The Livery Post

Although Silja Serenade is still docked, both Viking XPRS and Cinderella have returned to service and first photos are spreading: Viking Line continues to refresh the look of their fleet and now both of the mentioned ships have hull stripes, similar to those of Amorella and Grace. That means only Mariella, Gabriella and Rosella are plain red now, and it's likely that they'll be given a paint job during their next dockings as well. Although the change is small, I'm very excited about it and today I went to the seaside to watch Viking XPRS arrive. It's also kind of cool that I have some photos that are history now.

Viking XPRS before...

.. and now!

I've always found Viking XPRS to be one of the most beautiful day cruise ferries around here, and the white stripes make her even better. Beautiful, isn't she?

Scars from the past

Some dock photos of Viking Cinderella from www.skanskan.se have also reached me. I hope I'll get a chance to see her and take my own photos sometime this year.

Sitting dry

Red stripes and new writings

In addition to these exciting news, the topic of ship liveries has caused a lot of debate in the Cruise & Ferry group I'm in on Facebook. I must admit it's a topic I'm quite passionate about and I've wanted to write about it ever since the creation of this blog so now seems a perfect time to do so. I've seen people who only like their ships all white or with a very modestly coloured hull. With all respect to them, I don't see how it's possible to ruin a ship just by painting her. I personally find an all white ship a bit boring, if not a pointlessly empty drawing space and I prefer an original solution to an empty space anytime. In fact, a good hull art could really save a ship with a bad shape. On the other hand, I do like the ships that look as if they've been dipped in paint, like Cunard or Holland America Line, but to leave a ship all white it needs to have either lots of big windows or an outstanding shape. That's just my opinion though. And now I'll allow myself a bit of judging. 

Superstar: The livery is often said to contribute to seasickness. Not my favourite either, but I wouldn't call it ugly.

Mein Schiff 1 and Finlandia: Both really well done, and the majority seems to be with me on this one.

Ryndam: What I meant by "dipped in paint". Although not very outstanding, she looks great.

Norwegian Star: Her and her fleetmates go quite high on my list for their efforts of avoiding a plain white hull. Without the paintings they could easily be confused with MSC, Costa, Carnival or P&O, if you cover the funnel, of course. The Star and her sisters actually have quite an interesting shape.

Since I already mentioned P&O,  I should mention that they're all getting a new uniform hull art, starting from Britannia.  I like it, and I'm glad there will be less cruise ships that could easily be confused with each other.

Star: Another "dip", just unusual colour. Some find that outrageous, but I find her a bit boring. 

Celebrity Constellation: A great example of the shape and the livery complementing each other to make an original looking whole. I haven't heard anyone say anything bad about her or her fleetmates either. Some, like the Eclipse, are mostly white but still very interesting.

Silja Europa: Great as she is, wouldn't look any worse if she was all white. On the other hand, I doubt a "dip" would look good on her.

AIDAmar: Obviously I love her as she is, the idea of painting a face on the ship is great and the result isn't bad either.  Although she and her fleetmates owe most of the fame and love to their painted faces, I'm well convinced that she -as well asthe whole sphinx class- would stand out and still be my favourite even if she was all white.

To sum up, when it comes down to either loving or hating something with no inbetween option, I usually choose to love it. But that is my opinion and you don't have to agree with it.