Classic cruise ships from yesteryear | Photos

The Norway stood out for its blue hues.

(ANDY WONG / AP)

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Jan. 19, 2018 9:45 AM PT

The sleek, blue-hued Norway. Carnival’s early fleet of ships: the Mardi Gras, Festivale and Carnivale. The SeaEscape. Royal Caribbean’s Sun Viking and Sovereign of the Seas.

With newer and bigger mega ships embarking each year from PortMiami and Port Everglades, we look back on some of the classic cruise ships that once departed from South Florida ports.

Check out these vintage ships of yesteryear. You’d be surprised by how much smaller and simpler they look compared today’s behemoths.

Carnival Cruise Lines ship Celebration pictured in 1995.

(CARL JUSTE / AP)

In 1995, a water–squirting tug boat escorted Carnival Cruise Lines’ newest ship at the time, the Imagination, into the PortMiami. The 70,000-ton ship had arrived in Miami after crossing the Atlantic from a Finnish shipyard.

(ANDY NEWMAN / AP)

In 1996, the Carnival Destiny was said to be the largest cruise ship to date. In this photo, it dwarfed a smaller cruise vessel in the background. The Destiny was almost as large as three football fields, was higher than the Statue of Liberty and was too wide to pass through the Panama Canal, according to its owner.

(ANDY NEWMAN / Associated Press)