 500 glittering guests, including Joan Collins and David Frost.

Finishing Touches

During the leisurely 10-day crossing on the sometimes-bumpy winter Atlantic, the ship performed well, even as Finnish workmen all over the ship completed the finishing touches. Rubber-mounted engines virtually eliminate vibration, and extra-heavy cabin insulation shuts out extraneous noise.

The innovative 38,000-ton vessel carries just 740 passengers, making it one of the most spacious cruise ships in service. It introduces the first shipboard swim-up bar, the first croquet court since the days of the great ocean liners, and an elegant specialty restaurant called the Royal Grill, supervised by noted French chef Paul Bocuse and carrying a $45-per-person surcharge.

Other amenities include a glassed-in spa embracing an outdoor lap swimming pool, satellite TV reception at sea, sophisticated air-conditioned tenders upholstered in jewel-toned colors, complete with toilets, and (if the U.S. Coast Guard relents on their prohibition of it) a wood-burning fireplace in a clubby, wood-paneled and fully fireproofed smoking room.

The line’s other ships, the smaller Sea, Sky and Star, were also built by Wartsila. Overall, the Sun is brighter and lighter-hearted than its predecessors, with an almost dramatic sense of space and a sweeping view to the sea from almost everywhere. Corridors and passageways are wider, passenger bathrooms larger and decks broad and uncrowded.

At the same time, there are more small, intimate nooks and crannies indoors and out for reading or conversation. Public rooms are spacious enough to contain the passengers who want to use them, except for the 120-seat Starlight Theatre, which even on our half-full ship during crossing could not handle the demand at feature film screenings or popular lectures, such as those we had from ship historian and author John Maxtone-Graham.

RVL regulars gravitate naturally to the Stella Polaris Lounge, high up and forward with a 180-degree view, and the Midnight Sun Lounge with its great expanse of glass facing aft. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows in public rooms and sliding glass doors opening to private verandas in more than a third of the staterooms open it up to the sea, sky and sun.

Lots of Amenities

All of the Sun’s cabins contain amenities usually restricted to suites--walk-in closets, color TV sets with remote control and VCRs, terry-cloth robes, hair dryers, built-in refrigerators, fresh flowers and fruit, and rheostat controls to adjust lighting at the dressing table and the bed lamps. Many also have in-room safes, big, deep bathtubs and twin beds that can convert to king-size.

Even the lowest-priced inside doubles (around $222 per person, double occupancy, per day) are 138 square feet and comfortably furnished, with attractive artwork and plenty of storage room.

Standard outside doubles ($300 or so per person, double occupancy, per day, for 191 square feet) have either bathtub or tile shower, large windows with automatic sprinklers to wash them, twin beds, a love seat, chair, table and corner cupboard for the TV set.

Private teak-deck verandas with table and chairs are available beginning with the B-deluxe staterooms (about $400 a day per person, double occupancy, for 238 square feet including the veranda). Both B- and A-deluxe (the latter average $468, measuring 362 square feet with veranda) contain twin beds or king-size bed, sitting area with curved leather sofa, handsome dark wood and glass cabinets, large marble bathrooms with huge tub and shower, and separate water closet with its own marble washbasin and telephone.

Even larger are 18 penthouse suites (488 square feet with veranda for an average of $750 a day per person, double occupancy), with fully stocked bar and butler service.

In our opinion, the best luxury buy on board is one of the 48 A-deluxe staterooms, spacious enough for modest entertaining and as prettily decorated as the penthouses at $500 a day less for a couple.

‘Available on Request’

The one-of-a-kind owner’s suite is twice the size of the penthouses, with two bathrooms and two glass bay windows, one with a raised whirlpool bathtub overlooking the sea. Prices are listed as “available on request,” but on the world cruise it goes for $1,780 a day, per person, double occupancy. As J.P. Morgan is supposed to have said about the annual upkeep of a yacht: “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.”

Other nice details: self-service Laundromats, a computerized indoor golf simulator that reproduces with slides the actual playing conditions at Pebble Beach and other famous courses, a nine-hole putting green on deck, a 24-hour concierge desk, a wine bar that serves premium vintages by the glass, video terminals for sports scores and stock market reports, a pizza oven and deck grill for hot dogs and hamburgers, and a choice of formal or informal tea service.

Joseph Watters, chief operating officer for Kloster, will change titles early next year to head up the new San Francisco-based Royal Viking Tours group. During his tenure as RVL president, the line modernized both its entertainment and cuisine to attract new, younger passengers.

We would hope Royal Viking, rapidly becoming one of the last bastions of grace and that ephemeral quality called “class,” will guard against slipping into today’s computerized, cost-conscious cruising.

After the world cruise ends in April, the Royal Viking Sun sets out for a summer in Europe and the Mediterranean, followed by a series of autumn cruises in Canada and New England.