LOUIS AURA 3rd August 2014

LOUIS AURA

Several months ago a few friends planned to sail on this little liner and I was happy to join them, for a second trip on the ship. The four night cruise was to sail out of Limassol in Cyprus, so it was a long flight of over four hours from the United Kingdom to reach our embarkation port.

Saturday 2nd August 2014
I caught an afternoon flight from the UK to Paphos in Cyprus, and immediately had to set my watch forward two hours to local time. By then it was dark and I was glad to be met by a pre-arranged local taxi driver to go straight to my hotel in Limassol. The air-conditioned taxi was a great relief after the tremendous heat outside. When I arrived at the hotel, it was very disappointing to discover that my friends’ rooms at the hotel had been over-booked and they had been moved to another establishment, some distance away. This was not the welcome and meeting that we were hoping to enjoy!

Sunday 3rd August 2014
Solitary breakfast was pleasant in the air-conditioned breakfast room beside a huge swimming pool. The shade cast by trees and shrubs outside was delightful, and all the smokers seemed to enjoy sitting at the tables there. I could see a Bar beside the pool and a tennis court beyond that. My friends were due to meet me here and I was soon re-packed and ready to head for the sea side with them.

We simply had to walk down the road to reach the glittering sunlit sea and wait for the sight of the LOUIS AURA as she sailed around the distant headland, heading for the port of Limassol. We found a comfortable café right on the water’s edge and happily spent some time there drinking coffee and later having a light lunch before we could head for the new cruise terminal. That was more like the cheerful start to this little trip we wanted!

Cafe on the beach

Check in was easy and we were hardly aware that we were three of the 800 or so anticipated passengers coming on board in mid-afternoon. The first thing I noticed about the ship’s hull was the LOUIS CRUISES logo, along with a red and blue stripe next to it.

The new Louis stripes

On board, my cabin this time is 5111 on Poseidon Deck, a twin berth inside for single use, and with a welcoming plate of fruit on the dressing table.

One side of my twin-berth cabin 5111, Poseidon Deck

Looking towards the door, with bathroom on the left and mirror-fronted wardrobes on the right

I first visited the ship as ORIENT QUEEN in Piraeus in July 2007 after she had been acquired by Abou Merhi Cruises and chartered to Louis Cruises, still as ORIENT QUEEN, and I can still recall my surprise at seeing her distinctive styling with the Venus Bar levels 1 and 2 up on Panoramic Deck.

I remember from my last trip on 14th September 2013 on LOUIS AURA that she had been built as STARWARD in 1968 in Bremerhaven for cruising for Norwegian Caribbean Cruise Line; in 1995 she was sold to Festival Cruises and became BOLERO. With the collapse of Festival in 2004 she was laid up before being bought by Abou Merhi Cruises in 2005 and renamed ORIENT QUEEN to sail to ports including Beirut, but that was abandoned and AMC chartered her to Louis Cruises; in fact she sailed again to Beirut under charter to rescue stranded Americans.

My diary back then in September 2013 noted that Louis Cruises had just renamed the ship as LOUIS AURA in keeping with Greek mythology and as their company had become the foremost Ambassador of Hellenic Cruising. I also noted that the ship had a charter to South America over the winter and imagined that this new name of LOUIS AURA would continue to promote the company’s image.

Since then the ship had been chartered by French company Rivages du Monde in Spring 2014, which ran several cruises for passengers from Marseilles, and visited many Baltic ports including Oslo, Copenhagen and St. Petersburg. A maritime journalist friend in Denmark was so delighted to see and visit the ship in Denmark that he wrote a piece about her, and used one of my photographs taken in Patmos, Greece, as an illustration to accompany the article.

Now she is back in Aegean waters and has been sailing out of Limassol from 22nd July on short cruises. Her tonnage is 15,781, with 364 passenger cabins with an 895 maximum passenger capacity, with eight passenger decks, so I was pleased to be on board her again.

Reception and Guest Services, with the central fountain

Lifeboat drill was held and then we prepared to sail. We headed out of Limassol port aided by tug PRINIAS, passing AIDALUNA,

Aidaluna and our tug

and then we saw an unexpected sight rushing towards us: it was a dark-hulled vessel now called DP GEZINA, but which we had last seen in Rotterdam in January (see NORWEGIAN GETAWAY January 2014). I remembered I had first seen and sailed on her in 2008 between Helsingor and Helsinborg in Denmark, when she was called SIMARA ACE.

DP Gezina, ex Simara Ace

Mermaid Restaurant, with a view of two sides of the Swimming Pool in the middle

Looking aft in the Mermaid Restaurant

The Bar in the Restaurant

Dinner was to be served in the Mermaid Restaurant between 7 and 9 p.m. so after a refreshing drink we were about to go to the Restaurant when an announcement was made. It seems that so many people had decided to go in for a meal at 7 p.m. that there was no more room and everyone else was requested to wait until 8.30 p.m. That was a bit of a surprise, as that meant waiting about an hour, but we did so and discovered that rather unappealing buffet food was all that was now available and laid out for us to collect. That was such a disappointment, as I had really enjoyed the food on my last trip on this ship, and had praised it to such an extent that my companions were really looking forward to their first meal.

We had all bought the drinks package so that rather came into use for the rest of the evening, and we were entertained by a band playing under the Venus Deck bar. It was very pleasant sitting in deck chairs under a dark sky, feeling comfortably warm as we sailed along.

Sitting under the stars listening to the Band on Venus Deck

Tomorrow we are due in Rhodes so we are all looking forward to that.

Ships seen: Aidaluna, Louis Aura, catamaran Sea Grace, tug Prinias, DP Gezina (ex Simara Ace)


To be continued....

LOUIS AURA (ex-ORIENT QUEEN) Part 4

Tuesday 17th September 2013
I woke up and was soon on deck to discover that we had indeed sailed on time from Mykonos at midnight. It seems that LOUIS OLYMPIA was supposed to leave before us but, after making a couple of attempts to do so, abandoned that idea and waited out the bad weather, although she had hit the quayside. Captain Goumas of course knew the LOUIS AURA ship and understood the weather and sea conditions, so he and the Pilot were able to manoeuvre our ship away from the quayside and sail away as scheduled.

I managed to locate a map of Mykonos town, which shows the New Port where we berthed and the old port where we went on the water bus.

The Taverna Matthew was pictured on the side of the map

I passed this cabin door on the way to breakfast

It was another blue sky day as we arrived before 7 a.m. in the port of Patmos, the little Greek island where St. John the Divine is said to have dictated the text of “Revelations” to his pupil Prochoros in AD95. There is now a big fortified monastery named for St. John. After breakfast we disembarked and decided to walk up to the little church on the nearby hill. The views were lovely, both down to the ship in the bay and across the island to the sea on the other side.

At Patmos

A little painting

We are going to walk up to the white-painted church

Local lane

Back down on the quayside we watched a local fast ferry arrive and then one of the bigger local ferries, and saw the timetables for the current sailings.

One of the Flying Dolphins

N. Kalymnos arrived

Passengers off and on the ferry

Dolphin about to fly

The Complain box

I also wanted to see if the ‘Complain’ box was still fixed to a post near a small quayside building, and it was. I was amused to see that it still had no bottom to the box, so presumably anything complained about just blew away on the breeze…

Ferries and timetable

We were back on board by 10 a.m. ready to go to Reception and be taken up to the Bridge to meet the Captain. It was lovely to be there, especially when Captain Goumas recognised me from a couple of previous short voyages. I was rather surprised at this, but I did remember him too! We were made very welcome, and introduced to the Staff Captain and another guest. This was Kaptan Saim Oguzulgen, a Turkish Maritime Pilot who must have found it strange to be on the Bridge but in a different capacity.

The Pilot came on board and we sailed from Patmos, heading out through the islands towards Kusadasi in Turkey, where we are due this afternoon. We now have a permanent invite to come to the Bridge for arrivals and departures whenever we like, which is just lovely.

View from the Bridge

There's the church we climbed to see

There's the view across the island

LOUIS AURA had a sister ship, which is still sailing in Singapore waters, called LEISURE WORLD but she too has been radically altered.

Louis Aura's original sister

Our ex-ORIENT QUEEN was built in 1968 as STARWARD and the bell with that name still hangs on the Bridge wing. One of my friends later told me she was designed by Tage Wandborg of Knud E. Hansen A/S and the original interiors (long-since gone) were by Mogens Hammer.

As we approached the port of Kusadasi it was fascinating to be back on the Bridge, and watching LOUIS OLYMPIA heading towards us as she left the port.

Louis Olympia leaving Kusadasi

Kusadasi Pilot approaching

The Pilot came aboard and we soon berthed, fairly near SPLENDOUR OF THE SEAS, which made for an interesting comparison. SEABOURN QUEST was also in port.

Seabourn Quest already in port

Splendour of the Seas

Kusadasi berthing plan

I spent some time ashore in the great heat but soon returned after taking photographs, and then watched as the Bridge Officers on SPLENDOUR started consulting their watches rather obviously, and someone on the gangway was sent off to the passenger terminal to see if they could find a missing person. He obviously did find him, as sailing time was almost due, and suddenly two people could be seen hurrying to the ship, one of whom was carrying shopping bags; the gangway was raised, the doors closed and the ship sailed – just slightly late but with all aboard.

Splendour of the Seas

Running to join the ship

And then she sailed almost immediately

On board LOUIS AURA we enjoyed more of Greek Day, with good food and music, and all sorts of entertainment available during the day and evening. I noticed our English Daily Programme also included an advertisement for ‘Towel Art Inspirations’ Book. Thank you, but not for me.

Before we sailed

We sailed just after 10 p.m., heading for Rhodes, Greece, after another interesting port of call in Kusadasi.

Ships seen:
At Patmos: Aegean Flying Dolphins, Epata, Patmos Star, N. Kalymnos of ANEK Sea Lines
At Kusadasi: Louis Olympia, Pilot 72 boat, Bogagay II tug, Seabourn Quest, Splendour of the Seas


To be continued....