Crown Cruise Line

Crown Cruise Line was a small, upper-class cruise operator, which was founded by Oddmund Grundstad and Grundstad Maritime Overseas Inc. based in Boca Raton, FL. The operation was eventually overseen by Effjohn International's Commodore Cruise Line and all ships were leased or sold to other cruise operators.

History

The cruise line began in 1984 with the Viking Princess, which initially operated out of San Diego, CA on short cruises to Ensenada, Baja California and Santa Catalina Island, California. After finally reaching an agreement with the Port of Palm Beach Commission, the Viking Princess was transferred to Palm Beach for daily sailings to Freeport, Bahamas and coastal cruises to nowhere.

With the success of the first ship and opportunities in the growing cruise line industry, the line invested in a second ship which had been built in 1967 as the ferry Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for the Spanish state-owned shipping company Trasmediterranea. In 1986 the ship returned to the yard where she was built, Union Naval de Levante in Valencia, for a massive refit and conversion to a cruise ship. In 1988 she emerged as the Crown del Mar and was chartered to Crown Cruise Line operating from Palm Beach on two-night Bahamas and five-night Western Caribbean itineraries.

Cruise line

A cruise line is a company that operates cruise ships. Cruise lines are distinct from passenger lines which are primarily concerned with transportation of their passengers: instead, cruise lines are primarily in the leisure entertainment business, some of which occurs at the destination but a great deal of which takes place aboard ship. Cruise liners typically have two separate staffs: the crew under the captain and a hospitality staff under the equivalent of a hotel manager.

Among cruise lines, some are direct descendants of the traditional passenger lines, while others were founded from the 1960s on specifically for cruising. The business is extremely volatile; the ships are massive capital expenditures with very high operating costs, and a slight dip in bookings can easily put a company out of business. Cruise lines frequently sell, renovate, or simply rename their ships just to keep up with travel trends.

A wave of failures and consolidation in the 1990s has led to many lines existing only as "brands" within larger corporations, much as a single automobile company produces several makes of cars. Brands exist partly because of repeat customer loyalty, and also to offer different levels of quality and service. For instance, Carnival Corporation owns both Carnival Cruise Lines, whose former image were vessels that had a reputation as "party ships" for younger travellers, but have become large, modern, and extremely elegant, yet still profitable, and Holland America Line, whose ships cultivate an image of classic elegance.