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Its a Long Read but a good read – what happened to Pacific Dawn!

Posted by | Sep 9, 2021 | Cruise News , Headline News | 0 |

In an an excellent Long Read article in the Guardian, Sophie Elmhirst   tells the story of the ship which was once the much loved Aussis cruise ship Pacific Dawn and what happened to her, so read on!

Friedman called it seasteading: “Homesteading the high seas,” a phrase borrowed from Wayne Gramlich, a software engineer with whom he’d founded the Seasteading Institute in 2008, helped by a $500,000 donation from Thiel. In a four-minute vision-dump, Friedman explained his rationale. Why, he asked, in one of the most advanced countries in the world, were they still using systems of government from 1787? (“If you drove a car from 1787, it would be a horse,” he pointed out.) Government, he believed, needed an upgrade, like a software update for a phone. “Let’s think of government as an industry, where countries are firms and citizens are customers!” he declared.

The difficulty in starting a new form of government, said Friedman, was simply a lack of space. All the land on Earth was taken. What they needed was a new frontier, and that frontier was the ocean. “Let a thousand nations bloom on the high seas,” he proclaimed, with Maoish zeal. He wanted seasteading experiments to start as soon as possible. Within three to six years, he imagined ships being repurposed as floating medical clinics. Within 10 years, he predicted, small communities would be permanently based on platforms out at sea. In a few decades, he hoped there would be floating cities “with millions of people pioneering different ways of living together”.

Politics would be rewritten. The beauty of seasteading was that it offered its inhabitants total freedom and choice. In 2017, Friedman and the “seavangelist” Joe Quirk wrote a book, Seasteading, in which they described how a seasteading community could constantly rearrange itself according to the choices of those who owned the individual floating units. (Quirk now runs the Seasteading Institute; Friedman remains chair of the board.) “Democracy,” the two men wrote, “would be upgraded to a system whereby the smallest minorities, including the individual, could vote with their houses.”

Their vision was utopian, if your idea of utopia is a floating crypto-community in the Caribbean Sea. No longer was seasteading a futuristic ideal; it was, said Romundt, “an actual ship”. The Satoshi also offered a chance to marry two movements, of crypto-devotees and seasteaders, united by their desire for freedom – from convention, regulation, tax. Freedom from the state in all its forms. But converting a cruise ship into a new society proved more challenging than envisaged. The high seas, while appearing borderless and free, are, in fact, some of the most tightly regulated places on Earth. The cruise ship industry in particular is bound by intricate rules. As Romundt put it: “We were like, ‘This is just so hard.’”

After his San Francisco stint, Romundt, the son of a hairdresser, created ScissorBoy in 2009, a popular online TV series on hairdressing, and then ScheduleBox, a website that offered a digital receptionist service for hairstylists to book in their clients. (Always digitally inclined, he had, according to his website, the world’s “most advanced mobile paperless office in 1995”.) “I used to work 17 hours a day, so I didn’t have a lot of freedom,” he told me. He did, however, make enough money to semi-retire in 2016 and then spent “no more than five hours a month” running his business. The giant fully awakened, he moved back to Canada, where he lived on a houseboat on Lake Ontario and went kayaking in the mornings as the sun came up. Enraptured by his lifestyle, Romundt wondered why everyone wasn’t living this way. On a flight one day, he saw a man wearing a T-shirt with “Stop arguing. Start seasteading” printed on it. Romundt was curious, they got talking, and the man turned out to be Joe Quirk, who was by this time running the Seasteading Institute.

So far, the Seasteading Institute had experienced variable, or zero, success with its projects. Early ideas for a “Baystead” and “Coaststead” off the coast of San Francisco and a “Clubstead”, a resort off the coast of California, never made the leap to reality. An attempt to create a floating island prototype in French Polynesia in 2017 met with fairly fierce resistance from the people of French Polynesia and collapsed a year later when the government pulled out of the scheme.

The seasteading movement did not die there. In 2019, Romundt, Koch and Elwartowski moved their company to Panama, where they had found a government willing to back their next project: the SeaPod. These would be individual floating homes held 3 metres above the water by a single column and a tripod-shaped base beneath the ocean. The man responsible for their design, Koen Olthuis, is a Dutch “aquatect”, an architect specialising in water-based schemes. In rendered drawings, the SeaPods look fantastical, like a giant’s white helmet emerging monstrously from the waves. Inside, every surface is curved, as if you were living within the smooth, colourless confines of a peppermint. Romundt compared the SeaPods to the architecture in The Jetsons, the 60s cartoon where the characters lived in glassy orbs in the sky. “It’s like that,” he told me, “but on water.” The team built a factory from scratch in Linton Bay, a marina on the north coast of Panama, hired a team of about 30 engineers and mechanics, and, in early 2020, began building the first SeaPod prototype.

Sure enough, they found a bargain. In October 2020, Romundt, Koch and Elwartowski bought the ex-P&O cruise ship Pacific Dawn for a reported $9.5m. (Built in 1991 for $280m, the ship could have sold pre-pandemic for more than $100m, one industry insider told me.) They instructed Olthuis to draw up the plans, placing the ship at the heart of a floating community surrounded by SeaPods. “We had a kind of funny idea,” Olthuis told me. In his scheme, the Satoshi would connect, via two looping tunnels on the water, to human-made floating platforms designated for agriculture, manufacturing and parkland. From the air, the whole community would form the shape of the bitcoin B.

The scheme had the support of the Panama government. In fact, the Ministry of Tourism hoped that a new ocean community would be a draw for visitors. In a page-long statement, the ministry told me how a floating development fitted in with its Sustainable Tourism Masterplan 2020-2025, by highlighting the country’s biodiversity and “the blue heritage of Panama”. It didn’t seem to mind the idea of a load of crypto-investors floating off their coastline, not paying any tax.

“Out of adversity comes opportunity, so they say,” wrote Elwartowski, on 10 October 2020, introducing Viva Vivas, the new company that he had created to run the Satoshi. Its name was adapted from the Latin phrase, “vive ut vivas”, meaning “live so that you may live”.

Elwartowski answered every question with grave attention to detail. There would be generators at first, followed quickly by solar power. This would be an eco-friendly crypto-ship. High-speed wireless internet would come from land; utilities would be included in the fees at first, but would be metered when the systems were upgraded: “You don’t want to have pay for someone else’s mining rig in their cabin,” he wrote, referring to the resource-intensive computational process that introduces new crypto “coins” into the system. As for tax, you would not pay any on earnings made from ventures based in territory beyond Panama. You would be free to make, or mine, as much money as you liked. It would be a remote worker’s regulatory paradise.

But as the Reddit Q&A continued, Elwartowski’s meticulous responses revealed some of the more knotty practicalities of life on board. It turned out that the only cooking facilities would be in the restaurant. For safety reasons, no one was allowed to have a microwave in their rooms – though some cabins had mini-fridges, noted Elwartowski, determinedly sidestepping the point. He offered residents a 20% discount at the restaurant and mentioned that some interested cruisers had already talked about renting part of the restaurant kitchen so they could make their own food. “We want entrepreneurs to come up with solutions and try them out,” he wrote, in a valiant attempt to convert a fairly fundamental stumbling block into wild startup energy. “This is your place to try new things.” Not all the Redditors were convinced. “No microwave but mining rig. Incoherent scam.”

Marketing of the Satoshi soon began in earnest. Her 777 cabins were to be auctioned off between 5 and 28 November, while the ship was crossing the Atlantic towards Panama. Viva Vivas listed the options, including cabins with no windows ($570 a month), an ocean view ($629), or a balcony ($719). Ocean Builders held a series of live video calls for potential customers which attracted 200 people at a time, Olthuis told me, with Romundt, an expert steward of the multilateral video call, at the helm.

On the Viva Vivas website, a Frequently Asked Questions page covered the basics of the cabin auction process, fees and logistics. Specially trained staff would be hired to keep the ship Covid-free and through a partnership with a platform called coinpayments.net, multiple cryptocurrencies would be supported for payment, including bitcoin, ethereum, digibyte, bitcoin cash, litecoin, dai, dash, ethereum classic, trueUSD, USD coin, tether, bitcoin SV, electroneum, cloak, doge, eureka coin, xem and monero.

The final entry on the FAQ page, regarding the possibility of having pets on board, gave a bracing insight into the tension between the idea of freedom and the reality of hundreds of people closely cohabiting on a cruise ship. The answer linked to a separate document, containing a 14-point list of conditions including one that declared no animal should exceed 20lbs in weight, and any barking or loud noises could not last for longer than 10 minutes. If a pet repeatedly disturbed the peace – more than three times a month or five times in a year – it would no longer be allowed to live on board. “Any pet related conflict,” instructed point 13, “shall be resolved in accordance with Section V (F) of the Satoshi Purchase Agreement or Section IV (F) of the Satoshi Master Lease, where applicable.” Dogs would only be permitted in balcony cabins, and it was advised that owners buy a specific brand of “porch potty”, a basket of fake grass where your pet could relieve itself. (Pet waste thrown overboard would result in a $200 fine.)

One Reddit respondent – maxcoiner on Reddit, Luke Parker in real life – was as close to the target market of the Satoshi as it was possible to imagine. A longtime follower of the seasteading movement, he was also such an early and successful bitcoin adopter that he and his wife were able to retire early thanks to their investments. The Satoshi was the most plausible idea for a seastead he’d ever heard. “I did not buy a room during the Satoshi’s sale window,” he told me over email, “but it was hard to keep my hand off that button.”

A variety of considerations held him back. “The wife,” as he put it, had her doubts. He wasn’t sure about the “ginormous leap down in luxury” from living in deep residential comfort on land in the US midwest to living in a very small cabin on board a 30-year-old cruise ship. He was worried, too, by the limited facilities – “No kitchen of my own? Tiny bathrooms? Tiny everything?” Also, the constant rocking of the ship on the water: “I just can’t stomach that life around the clock.” He preferred the idea of the SeaPods. If Parker was going to live on a boat, he concluded, he’d prefer to buy his own luxury catamaran.

On 29 November, Elwartowski published another post on the Viva Vivas website, announcing the official opening of the Satoshi in January 2021. “This will be a new experience for all of us so we must manage your expectations,” he warned. The novelty was too much for Parker. “It takes a rare kind of person indeed to move your life on to a deserted cruise ship in Central America with so little information up front,” he told me. If Parker, part of that highly select, freedom-seeking, system-abandoning, overlapping community of seasteaders and bitcoiners, wasn’t going to buy, it was hard to imagine who would. As he put it: “This may have been the smallest sales demographic in history.

Over 30 years of service, the Satoshi herself had seen enough of the world to know every permutation of life at sea – apart, perhaps from what it might be like to be a permanent home to 2,000 crypto-investors. Built in 1991 in the Fincantieri shipyard in Trieste, Italy, she is one of only two cruise ships designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. (The other, the Crown Princess, was sent to the scrapyard last year, a Covid casualty.) Her first incarnation was as the Regal Princess (owned by Princess Cruises), after which she became the Pacific Dawn (P&O Australia). Throughout her life, she has been admired for her distinctive features: a domed roof rising above the navigation bridge, water slides that curl round her funnel and a stern whose elegantly rounded form is in marked contrast to the blunt, sawn-off rears of some giant cruise liners. Those who prefer an understated cruising experience also appreciate her discreet size: compared to the largest cruise ship in the world, The Symphony of the Seas (18 decks, 23 swimming pools) she is a modest vessel (11 decks, two swimming pools).

For many years, the Pacific Dawn cruised the south Pacific, enjoying a serene phase of life, interrupted only by an onboard swine flu outbreak in 2009 and the time she lost power and came within 70 metres of crashing into the Gateway Bridge on the Brisbane River. In 2011, a devoted Facebook group was established by fans. “Dawnie was the party ship,” remembered one. “I fell in love with my wife all over again,” added another, crediting the ship for his romantic renewal. Then, in 2020, it briefly looked as though Dawnie was set to join her sister on the scrapyard, after her sale to British cruise company, Cruise and Maritime Voyages, collapsed in the pandemic. Her fans were grief-stricken, weeping emojis piling up on the Facebook group. (“Well 2020 just became even shittier,” said Kathie.) When it was revealed that the ship had been rescued by Ocean Builders, there was a wave of relief, if a little mystification at her new name. “She’ll always be Dawn to me.”

As soon as Capt Harris joined the ship and met Koch on board, he realised there would be challenges ahead. “I was thinking a week into the job, I can see I’m going to be resigning,” Harris told me, immaculate in a striped shirt on a video call from his home in Kent. Koch, he said, was admirable in his ambition, and a likable, law-abiding man, but he was naive about how shipping worked and had an abhorrence of rules. “He didn’t understand the industry,” said Harris, who has the frank, upbeat air of a born leader for whom hierarchy is a kind of creed. “He just thought he could treat it like his own yacht.”

To sail anywhere, Harris explained, a ship requires certificates of seaworthiness. These expired on the day the deal with P&O was completed. Usually, a new buyer would ensure they lasted a couple of months to cover any onward journey, but no one on the Ocean Builders side had checked. By the time Columbia Cruise Services came on board and informed the team of the situation, the contracts had all been signed. Before the Satoshi could cross the Atlantic, the team were obliged to sail the ship to Gibraltar and have her removed from the water, a process known as dry-docking, to perform essential repairs and renew the certificates.

The Atlantic crossing began on 3 December. Harris – who didn’t resign, grateful for the four-month contract mid-pandemic – found it oddly lovely. With only 40 or so people on board, rather than the usual 2,000-odd, the atmosphere was relaxed, if a little surreal. Among other things, P&O had left about 5,000 bottles of wine and 2,000 bottles of spirits on board. Harris asked Koch if he wanted to charge the crew for drinks, but Koch, generous by nature, said no. “Obviously, we restricted them to three drinks a day,” said Harris. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had a crew.”

As the crossing continued, questions about how the project would actually work once the Satoshi arrived in Panama grew more pressing. According to Harris, Elwartowski thought he could convince the Panamanian authorities to let the ship anchor permanently in its waters and de-register as a ship, becoming a floating residence instead, so as to avoid some of the more exacting requirements of maritime law. But while Panama was happy to have the ship moored off its coast, it specified that the ship had to remain officially designated as a ship. Which led to another difficulty: the discharge of sewage. Though the ship had an advanced wastewater management system, which could turn sewage into drinking-quality water, they were not permitted to discharge this wastewater into Panamanian waters, and so would have had to sail 12 miles out every 20 days or so to empty tanks into international waters.

Such obstacles made the ship an off-putting proposition for insurers. No one would agree to cover them. “They wouldn’t even tell us why we weren’t insurable, they just kept saying no,” Romundt said. “It’s kind of hard to remedy something if you don’t know what the problem is.” Of the several insurance experts I asked about this, none were willing to comment on the case, citing a lack of expertise, presumably because no one had ever tried to insure a cruise ship turned floating crypto-community before. Harris, however, had his theories: that a risk-averse insurance industry was wary of both a bitcoin business and a ship that would presumably be mostly populated by quick-to-litigate Americans.

After trying multiple insurers and brokers, Romundt began to realise that the cruise ship industry was, as he put it, “plagued by over-regulation”. (Along with airlines and nuclear power, according to Harris, it’s in “the top three”.) The Ocean Builders’ great freedom project, whose intrinsic purpose was to offer an escape from oppressive rules and bureaucracy, was being hobbled by oppressive rules and bureaucracy. As Elwartowski would reflect a few months later on Reddit: “A cruise ship is not very good for people who want to be free.”

To Romundt, the whole cruise ship business began to seem like an impenetrable old boys’ network. He estimated that, given six months, they could have hired a crack marine legal team and navigated a way through the loopholes. But by mid-December, the Satoshi was already halfway across the Atlantic, burning through gallons of diesel, with a 40-person crew they’d have to keep on board even when she was stationary in Panama because a cruise ship requires constant maintenance. A ship can cost, even when docked, up to $1m a month to run. “Because, you know,” said Romundt, “it’s huge.”

Fuel alone was costing the Ocean Builders trio about $12,000 a day. According to Harris, Koch wanted to try to make the ship more fuel-efficient by installing a smaller engine, which he thought he could do while the ship was at anchor. “We were like, how are you going to cut a hole in the ship’s side big enough to get the engine out, which is below water level, and not sink the ship?” Harris shook his head, his memories of Koch clearly fond, if perplexed. “I was forever saying, ‘No, Rudi you can’t do this; no, Rudi you can’t do that.’

Before the Satoshi hove into view of the white sands of a Panama beach, Romundt, Koch and Elwartowski had to make a call. They couldn’t afford to keep the ship moored and empty for months on end while they tried to solve the insurance problem, a problem they weren’t even sure they’d be able to solve. They were insured to sail her, and they could go on sailing her, but they didn’t want to run a travel company. They wanted to run a floating society of like-minded freedom-lovers arranged in the shape of the bitcoin B. It wasn’t even clear that there were enough people who wanted to do that. Koch admitted to Harris that the cabins weren’t selling.

“It was almost like a fantasy, James Bond-ish,” said one cruise industry insider. “But to their credit they believed in it.”

The dream was over, they realised, before it had even begun. The project was dead, except it wasn’t quite, as they still owned the ship, which was still steaming across the Atlantic with Koch, Harris and the crew on board. The Satoshi, already thousands of miles into a 5,500-nautical-mile voyage, had travelled too far to be turned around mid-ocean, so on she sailed. They’d have to sell her, the Ocean Builders realised, but who was going to be crazy enough to buy a cruise ship in the middle of a pandemic? Only a company who wanted to tear her apart. On 18 December, while she was still at sea, the team announced the sale of the Satoshi to a scrapyard in Alang, India. The Satoshi was once again destined for dismemberment.

On 19 December, Elwartowski announced on the Viva Vivas website that the Satoshi’s journey was coming to an end. “We have lost this round. The New Normal, Great Reset gains another victim,” he wrote, looping in the collapse of the Satoshi with a popular Covid conspiracy theory that the pandemic and its response had been stage-managed by a global elite. (Over subsequent months, Elwartowski’s activity on Reddit would include other Covid themes, including suspicion of government vaccination programmes.) Romundt emailed their list of potential customers to let them know the ship’s fate. Deposits for cabins would be refunded.

The Satoshi arrived in Balboa, Panama on 22 December. On Christmas Eve, she anchored off the coast of Colon. There, Romundt joined Koch and the crew on the ship. Elwartowski, meanwhile, stayed in Panama City. “He didn’t want to get on board,” said Romundt. Koch spoke to Joe Quirk one evening on the phone while he was sitting in the ship’s cafe drinking a bottle of wine, feeling regretful that the onboard hospital he’d planned to open to medical entrepreneurs would never come to life. Even so, Koch was “utterly unbowed”, reported Quirk in a Seasteading Institute blog post entitled How the Grinch Stole the Cruise Ship.

Romundt, a man more driven by the practical issues at hand than the romantic symbolism of his endeavours, realised that, though the entire plan had fallen apart, he was still the part-owner of a massive cruise ship. He decided to spend Christmas on board, along with the crew. Master key in hand, he wandered around the Satoshi, making sure to enter every room that said Do Not Enter. He toured the engine room, and sat on the sun deck. He worked, because he can’t help working, even at Christmas, but he also went on all the water slides, alone. (Harris told me he’d turned them on specially for Christmas Day.) Though Romundt doesn’t usually drink, he had a glass of wine and called all his friends saying, “I’m on my own cruise ship for Christmas!” He had the kind of good time it is perhaps only possible to have when you have just made an unbelievably expensive mistake born of a desire to invent an entirely new way of living and involving the purchase of a huge floating vessel. “I was king of the ship!” he said, still delighted.

Even scrapping the Satoshi proved to be a debacle. After a deal had been done with the Indian scrapyard, the Ocean Builders team realised that according to the Basel Convention, which covers the disposal of hazardous waste, they weren’t allowed to send the ship from a signatory country (Panama) to a non-signatory country (India). The contract with the scrapyard had to be cancelled.

All was not completely lost, at least for the Satoshi herself. The cruise ship industry is a compact ecosystem. The grapevine did its thing. A ship broker heard about the plight of the Satoshi, realised it was precisely the kind of ship a new client of his was looking for, and did a quick deal.

On 23 February 2021, the Satoshi set sail from Panama, heading all the way back across the ocean she’d just crossed. She arrived in Bar, Montenegro on 27 March. Wilson went over to visit her, and, like Romundt, relished the experience of climbing aboard his new asset. Exploring the engine rooms of an empty cruise ship seemed to give these men a particular sensation: perhaps just the buzz of owning something so vast and powerful; a mechanical, proprietary thrill.

The Ocean Builders team, meanwhile, returned to their own private missions. Elwartowski was on sabbatical, Romundt told me. He did not want to talk to me for this story. Koch, who also declined to be interviewed, was building his own boat in Panama, and working with Romundt on the SeaPods. Over Zoom, Romundt gave me a tour of the SeaPod factory, and showed off the hulking sheets of fibreglass that would form the structure’s mould. “It feels like touching a UFO,” he said, stroking his invention.

Seeing the pod’s nascent form, I felt a boringly pragmatic urge to ask Romundt what happened if, once afloat, you needed to buy a pint of milk. My question seemed to miss the point, too wedded to old-fashioned notions of locality and human connection. The Pods had been designed to have a hatch in the roof, Romundt said. He was talking to some drone creators and imagined people flying to their pods independently, landing on the roof and entering through the hatch. Perhaps that’s how you’d get your milk.

At her new home in Montenegro, meanwhile, the Satoshi needed some sprucing up. For the fourth time in her three decades on the water, she had been renamed. “We thought Ambience a lovely name for a ship,” said Wilson, pronouncing it in the French style, Ambi- ence . “This is a very elegant ship,” he added, proudly. “She looks like a cruise liner; she does  not look like a floating block of flats.”

When Ambience finally sets sail on her maiden voyage, from the industrial dock of Tilbury across the North Sea to Hamburg in April 2022, she will offer a more traditional experience to her passengers. “Back to what cruising is all about,” said Wilson. The atmosphere will be refined. There will be promenading on deck and plentiful opportunities for photography as the horizon swallows the evening sun. There will be cocktails at the bar, a three-course dinner and a glittery show. It is unlikely bitcoin will be accepted as currency. The water slides will be removed.

A report from The Long Read in the Guardian brought to you by John Alwyn-Jones, Cruise Editor, Global Travel Media and Global Cruise News.

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Pacific Dawn Decks and Cabins

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Built in 1991, the Pacific Dawn cruise ship weighs 70K tons and has 798 staterooms for up to 1915 passengers served by 660 crew . There are 12 passenger decks, 7 with cabins. You can expect a space ratio of 37 gross tons per passenger on this ship. On this page are the current deck plans for Pacific Dawn showing deck plan layouts, public venues and all the types of cabins including pictures and videos.

Pacific Dawn

Last Drydock: Feb 2017

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Floor Diagram Suite

Sleeps up to: 4 14 Cabins Cabin: 558 sqft (52 m 2 )

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Sleeps up to: 3 36 Cabins Cabin: 336 sqft (32 m 2 )

Floor Diagram Balcony

Sleeps up to: 2 134 Cabins Cabin: 155 sqft (15 m 2 ) Balcony: 28 sqft (3 m 2 )

Floor Diagram Oceanview

Sleeps up to: 4 436 Cabins Cabin: 190 sqft (18 m 2 )

Floor Diagram Interior

Sleeps up to: 4 178 Cabins Cabin: 190 sqft (18 m 2 )

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P&O Cruises Australia to Wave Goodbye to Pacific Dawn

Monday, September 28, 2020

P&O Cruises Australia today announced it will wave goodbye to the backbone of the Australian cruise industry – Pacific Dawn.

The 70,000-tonne Pacific Dawn was Australia’s first superliner when she sailed from Sydney on 9 November, 2007 – and since that time she has carried a staggering 1.2 million guests.

She has homeported from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland over the past 13 years, arguably doing more than any other ship to lead the growth of cruising, which contributes more than $5 billion to the Australian economy in usual operations.

It had previously been announced the 1,546-guest Pacific Dawn was due to leave the P&O Cruises fleet in February next year as part of the transformation of the fleet over time. However, she will now leave in the coming weeks to facilitate her sale.

“Seafarers talk about ships having personalities because they develop such affection for the unique way each one operates,” P&O Cruises Australia President, Sture Myrmell, said.

“Pacific Dawn has spawned the amazing careers of many of our highly-professional hotel directors, cruise directors and entertainment staff who have grown with P&O into a modern cruise line that has been the backbone of the industry.

“But Pacific Dawn has also been much admired and loved by her many guests, especially her loyal following in Queensland, as well as her crew. Having made more than 610 voyages, she has been the backdrop for countless holiday memories and family celebrations.”

Mr Myrmell said he was P&O’s head of Hotel Operations when Pacific Dawn first joined the fleet and the ship has many strong memories for him too.

“While I am disappointed at not being able to farewell her with a final voyage because of the pause in operations, I am excited about our future as we keep evolving as a brand and look to welcoming Pacific Adventure and Pacific Encounter to the fleet,” he said.

It has been widely reported that Pacific Dawn was to be bought by CMV, however, that has not eventuated and the ship’s departure has now been brought forward after reaching agreement to sell the ship during the pause in operations.

P&O Cruises will assist affected guests who were booked on Pacific Dawn from 17 December. They can choose alternative arrangements including a full refund or bonus onboard credit if they choose the future cruise credit option. Guests on select cruises can opt to move their booking to the same time next year and receive bonus onboard credit.

P&O will pay refunds back to travel agents for guests who booked through that sales channel. The cruise line will also protect travel agent commissions on all bookings for cancelled cruises that were paid in full as at 26 September, 2020 and for the total amount of the future cruise credits.

P&O will make contact with guests whose cruises have been affected, either directly or via their appointed travel agent, to let them know of this development and the options available to them.

Guests with bookings affected by the pause in operations, can track the progress of their future cruise credit or refund request via a new tracking tool found on P&O’s website.

Mr Myrmell apologised to guests for this inconvenience, acknowledging how challenging it had been given the continued extension of the operational pause since March.

Pacific Dawn’s P&O Service 2007-2020

During her P&O Cruises Australia service, based on itineraries sailed, Pacific Dawn travelled a total of 1,208,812 nautical miles or 2,238,719 kilometres.

In sailing the estimated 1.2 million nautical miles or 2.2 million kilometres, Pacific Dawn travelled the equivalent of to the moon and back nearly three times or nearly 56 times around the Equator.

Also during her P&O Cruises Australia service, Pacific Dawn made the following calls and turnarounds at these ports:

• Brisbane approximately 480
• Port Vila approximately 310
• Noumea approximately 280
• Sydney approximately 160
• Number of P&O guests carried -- 1.2 million

Goodbye Pacific Dawn, hello Ambience

Bob McGowan talks about the renovations on Ambassador Cruise Line’s first ship, Ambience

Bob McGowan talks with Alice Chambers about the renovations that were carried out on Ambassador Cruise Line’s first ship, Ambience, including the teams and challenges that were involved

By Alice Chambers | 24 June 2022

When Ambassador Cruise Line launched as the first new British cruise line in over a decade in May 2021, the brand began building its fleet by acquiring Pacific Dawn, which operated for P&O Cruises between 2007 and 2020. After that, the ship underwent refurbishment work at the Viktor Lenak shipyard in Rijeka, Croatia, to ensure it will deliver a unique and high-quality onboard experience for guests.  

The newly renovated ship was at Viktor Lenak for six months, with work having been completed by Atlantic Marine Interiors and interior designer Guri Blindheim. It was christened as Ambience during a ceremony at London Tilbury in the UK on 19 April 2022. 

“We refreshed all guest cabins, including the 14 new deluxe suites,” says Bob McGowan, head of guest experience at Ambassador. “We were keen to introduce new soft furnishings and linens throughout. Guest experience was obviously our focus, so we have also installed tea and coffee-making facilities, along with UK plug sockets and USB outlets for convenience, in all cabins and suites. 

“We have also relocated the original casino and turned the remaining space into our exclusive Purple Turtle pub, which will be the main hub of activity for our guests with nightly game shows, bespoke cocktails and other evening entertainment. In addition, there is the new active studio named Wellness, our bridge and cardroom called Aces & Eights, and a dedicated craft area, Kapoor’s.” 

Refurbishment work has also been carried out on the ship’s spa area and the cruise line has added a digital photo gallery, new digital signage and interactive screens throughout the ship to assist guests with accessing Ambassador’s onboard application, which is designed to help with navigating around the ship and guest assistance. 

In addition, Ambassador focused on improving onboard health and safety during its revitalisation project. For example, more than 23 miles of new piping has been installed and all guest corridors now feature new ceilings. 

“In terms of exterior updates, the ship has obviously had full new livery and we have fitted new teak flooring on the open deck areas, upgraded the sound and light system, and created a new entertainment area to enhance the guest offering and overall experience,” says McGowan. 

Extensive investments have also been made to carry out technical upgrades on the ship, primarily with a view to improving its environmental performance. Ambience has been equipped with selective catalytic reduction systems, new advanced waste water treatment plants, and an improved food pulper system to decrease food waste. The new pulper system features an upgraded biodigester, which reduces the ship’s production of nitrogen and sulphur oxides by 75 and 80 per cent respectively and will decrease overall carbon dioxide emissions by 5.3 tons per year.  

Having overcome several challenges during the refurbishment process, including Covid-19-related staff shortages and supply chain obstacles such as fuel shortages linked to the situation in Ukraine delaying its departure from the shipyard, Ambience embarked on its maiden voyage from the UK to Hamburg, Germany, on 20 April 2022.  

“We were delighted that we were able to take a well-loved ship with a great history and bring it back to life through designing areas and spaces that Ambassador’s guests will love,” says McGowan. “There are lots of new super-ships being built for the cruise market, but we’re keen to offer our guests a smaller to mid-size traditional, cruising experience with our fleet.” 

Following the success of Ambience’s refurbishment and debut, Ambassador will continue to carry out refurbishments on her sister ship, Ambition, which enters service in 2023.

This article was first published in the 2022 issue of  Cruise & Ferry Interiors . All information was correct at the time of printing, but may since have changed. 

Subscribe to Cruise & Ferry Interiors for FREE  here  to get the next issue delivered directly to your inbox or your door.

Tags: Ambassador Cruise Line     Ambience

Alice Chambers

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Cruise Ship   Pacific Dawn

Cruises On Pacific Dawn

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Pacific Dawn Cruises Review

• Best Cruise Ships

The P&O Pacific Dawn cruise ship was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano. Everything about the Pacific Dawn is a dreamy example of elegance and tasteful design. With a capacity of over 2500, the Pacific Dawn offers a great range of accommodations such as balcony cabins and state rooms .

Activities/Entertainment

The Pacific Dawn offers a magnificent range of recreational and entertainment options. With a minimum of 60 activities available daily, the Pacific Dawn really does offer a diverse range of fun opportunities. A ‘Pacific Daily’ newsletter is delivered to your room daily and features the itinerary planned for the next day, giving you great opportunity to pick and plan the best activity options for your trip.

P&O Cruises offer a minimum of 9 bars on board and the Pacific Dawn features a fantastic emphasis on nightly entertainment. With live music, productions, a casino and art gallery; you are sure to enjoy a fun filled voyage on board the beautiful Pacific Dawn.

The most celebrated dining institution on board the Pacific Dawn has got to be the Salt Grill that is ran by celebrity chef Luke Mangan. Often described and reviewed as an unforgettable experience by customers and critics. Luke is demonstrates his knowledge, flair and creativity and has even been invited to cook for Tom Jones and Bill Clinton. Lunch is available for $39 and dinner costs just $49.

Other dining options include a steak and seafood grill, an Asian banquet and a buffet restaurant .

Other facilities on board P&O Pacific Dawn Cruises:

• Kids  – Children’s clubs, activities and events are available daily.
• Leisure & Recreation  – Shops, art gallery, bars, show lounges, big screen, deck games, excursion office
• Health & Fitness  – Aerobics, medical centre, spa, gym, jogging track, massage spa, deck sports, swimming pool, lido pool, sauna.

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• CruiseMapper
• Ambassador Cruise Line

Former names: MS Satoshi (Ocean Builders), Amy Johnson (CMV), Pacific Dawn (P&O Australia), Regal Princess

Cruise line Ambassador Cruise Line

• London-Tilbury (England)

Ambience current position

Ambience current location is at North Sea (coordinates 51.85294 N / 2.05294 E) cruising at speed of 13 kn (24 km/h | 15 mph) en route to ROTTERDAM. The AIS position was reported 4 minutes ago.

Current itinerary of Ambience

Ambience current cruise is 11 days, round-trip British Isles Discovery . The itinerary starts on 05 May, 2024 and ends on 16 May, 2024 .

Specifications of Ambience

•   Itineraries
•   Review
•   Wiki

Ambience Itineraries

Ambience review, review of ambience.

The 1991-built MV Ambience cruise ship is currently owned and operated by the UK-based Ambassador Cruise Line and has as fleetmate Ambition (1999-built, fka AIDAmira/Costa neoRiviera). The vessel was previously known as "Pacific Dawn" (P&O Australia), "Amy Johnson" (CMV) and "Satoshi" (Ocean Builders' "Crypto Cruise Ship" 2020-2021). The boat was launched as Regal Princess (link to the 2014-built liner). As "Pacific Dawn", the vessel was operated by P&O Australia ( Carnival Corporation -owned company) in the period 2007-2020. Under P&O, Pacific Dawn sailed ~1,37 million mi (~2,2 M km) and served ~2 million passengers.

While operated by P&O Australia, the vessel (IMO number 8521232) was UK- flagged (MMSI number 235059368) and registered in Southampton . Under the Ocean Builders' "Crypto Cruise Ship" ownership, the vessel was re-flagged to Panama (MMSI 355852000) and registered in Colon .

Ambassador Ambience is currently Bahamas-flagged (MMSI 311001109) and registered in Nassau .

History and ownership

On December 18, 2020, the previous shipowner (Ocean Builders Panama) announced that the "Crypto Cruise Ship" project is terminated and MS Satopshi sold for scrapping at Alang India .

In February 2021, Pacific Dawn was planned to leave P&O Australia. The ship's last cruise for P&O was scheduled for February 8, 2021 (departing from Melbourne to Singapore via Brisbane ). The last voyage was bookable as short-break (Melbourne-Brisbane), Asia Explorer (Brisbane-Singapore) and "full farewell" (17-night B2B cruise Melbourne-Brisbane-Singapore). In April 2021, P&O Australia's fleet was also planned to leave Pacific Aria (now Celestyal Journey) .

In November 2019, for both vessels were signed presale agreements with Cruise & Maritime Voyages/CMV UK . In 2021, Pacific Dawn was to be renamed to "CMV Amy Johnson", Pacific Aria - to "CMV Ida Pfeiffer". Following the CMV's collapse (filed for bankruptcy in July 2020), Carnival Corporation reopened both ships for sale.

• On September 29, 2020, P&O Australia announced Pacific Dawn's sale, but the buyer (new shipowner) was not disclosed. The liner was last refurbished (by P&O AU) in 2017 and scheduled for refurbishment in 2021 April. Pacific Aria was sold in mid-October 2020.
• A total of 14x Pacific Dawn cruise itineraries (departures planned for the period December 4 through February 11 including) were canceled. For these last-scheduled by P&O AU voyages see at the ship's Wiki section .

The new shipowner Ocean Builders (via the Panama-based company Wake Asset Co Ltd) reconstructed Pacific Dawn into a residential ship ("Crypto Cruise Ship") and renamed it "MS Satoshi". Prior to the Transatlantic repositioning crossing from Europe to Panama, the ship entered drydock at Gibdock Shipyard ( Gibraltar ).

Starting November 5, 2020, the first 100 (of the ship's total 777) staterooms were opened for purchase, with prices ranging between USD 25-50,000. Short-term stateroom rentals are also available. The auction for the first 100 staterooms/apartments ended on November 28.

The vessel's name honored Satoshi Nakamoto (Bitcoin's creator).

Ocean Builders company's CEO is Chad Elwartkowski. The "Crypto Cruise Ship" project generally targeted Bitcoin enthusiasts. The ship was marketed as a floating residence where payments (in all onboard shops and restaurants) can be made in BitCoins, in addition to conventional currencies. The access to the off-coast drifting MS Satoshi was intended to be via a 30-min ferry ride from Panama City . Some of the privately-owned staterooms on the liner were opened for rent as living accommodations or business offices.

In May 2021 was announced that the new brand "Ambassador Cruise Line" (UK-based company, with headquarters in Purfleet-on-Thames, Essex England) is the new operator of the renamed "MS Ambience" liner. Ambassador Cruise Line targets the UK source market exclusively, trying to take the place of the popular CMV-Cruise And Maritime Voyages (2009-founded, 2020- defunct ).

•  Ambassador Cruise Line's President and CEO is Christian Verhounig (Owner and CEO of CVI Group Ltd). The company's executive managers also include Phil Gardner (CCO-Chief Commercial Officer), Matthias Seeger (CFO-Chief Financial Officer), Nick Hughes (COO-Chief Operating Officer).
• The shipowner CVI Group Ltd is a London City-based company incorporated on August 18, 2020, with first statement date August 17, 2021.
• In late-August 2020 was announced that CVI Group acquired/purchased some of the CMV assets, including websites, intellectual property, and customer databases.

On the above photo is also shown floating "SeaPod homes" planned by Ocean Builders for MS Satoshi ship's residents and guests.

On November 18, 2020, the 29-year-old MS Satoshi left Malta en route to Gibraltar UK (arrived on November 23) where was drydock renovated (including repainting the hull and superstructure) at Gibdock Shipyard. The vessel's permanent deployment in Panama started in December 2020 as it remained at anchorage (off Colon ) through February 2021.

On February 23 started the Transatlantic crossing from Panama to Europe (Colon to Valetta Malta ). The ship arrived in Malta (for bunkering) on March 24 and docked at Port Bar (Montenegro) on March 27. According to rumors, MS Satoshi was resold to a new cruise company (not revealed at the time) which plans to start operations in 2021-Q3.

The 1900-passenger ship Ambience was designed by Renzo Piano (Italian architect). The vessel is interesting for providing connections between most staterooms (making it a great choice for families and group/party travelers). Following Pacific Dawn's drydock 2017, the ship now features the enormous Big Screen (outdoor theater / midship on Sundeck), new Aqua Park (waterpark with a dual-waterslide / aft on Sundeck), The Pantry (buffet-style market with fresh-food outlets), redesigned Atrium (decks 5-6-7), fully-renovated bars, lounges and wellness facilities.

Ambassador Cruise Line Ambience ship's max passenger capacity (1915) is limited to 1400, which as space ratio makes her comparable to many luxury cruise ships.

Decks and Cabins

Ambassador Ambience staterooms (total 798, in 27 grades) include 50x Suites, 134x Balcony, 436x Oceanview and 178x Inside cabins. Most staterooms are 190-ft2 (18 m2) and nearly 25% have private balconies. The largest passenger accommodations (Balcony Suites) are sized 560 ft2 (52 m2).

• Two-Room Deluxe Suites (52 m2) have private step-out balcony, twin beds (convertible to double), single sofabed (for 3rd passenger), separate bedroom-lounge. One Suite is wheelchair-accessible.
• Junior Suites (35 m2) have private step-out balcony, twin beds (convertible to double), double sofabed (rollaway bed). Two Junior Suites are wheelchair-accessible.
• Sized 20 m2 are categories 14 (Superior Balcony), 15 (Superior Plus Balcony) and 16 (Premium Twin Balcony).
• Most oceanview cabins are with twin beds (convertible to double bed), some have 3rd-4th upper beds (bunks). Some outside cabins are wheelchair-accessible and some are interconnecting.
• All interior cabins are with two single beds (lower twins) convertible to a double bed (Queen-size) plus 3ird-4th upper beds (bunks). Some inside cabins are wheelchair-accessible and some are interconnecting. Most Premium Twin Inner (category 4) cabins are double-occupancy (convertible twin beds).

Standard cabin amenities include an en-suite bathroom (WC-toilet, curtain shower, single-sink vanity, toiletries), bedside cabinets (4-drawer), wall-mounted reading lamps, individually-controlled air-conditioning, mirrored dressing table (writing desk with chair and lamp), smart HDTV (satellite reception), seating area (armchair with a coffee table), wardrobe, electronic safe box (in the closet), moquette flooring. Balcony furniture consists of 2 deckchairs and a low table).

The boat has 13 decks , of which 11 are passenger-accessible and 7 with cabins.

Pacific Dawn shipboard dining (Food and Drinks)

Sophisticated and various food is available onboard Pacific Dawn. The buffet restaurant, a la carte main dining room, and The Grill give a chance to choose from. For a little fee, passengers can sense the flavors of Asia with an 8-course banquet at La Luna or, dine in style at celebrity chef restaurant Salt grill by Luke Mangan. Back by popular demand are favorites, such as the exclusive 14-seat Chef's Table. The Waterfront Restaurant (main dining room) continues to serve classic Australian dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in a stylish setting.

Follows the complete list of Pacific Dawn restaurants and food bars.

• Waterfront Restaurant (open-seating dining room; each of all three dining rooms on Pacific Dawn is operated with "Your Choice Dining" (a la carte) menus for breakfast and lunch, and offers a 4-course dinner menu. Tables seat up to 10 guests. Dining times vary according to sea/port days)
• Part of the Waterfront restaurant is the "Wine Room" with cases of wine and Champagne bottles on display. The Wine Room also serves PO Cruises Australia's "Chef's Table" experience (specialty dining venue with gourmet private dining and tour of the galley)
• Salt Grill (reservations-only specialty restaurant via a partnership with Australian celebrity chef Luke Mangan)
• The Pantry (self-service buffet restaurant with several fresh-food outlets and an open-air terrace) replaced the traditional Lido Buffet "Plantation Restaurant". The Pantry's features are the new restaurants "Nic and Toni's" (Mediterranean cuisine) and "Shell and Bones" (seafood). The "Shell and Bones Seafood and Grill" is part of "The Pantry" (food market) and is complimentary during the day. In the evenings, it transforms into a la carte-priced restaurant. The seafood menu features popular Australian dishes, like Singaporean Chili Crab (from Queensland) and Steamed Blue Mussels with Wine (from South Australia), The daily grill bar menu offers items like Slow-cooked Beef Short Ribs, Portuguese-style roast chicken, also vegetarian options.
• The Luna room (Asian-cuisine banquets; features Japanese and Thai specialties); The Grill (lido BBQ)
• The "Shell and Bones" (a la carte pricing) is open daily between 5:30-9 pm. The menu features dishes like Portuguese-style roast chicken, Singapore-style crab (US$25), hot seafood extravaganza (US$50 for 2). Sides like garlic bread, potato wedges, and grilled corn cobettes are complimentary as are the kids' options of fish fingers or seafood party plate. One dessert is only offered: apple and rhubarb crumble with New Zealand Natural ice cream (US$9) designed to share.

Pacific Dawn shipboard entertainment (Fun and Sport)

Daytime activities range from whiskey tastings and martini mixology classes to quilling and salsa dance classes. Passengers can find karaoke, bingo, and trivia almost every day. The daily itinerary on sea days is packed with activities. The big-screen on the pool deck proved to be a big hit and is largely used for broadcasting full-length concerts, live sports, and movies. Major international sporting events are also shown (such as the FIFA World Cup). Evening entertainment is standard cruise ship fare with a mix of guest entertainers and Broadway-style production shows. For kids, innovative activity clubs include Turtle Cove (ages 3-6-yo), Shark Shack (ages 7-10-yo) and HQ for teens. Adults can relax in the child-free Oasis on ship's top deck, while all ages enjoy the swimming pool on Lido deck and the adventures of the P&OEdge program, held all over Dawn, with a climbing course on the funnel and a zip line across the top deck.

In January 2022, Ambassador Cruise Line signed with The Peel Entertainment Group (Skipton, North Yorkshire England-based agency) a 5-year partnership deal (though 2027) to provide the onboard entertainment on the Ambience ship.

Follows the complete list of Pacific Dawn lounges, bars, clubs and other entertainment venues for kids, teens, and adults.

• Pacific Dawn Atrium (3-decks central open floor area and social hub)
• Charlie's Bar; The Orient bar (English pub); Promenade Bar; MIX (specialty cocktails bar); The Cafe; Lido Pool Bar
• Essentials Store; Tax and Duty-Free Shops; PANDORA shop (jewelry); Aqua Hut (snorkeling equipment)
• The Marquee Theatre is a 2-decks show lounge hosting large-scale production shows, magic and stand-up comedy acts in the evenings. During the day, the Theater hosts Jackpot bingo games, live performances (musical- and gameshows), trivia quizzes, enrichment lectures (guest speakers, craft tutors), theatrical plays.
• Wine Room (boutique winery)
• The Big Screen (outdoor LED screen for movies, show programs, sports games)
• The Dome Bar (indoor observation lounge with floor-ceiling windows, large dance floor, and a full-service bar; transforms into a disco nightclub in the evenings)
• Players Bar and Casino, Techno Store
• Expressions Studio (Photo Gallery and Shop); Art Gallery; The Library; Internet Cafe
• The Oasis (adults-only relaxation complex)
• Promenade (deck 7), 2 pools, 4 jacuzzis
• Aqua HealthSpaFitness (Wellness Centre with Day Spa, Thermal Suites, Fitness Centre with a separate room for classes, Massage Rooms, Aqua Beauty Salon)
• Teen- and Kids club lounges (offering complimentary activities by P&O youth program: "Turtle Cove"; "Shark Shack"; "HQ" lounge; "HQ+" teen lounge)
• P&OEdge Adventure Park experience ("high adrenalin" program with 20 different activities, such as climbing, jumping, racing, flying on ropes)
• Jogging Track; Traditional deck games area (Deck Chess, Deck Quoits, Shuffleboard); Sports Court (basketball, volleyball, tennis); Table Tennis; Golf Nets.
• On its top deck, the ship has an Aqua Park.

CMV Amy Johnson ship facilities and amenities

Follows the review of CMV Amy Johnson cruise ship facilities and onboard amenities.

The "Waterfront Restaurant" is the dining room which operates with open-seating and a la carte menus ("Your Choice Dining") for breakfast and lunch, and offers a 4-course dinner menu. Tables seats from 2 to 10 guests. Dining Room times vary (sea / port days): Breakfast (7:30-9:30 / 7-9am), Lunch (12-2pm), Dinner (5:30-9:30pm).

Part of Waterfront Restaurant is the "Wine Room". It serves the CMV line's "Chef's Table" dinner package. The "Chef's Table" is a gourmet private dining package for up to 14 guests (surcharge PP apply, reservations required), inclusive of a cocktail reception, canapes by the Columbus ship's Executive Chef, and a tour of the galley.

"The Grill" is a specialty restaurant (surcharges PP) run by celebrity chef Luke Mangan (reservations-only, closed on port days).

The "Pantry Restaurant" is the lido buffet restaurant. Dining times here vary (sea / port days): breakfast (6:30-11am / 6-11am), lunch (11:30am-2:30pm / 11:30am-3pm), and dinner (5-9pm).

The "Fusion" room is an Asian-cuisine specialty restaurant annex (cover charges PP apply). Fusion's menu features Japanese and Thai food specialties.

"The Palladium Show Lounge" is a 2-decks high theatre hosting large-scale show productions in the evenings with live music, magic, and comedy performances by guest entertainers. The daily program here has Jackpot bingo games and trivia quizzes. The Palladium Bar serves the theatre and the foyer area.

"Jade HealthSpaFitness" (wellness complex) that consists of Spa (Sauna, Steam Rooms), Gym (with modern equipment, also offering personal trainers on Yoga, Pilates and fitness classes), Massage Rooms (facials, scrubs, reflexology, acupuncture, spa massages, aaa), Jade Beauty Salon (hairdresser and barber services - cutting, styling, colouring, conditioning treatments, blow-dry, brow and lash treatments, shaving, also waxing, manicure, pedicure, teeth-whitening, botox, aaa).

Thermal Suites are accessed via single passes and unlimited passes (throughout the cruise). The 10-20-30 Thermal Suite deals allow choosing 3 signature treatments with a 10% discount off the first treatment, 20% off the 2nd, and 30% off the 3rd.

The Gym has 5 treadmills, 3 stationary bikes, and 3 stair runners with 1 each of the following machines: leg pull down, leg extension, leg press, weight bench, multi-press, lower back, and abdominal. Professional training staff holds individual and group classes.

Medical Centre is Amy Johnson ship's hospital, operated by resident doctors and nurses on 24-hour duty. Payments are made by the CMV boarding pass (treatments equivalent to a private doctor's visit). Buying cruise health insurance is recommended.

CMV Amy Johnson ship's Atrium is a 3-deck high open-floor design area with live music and show entertainment. The Lobby level is served by the Hemmingway's Bar (portside lobby bar serving the foyer).

Reception Desk provides 24-hour guest services, assistance, information, purser).

Shore Excursions' Office (open between 10:30 am - 1 pm, and 3 - 6 pm) is for shore excursions booking and provides information on Cruise Maritime tours offered in ports of calls along the Columbus cruise itineraries.

Future Cruise Sales office allows discount booking of CMV cruise deals while on the ship.

Meeting Room

Part of the Atrium is the ship's "Tax & Duty-Free Shops" / Shopping Galleria. These shops sell liquor, tobaccos, brand cosmetics, perfumes, fashion clothes and accessories, luxury jewelry and watches at duty-free prices (up to 40% off their retail prices).

The Atrium's upper level served by the Ocean Bar. Ocean Bar provides a home-like environment and is furnitured with comfortable lounges and small coffee tables. Ocean Bar is designed to be the living room of the ship. Armchair aerobics, trivia, and word games are also held here. At 7:30 p.m. live music starts and guests can partake of the selection of wine, beers on tap, and cocktails.

Also part of this Atrium level is the "Raffles" bar serving premium cocktails.

Casino Royale has limited seating, offers off-shore gambling on roulette/blackjack tables and poker machines, and complimentary casino gaming lessons for beginners.

The "Trumps & Aces" club (kids 3-6 yo, must be toilet-trained) has toys, educational games, and kids fun activities supervised by certified staff. In the "Trumps & Aces," there is a Nursery Room where babysitting service is available between 10:30 pm-1 am (charges apply). The list of activities here includes arts/crafts, music, cartoons, parties, "Sleepyheads Storytime" (storytelling).

The "Crafters Studio" club (kids 7-10 yo) offers as activities arts-crafts, movies, scavenger hunts, pirate games, iPad learning, PS and Nintendo gaming consoles, themed parties, air hockey, table tennis, sports tournaments, karaoke, talent shows, kids-only dinners held in the Waterfront Restaurant.

The "Photo Gallery" area, with the "Expressions Studio" for professional video-photo services.

"The Internet Cafe" has a limited seating and several Internet computers (charges per minute apply, Internet packages start from 100 mins)

"The Orient" bar is an English pub bar with a nice selection of local and international beers.

Livingstone Library offers staff assistance between 9 - 11 am and 3 - 5 pm. This is a quiet room furnished with antique leather sofas and chairs. It has a nice selection of books (all in English), newspapers, jigsaw puzzles, popular board games.

Taverners' Pub is an English pub bar with a nice selection of local and international beers.

"The Oasis" retreat, served by Oasis Bar (aft-location, lower level 1 of 2) is an adults-only outdoor relaxation area with premium sun loungers, couches, and deck chairs. It has for decoration fake plants, 2 hot tubs (on the lower level), and a bar serving drinks.

"Cappuccino's" bar serves the pool area with light snacks and drinks.

Amy Johnson's ship's pool area has 2 large swimming pools (the forward one is adults-only) and 2 hot tubs. The area is served by the Lido Pool Bar, "Alfresco Grill" (complimentary fast food choices with AU BBQ fare /charges apply at dinner, after 5 pm) and an Ice Cream Bar "Gallato's" (charges apply; offers "New Zealand Natural" ice cream, including the CMV's "Choc Hokey Pokey" flavour). In the evenings, here are organized open-air deck parties.

"The Dome" - an indoor observation lounge during the day, covered with a glass roof. This lounge has ample seating, a large dance floor, a full-service bar, and floor-ceiling panoramic windows for 180-degree seaport and ocean views. Late in the evenings (after 10:30 pm), The Dome becomes a disco nightclub.

There is a Walking/Jogging Track and Deck Games: area (quoits, giant chessboard, golf putting green, shuffleboard).

The ship's "Big Screen" is a large-size outdoor LED screen for movies, live sports games (including NRL/AFL), and show programs. There is a stage for live music and show performances, including the "Pacific Cirque" show.

The Sun Deck also has the CMV Active Studio with outdoor sporting equipment for unique open-air activities, such as bow-ladder- and funnel climbing, trampoline jumping, net racing, Bouncing Bridge, racing through the ship, and even flying on ropes around the Atrium area.

Itineraries

Ambience ship's itinerary program started with the inaugural season in 2022 April. The Maiden Voyage was initially planned for April 6th (4-night short break roundtrip from homeport Tilbury-London to Hamburg ). However, due to "supply chain disruptions" caused by the Ukrainian crisis, the brand's launch/Ambience ship's inauguration was eventually rescheduled for April 20th (4-night roundtrip from Tilbury-London to Hamburg) and two Norwegian Fjords voyages were canceled (Apr 10th and 16th).

The season included British Isles and Baltic itineraries (including Norwegian Fjords, Arctic, Scandinavia and Russia/St Petersburg), Faroes Islands, Iceland, Canary Islands, Mediterranean, Black Sea, Transatlantic crossings (roundtrip from the UK) to Canada and the Caribbean.

• The inaugural season included a total of 33x itineraries and 88x ports in Northern Europe, Greenland, and Iceland. For winter 2022 are scheduled roundtrips from the UK (Tilbury) to the Canary Islands, Caribbean (including Cuba), Cape Verde Islands.
• Prices started from GBP 850 per person with double occupancy (~EUR 990 / ~USD 1190 pp) for a 7-night ex-UK roundtrip European voyage.
• All Ambassador voyages are roundtrips from Tilbury-London. The company doesn't offer fly-cruise deals.

Ambassador Cruise Line listed its 2021-2022 program in May and opened the itineraries for booking on June 4, 2021.

In mid-May 2022 was announced MS Ambience's "Grand Round the World Cruise" (120-night itinerary roundtrip from Tilbury) as well as 6x UK homeports for the boat - Newcastle Port Tyne , Liverpool , Avonmouth-Bristol , Falmouth , Dundee Scotland , Belfast Northern Ireland .

Ambassador Cruise Line's inaugural schedule 2022

MS Ambience's schedule 2022 included the following itineraries (length/theme/departure date) all of which are roundtrips from Tilbury :

• 4-night "MAIDEN VOYAGE TO HAMBURG" (Apr 6)
• 6-night "A TASTE OF FJORDLAND" (Apr 10)
• 8-night "MAJESTIC EASTER FJORDLAND" (Apr 16)
• 7-night "SPRINGTIME FJORDLAND" (Apr 24)
• 11-night "BRITISH ISLES DISCOVERY" (May 1)
• 14-night "BALTIC TREASURES and ST PETERSBURG" (May 12)
• 12-night "ROUND BRITAIN and QUEEN'S PLATINUM JUBILEE CELEBRATION" (May 26)
• 14-night "LAND OF ICE and FIRE" (June 7)
• 21-night "ARCTIC VOYAGE TO GREENLAND & ICELAND" (June 21)
• 11-night "BRITISH ISLES DISCOVERY" (July 12)
• 14-night "BALTIC TREASURES and ST. PETERSBURG" (July 23)
• 7-night "SUMMERTIME FJORDLAND" (August 6)
• 12-night "ICELAND, FAROES & EDINBURGH FESTIVAL" (Aug 13)
• 7-night "SUMMERTIME FJORDLAND" (Aug 25)
• 11-night "BRITISH ISLES DISCOVERY" (September 1)
• 34-night Transatlantic "GRAND CANADA, GREENLAND and ICELAND EXPERIENCE" (Sept 12)
• 7-night "AUTUMN FJORDLAND" (October 16)
• 32-night "GRAND BLACK SEA and MEDITERRANEAN" (Oct 23)
• 15-night "CANARIES, MADEIRA and MOROCCO WINTER SUN" (November 24)
• 5-night mini-cruise "GERMAN CHRISTMAS MARKETS" (December 11)
• 3-night mini-cruise "FESTIVE MARKET GETAWAY" (Dec 18)
• 15-night "CHRISTMAS and NEW YEAR CANARY ISLANDS" (Dec 21)

P&O Pacific Dawn itineraries

Pacific Dawn itinerary program was based on Australia cruises leaving roundtrip from homeports Brisbane (Queensland) and Melbourne (Victoria Australia) . The voyages were themed as "South Pacific Islands" (Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia), Great Barrier Reef, cruises to nowhere and short breaks to Queensland port and island destinations.

CMV Amy Johnson inaugural cruise itineraries 2021 (CANCELLED)

CMV Amy Johnson ship's inaugural cruise (repositioning voyage) was scheduled for April 15, 2021, leaving from Singapore to Tilbury-London . The 43-night westbound itinerary (Asia to Europe-UK) included transition through Suez Canal . Fares started from GBP 3400 (EUR 4020 / USD 4400) per person with double occupancy.

CMV ship's inaugural cruise season was to officially start from London-Tilbury on October 9 (2021) with the 32-night "Black Sea and Mediterranean" (maiden voyage) visiting ports in Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Israel, Egypt, Malta, Sicily, Gibraltar, Spain. Fares started from GBP 2240 (EUR 2650 / USD 2900) per person with double occupancy. For these maiden voyages (all canceled) as call ports and times see in the ship's Wiki section .

CMV Amy Johnson had to start operations in 2021 with 3 roundtrips from homeport Tilbury-London visiting Europe's Arctic (Norway), Iceland and Greenland. Departure dates were scheduled for:

• June 20, 2021 (22-day itinerary "Arctic Voyage Greenland and Iceland Experience") with overnight in Reykjavik Iceland
• July 22, 2021 (38-day itinerary "Grand Arctic Voyage to Greenland, Spitsbergen and Iceland) visiting visit to Spitsbergen Island
• August 7 (22-day itinerary "Arctic Voyage Greenland and Iceland Experience") with overnight in Rotterdam Holland . The visit to Rotterdam (Aug 28) coincides with the CMV Fleet Parade and the "Rotterdam Regatta 2021".

Ambience - user reviews and comments

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Ambience wiki.

The Fincantieri Monfalcone -built ship Pacific Dawn (hull/yard number 5840) started operations under the name "Regal Princess" in 1991. The vessel was initially operated by Princess Cruises (between 1991-2007) when it was transferred to P&O Australia's fleet, renamed "Pacific Dawn" (on Nov 8, 2007, following an extensive drydock refurbishment ) and homeported in Brisbane QLD (leaving from port Hamilton, Queensland Australia). The vessel was launched (floated out from drydock) on March 29, 1990, delivered on July 20, 1991, and christened (as Regal Princess) on August 8 in NYC New York by godmother Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013, UK's Prime Minister in the period 1979-1990).

By design, Pacific Dawn is sistership to Pacific Jewel (MS Karnika) and similar to Pacific Pearl (CMV Columbus) and Crown Princess .

The ship has volume 70285 GT-tons, weight 7002 tons, max width 36 m/118 ft, max draft 8,1 m/26 ft. The powerplant is based on two MAN marine diesel engines (model 8L58/64) with total output 38,88 MW.

For P&O Australia, the vessel (IMO 8521232) was UK- flagged (MMSI number 235059368). Pacific Dawn's itineraries offered Queensland roundtrips to South Pacific Islands ("Pacific Island Hopper" itinerary to Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Espiritu Santo), also to Papua New Guinea and several Australian ports. The list of visited destinations featured Queensland, Great Barrier Reef ( Willis Island ) and Moreton Island (on short breaks). Pacific Dawn's Cruises to Nowhere were specially-themed Australian roundtrips (with no additional ports of call along the route). These short breaks were usually themed "Food and Wine", "Music" (various styles/performers), "Comedy", "Sports". P&O Australia "cruises to nowhere" prices are inclusive of all special activities and themed entertainment on the ship, including classes and workshops, lectures, presentations, guest performances, theme parties.

In early-July 2020, CMV UK (Cruise & Maritime Voyages) announced that the company's new flagship Amy Johnson (Pacific Dawn) cruises for season 2021 were already 50% sold. Bookings made through July 31, 2020, benefitted from CMV's buy-one-get-one-free cruise promo.

Between March-October 2021 the ship remained docked at Port Bar Montenegro . On October 14, 2021, the boat (as Satoshi) entered Viktor Lenac Shipyard ( Rijeka Croatia ) for an extensive drydock refurbishment, scheduled for completion in February 2022. The refit had planned installations of new machinery (equipment, wastewater treatment plant, water purification system, ballast water, scrubbers) as well as maintenance works and recertification.

MS Ambience ship's Maiden Voyage and Ambassador Cruise Line's inauguration in 2022 was rescheduled from April 6th to April 20th (4-night itinerary roundtrip from London-Tilbury to Hamburg ). The brand's inaugural season was based on European deployments (7- to 14-night itineraries) visiting ports in the UK/British Isles, Baltic, Norway/Norwegian Fjords, Iceland, Mediterranean.

Ambassador Ambience's Master is Captain Hugh Maynard (born in Maldon, Essex England UK), whose maritime career started in 1979 as an assistant steward.

On March 31, 2022, Ambassador Cruise Line announced that the Ambience ship will be named by godmother Sally Jane Janet Gunnell (1966-born British track and field athlete/active between 1984-97). Sally Gunnell joined the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire/order of chivalry in 1993 (MBE-Member) and in 1998 (OBE-Officer). In 2011, she was appointed West Sussex's Deputy Lieutenant.

The christening ceremony was held on April 19th, at Port Tilbury, and attended by Christian Verhounig (Ambassador's CEO) as well as 500+ VIP guests, including media representatives, travel agents, company partners, suppliers.

In May 2023, MAN Diesel & Turbo France SAS (subsidiary of MAN Energy Solutions) retrofitted Ambassador Ambience ship's diesel engines. The MAN PrimeServ contract included installing a Selective Catalytic Reduction system (reducing NOx emissions by ~90%) and replacing both engines' turbocharger units with the new MAN TCA 66 turbochargers.

Ambassador Ambience refurbishment 2023

The ship's last drydock was in 2023 (initially scheduled for the period November 18 through December 10) and conducted by Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven GmbH (in Bremerhaven Germany ).

The drydocking project included routine maintenance works, propeller shaft repairs, hull cleaning and painting, technical overhaul and machinery upgrades (including new propeller shaft seals), as well as classification inspections.

The routine inspections found that the ship's propeller shafts and their stern bearings were damaged (by metal grinding) risking oil leaking/pollution. The damaged parts (each propeller shaft is 20 m/66ft long and weighs 30+ tons) were shipped to a Danish company specializing in metal repairs. As the emergency repairs required more time, the prolonged drydocking affected the ship's remaining 2023 schedule. As a result, four voyages were canceled and Ambassador Cruise Line switched MS Ambience’s schedule to MS Ambition.

MS Ambiance resumed operations (Grand Around the World Cruise 2024) on January 6th.

"Grand Round The World Cruise 2024"

The next table shows the Ambassador Cruise Line's maiden Grand Voyage (2024) which was scheduled for the Ambience ship.

There were two roundtrip ex-Europe itineraries (both with duration 120 days) - out of England (London-Tilbury, Jan 6 thru May 5) and out of Holland (Rotterdam, Jan 7 thru May 6).

Grand Voyage 2024 was also available in smaller segments:

• 43-day from Rotterdam to Auckland
• 76-day from Auckland to London-Tilbury
• 71-day from Sydney to London-Tilbury
• 55-day from Singapore to London-Tilbury
• 30-day from Cape Town to London-Tilbury

Pacific Dawn refurbishment 2017 review

The list of deck plan changes after the ship's 2017 drydock refurbishment in Singapore (February 19 - March 15) included:

• new Aqua Park (state-of-the-art waterpark on its top deck)
• On Lido Deck 12, The Pantry (a buffet-style marketplace with several fresh-food outlets) replaced the traditional Lido Buffet restaurant "Plantation Restaurant". The Pantry's features include the new Mediterranean cuisine "Nic & Toni's" and the new seafood restaurant "Shell & Bones".
• The "Shell & Bones Seafood & Grill" is part of "The Pantry" (aft-located buffet-style food market) and is complimentary during the day. In the evenings, it transforms into a la carte-priced restaurant. The seafood menu features popular Australian dishes, like Singaporean Chili Crab (from Queensland) and Steamed Blue Mussels with Wine (from South Australia), The daily grill bar menu offers items like Slow-cooked Beef Short Ribs, Portuguese-style roast chicken, also vegetarian options.
• On Deck 14 was installed a dual waterslide.

During the extensive drydock in Singapore, the following lounges and venues on Pacific Dawn were redesigned - the Atrium areas (midship on decks 5-6-7), Charlie's Bar (deck 5), The Orient bar (deck 7), The Dome Bar Lounge (deck 14), Pool Cafe (deck 12), Promenade Bar (deck 7), Techno Store, Lobby Reception, Spa.

MS Pacific Dawn's last P&O Australia cruises 2020-2021 (CANCELED)

Next tables show the ship's last-scheduled by P&O AU itineraries, all of which were canceled following the vessel's sale in October 2020.

(2020) 3-day " Cruise to Nowhere " (Comedy-themed)

(2020) 7-day "A Taste Of Tasmania"

(2020) 5-day "Southern Getaway"

(2020) 8-day "Christmas Cruise"

(2020) 11-day "New Year's Eve Cruise"

(2021) 5-day "A Taste Of Tasmania"

(2021) 12-day "Discover Vanuatu"

(2021) 4-day "Australia Day Cruise"

(2021) 4-day to Kangaroo Island from Melbourne

(2021) 3-day relocation from Melbourne to Brisbane

(2021) 17-day repositioning from Melbourne to Singapore

(2021) 14-day repositioning from Brisbane to Singapore

CMV Amy Johnson Inaugural Cruise 2021

Next are listed the ship's first for CMV cruises - one repositioning itinerary (from Asia to Europe) and one roundtrip from the UK.

43-day relocation from Singapore to Tilbury-London

32-day "Grand Black Sea and Mediterranean" cruise roundtrip from Tilbury-London

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True blue: Inside Australia’s new P&O ship Pacific Dawn

When P&O’s Pacific Dawn sailed into Brisbane for the first time this morning, it strutted a fresh look. Take a peek on board.

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When P&O’s Pacific Dawn sailed in to Brisbane this morning, it strutted a fresh look — which remarkably took less than two weeks to achieve.

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With less than 24 hours to go before the Pacific Dawn set sail for Australia, the grand lady of the seas was in a bit of a mess. Boxes of furniture and framed prints sat unpacked, plastic stretched over much of the public floor area and walls, and one of the ship’s two new waterparks remained in pieces on the floor of the lido deck.

P&O senior vice-president of guest experience, Peter Little, could not have been less concerned.

The cruise ship employee of 25 years’ experience had seen it all before — and knew the 700-plus workers toiling around the clock would have the Dawn shipshape before she sailed.

They did it with the Pacific Aria and the Pacific Eden — the same 12 to 13-day turnaround in which the vessels were serviced at the Singapore shipyard and refurbished almost from top-to-bottom.

“If you compare that with a hotel and the length of time it takes to do a hotel renovation, 12 to 13 days is a phenomenal achievement,” observed Little.

And they did it again with the Pacific Dawn — an incredible 18,000sq m of new carpet laid, more than 3000 pieces of new and reupholstered furniture put into position, 1500 artworks and accessories hung and 500 new signs added.

The new look atrium with a fresh green and white trim was designed to remind guests of their marine adventure, said P&O head of design Petra Ryberg.

Bespoke upholstery gave a designer feel in the beautifully reworked The Orient bar, and “angry ocean” wall paint conjured up a sultry atmosphere in The Cafe.

Sea shells and ocean-themed carpets and rugs abound in other public spaces including The Pantry — P&O’s new take on the traditional cruise ship buffet.

A collection of international food outlets where guests are served the meal of their choice, The Pantry had divided passengers — some of whom were not so impressed about the removal of their beloved buffet.

But Little was confident they would come around when they saw the lack of queuing and high quality of the meals delivered.

“There’s less food waste, there’s less queuing, it’s more hygienic (with a sneeze shelf installed) and the presentation is better,” said Little.

“And guests are not limited to one (meal) selection. They can try things from different ‘shopfronts’.”

The extra staff required were taken from other areas of the ship to ensure swift, efficient service.

An up-market seafood restaurant Shell and Bones and Nic and Toni’s capped off the modernised catering on board, complimented by a New Zealand Ice Cream outlet, and Charlie’s Bar with two barista-operated coffee machines.

“Overall the ship has a much more modern look and feel than when it came in which we think is going to work really well for the guests,” Little said.

It was all part of a “reset” for the Australian P&O fleet designed to position the brand as modern, stylish and family friendly — and most of all, true blue.

“The ships look stylish but they’re relaxed. We’re not creating a six-star environment,” Little said.

“We’re delivering the guests a modern, stylish, relaxed setting that you would expect to see if you were on holidays ashore.”

After food and beverage, entertainment topped guests’ wish lists and P&O had significantly expanded on-board activities to more than 60 a day.

Rock-wall climbing, trampolining, segueways and walk the plank were among the top attractions but they might now have to take a back seat to the addition of two waterparks.

One was designed for fairly young children, while the other is a construction any theme park would love to have.

Two slides in excess of 80m winding down the side of the ship. One features disco music and coloured streaks and the other is translucent so onlookers can watch sliders shooting through the tube.

“Our guests tell us they want more activities and more choice and it’s just another activity that can appeal to a very broad spectrum, young or old,” Little revealed.

“In the market we’re operating in, we feel that waterslides are a fantastic addition for the guests and the enjoyment of their time on board.”

A similar embellishment was planned for Pacific Explorer, which will sail out of Sydney from June, but Little was undecided whether waterparks were the right fit for Aria and Eden .

“We’ve got those ships positioned slightly differently to these family based ships,” he said.

In another first, Pacific Dawn became the first in the fleet to be emblazoned with P&O’s new Aussie livery — marking her as true blue.

The Southern Cross symbol would eventually be added to all the ships in the fleet, following in the tradition of the company’s UK ships which carry the Union Jack on their bow.

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Pacific Dawn

Based in Brisbane, Pacific Dawn was refurbished in 2014 and was the first to showcase P&O’s new look. Aside from the new colors of navy and white and the “Like No Place on Earth” tagline, Dawn received new public spaces, restaurants, upgraded cabins and even an Edge Adventure Park, which offers fun stuff like rock-climbing, zip-lines, a funnel climb, and more. With a capacity to carry more than 2,000 passengers and a largely Australian clientele, Dawn finds a perfect balance between being a party cruise and a family-oriented ship. In true Aussie fashion, the dress code is mostly casual, although dressing up is encouraged in cocktail nights, and for the themed parties (a staple on P&O cruises).

[fa type=”bed”] Accommodation

The last two makeovers Pacific Dawn went through gave major improvements to its accommodation, including the addition of 20 family-friendly connecting cabins, along with upgrades to the suites and mini-suites. It has more than 795 cabins, 171 of which are insides, 440 are outsides, and 134 have private balconies. The ship also has 36 mini-suites and 14 suites. All cabins have hair dryers, safes, bedside tables, telephones and the other usual room amenities. TV sizes vary by room category, and have a range of movies and channels. Since 2014, improved in-room services include the addition of express ironing and shoe-shining. Higher-category rooms and suites are more spacious, and have increasing levels of luxurious room additions. The overall room decor is easy on the eyes and artwork adorns the walls.

[fa type=”cutlery”] Food

The Waterfront restaurant, refurbished in 2014, is Dawn’s main dining room. Breakfast is served from 7.30-9pm and features an extensive selection on the menu. Lunch is from noon to 2pm, with a menu of seven entrees and 11 choices for dessert. Dinner is from 5.30-9pm, with a menu that changes nightly, except for the six “all-time favorites”. Guests who wish to dine casually can do so at the Plantation restaurant, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner buffet-style. The restaurant within a restaurant, Luna, is found inside the Plantation and serves dinner only, with a menu that changes cuisine throughout the cruise. Salt Grill, created by celebrity chef Luke Mangan, offers a fine-dining experience for dinner, and opens for lunch on the last two days of the cruise. Room service is available 24 hours a day.

[fa type=”ticket”] Activities

Pacific Dawn has the Aqua Spa on deck 2, equipped with a luxurious Thermal Suite VIP area, which has a sauna, steam room, heated ceramic beds and tropic shower. The Aqua Spa also offers different massages (including a couples’ massage), facials, men’s barbering services and youth-enhancing treatments. The fitness room is outfitted with weight and aerobic equipment, and has professional staff available to teach different classes such as yoga and Pilates. Guests must be 16 years or above to use the gym equipment. Others can use the jogging track on the top deck.

[fa type=”group”] Families

Pacific Dawn is definitely geared towards being a family-friendly ship, with interconnecting cabins and enough activities to keep kids and teens busy on a daily basis. At Turtle Cove and the Shark Shack, the kids can enjoy activities like face painting, arts and crafts, story time, fun games and more. Kids under three can enter as long as they’re accompanied by a parent. The joint room for HQ and HQ+ on deck 14 is the venue for teens to hang out and have fun, and is outfitted the latest consoles and video games, a jukebox and a lounge area. In-cabin babysitting is offered on board for ages 10 and below.

Dawn is aimed at passengers who want to have a fun-filled cruise; entertainment is a fundamental aspect on the ship, with multiple facilities and an excellent staff who work very hard to please.

– Cruise Passenger 

“A fun ship, especially for families, but expect to pay extra for some activities”

– Cruise Critic 

– Berlitz

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Pacific Dawn deck

Pacific Dawn has a passenger capacity of 1,950, served by 700 staff/crew. The easy-going nature of Australian cruisers is evident in the casual daytime dress code where swimwear and T-shirts are the norm. However, everyone likes to get dressed up and at night “smart casual” is expected in restaurants and public lounges. Special cocktail nights remain a feature of Dawn cruises, with women and men dressed to suit the occasion. Cruising on Pacific Dawn provides a popular mix of tradition and modernity. Pacific Dawn has 11 passenger decks, 4 restaurants, 2 swimming pools and 4 jacuzzies.

Pacific Dawn upper deck

Cabins on Pacific Dawn

When launched in 1991, Pacific Dawn would have wowed passengers with a generous number of balcony cabins – 184 out of the total 795 cabins. By today’s cruising standards this isn’t a lot of balcony cabins, although refurbishments have improved accommodations overall, with upgrades to the suites and mini-suites, and the addition of interconnecting staterooms that are ideal for families and larger groups. Dawn has 440 outside staterooms, 171 inside staterooms, 134 outside staterooms with private balconies, 14 suites (with balcony), and 36 mini-suites (with balcony).

Suites : These larger accommodations sleep four people, and have a large balcony with comfortable outdoor furniture. Other features include a large living area, spacious bedroom, walk-in closet, large bathroom with bathtub and shower, flat-screen TV, DVD player and coffee machine. Additional perks are available for suite passengers, such as complimentary wine, free laundry service, bottled water, and special cocktail party invites.

Pacific Dawn Suite

Mini-Suites: Sleeping two or three with a rollaway bed, spacious sitting room with comfortable furniture, good-sized balcony, flat-screen TV, complimentary robe and slippers, plus special welcome gifts that include flowers, fruit and champagne.

Pacific Dawn Mini-suite

Outside Balcony Staterooms : Sleeps two or three, balcony with furniture, good amount of closet space, sizeable shower, living space with upgraded furniture, desk, chair, flat-screen TV.

Standard Staterooms (inside/outside): Outside staterooms have a picture window or porthole for viewing outside vistas. All rooms have a queen size bed that converts into twin beds, plus additional berths for more guests. Some standard rooms connect to outside rooms and are perfect for families and larger groups.

Dining on Pacific Dawn

Dining options have improved dramatically on P&O’s Pacific Dawn since its launch in 1991. The major dining venue is the Waterfront Restaurant; a spacious place decorated in contemporary style that offers a range of seating including comfortable areas suitable for couples. In all, seating varies from tables for two up to tables for ten people. The Waterfront Restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and offers Your Choice Dining which allows you flexibility of dining times and companions. The offerings are many and varied at every meal time. From healthy fruits and light vegetables, gourmet offerings of prime Australian produce, kids menus and family platters, there is something for everyone.

Pacific Dawn Cuisine

The Plantation Restaurant is a great alternative dining venue for passengers wanting to mix it up a bit. This buffet-style restaurant is also open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Refurbishments in 2012 have introduced attractive colour schemes and contemporary furniture. Plantation also provides outdoor seating. Breakfast time offers plenty of hot or cold offerings, and lunch options include everything from pasta to roasts. Dinner is similar to the Waterfront, although there are more salad and dessert choices at Plantation.

Luna Restaurant, situated at the rear of the Plantation Restaurant, is open for dinner. This contemporary Asian eatery rotates the menu offerings that include delicious Thai and Japanese selections.

Salt Grill was added to Pacific Dawn as part of the 2010 upgrade. It is a stylish venue that incorporates a beautifully polished floor and tastefully accented décor. Salt Grill isn’t a free dining experience, but is highly recommended as a special treat for lunch and dinner.

Salt Grill restaurant

The Grill on Deck 12 is an Aussie BBQ favourite for burgers, toasted sandwiches and more. Most items are free, and it is a great option for passengers on the move who don’t need to take time out for a formal meal.

Passengers with special diets, such as vegetarian and gluten free can take advantage of a la carte menus, and there are plenty of buffet options. Room service is an alternative cruising treat for passengers who wish to dine in their cabin. The New Zealand Natural ice cream parlour is a hit with families also.

Pacific Dawn NZ Natural

Activities and Entertainment

There’s no denying that cruisers are pleasure seekers, and the predominantly Australian passengers on Pacific Dawn are out to have a good time. There is something for all ages and interests on Dawn, from salsa dance to mixology classes, big-screen movies, concert extravaganzas, or just a quiet time soaking up the sun.

Pacific Dawn onboard entertainment

Broadway-style shows draw the crowds at night, and include the family-friendly Pirates of the Pacific.

• The Promenade Bar: Live music at night makes this public space a great place to meet and mingle while enjoying a drink before or after dinner.
• The Orient Pub: A great bar with a large variety of beers, comfortable couches and easy chairs, and a stage. This is also the venue for trivia and karaoke nights.
• Mix Bar: Located above the Atrium, this small cocktail bar offers an impressive drinks range.
• Dome Bar: A huge Renzo Piano styled establishment featuring contemporary elements. During the day the Dome Bar is a quiet retreat, and at night it morphs into an entertainment venue and nightclub.

Music onboard Pacific Dawn ranges from crooning soloists to full-blown bands belting out the latest and greatest hits. A highlight among other entertainment is the Pacific Cirque acrobatic troupe, involving daring feats, fire eating and juggling.

Special themed cruises are also popular on Dawn, and can involve anything from music to fitness, comedy or culinary experiences.

Swimming pool

Fitness and Health on Pacific Dawn

There are two pools on Deck 12, one of which is an adults-only enclave. You will also find two large hot tubs here. The Oasis is a significant adults-only feature courtesy of the 2010 refurbishment. It includes a bar that is open all day, luxury sun loungers and comfortable seating.

On Deck 14, fitness oriented passengers are drawn to the sports deck for a game of quoits or table tennis, or a jog on the Astro Turf track. The Aqua HealthSpaFitness centre will soon have you feeling toned and terrific. Here you can work out on treadmills, stationary bikes, elliptical machines or weight machines. You can also sign up for yoga, Pilates or a fitness boot camp.

Pacific Dawn Orient

Pampering is a special treat popular with cruisers. The HealthSpaFitness centre is the place for massage, facials, teeth whitening, hair-care and more.

Family cruising has become extremely popular in recent decades and P&O’s Pacific Dawn has embraced the trend. Kids are treated to a range of clubs for all ages, and the activities keep them happily occupied. Dedicated Pacific Dawn staff ensure that children are supervised in activities ranging from movies, talent shows, disco nights, arts and crafts and the list goes on. In fact, apart from meal times and around the swimming pool, the kids are rarely seen and are too busy having fun elsewhere on the ship.

Turtle Cove

Pacific Dawn  focuses on the South Pacific, and passengers love the islands and shore excursions. Fantastic tropical scenery, welcoming islanders and brilliant sunshine guarantee the trip of a lifetime on Pacific Dawn.

Pacific Dawn Deck Plans

Click on the image below to download the Pacific Dawn deck plans .

Pacific Dawn Stats

What’s your experience with this popular cruise ship let me know in the comments.

Robert Grant

Loves cruise tips and cruise ships. Shares his personal opinion about cruise deals and cruise tips that might help other travellers. Do let me know if you'd like to read more about certain cruise related topics.

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I worked in the Pacific dawn during which this great activity took place!! It is an amazing experience

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Pacific Dawn cruise ship death 'was not an accident', police say

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Natasha Schofield has been identified as the woman who went overboard. Photo / Facebook

The death of a woman who fell overboard from the Pacific Dawn cruise ship was not accidental, according to authorities investigating the incident.

The Brisbane woman who fell overboard from the Pacific Dawn and disappeared in a tragedy at sea has been identified as Natasha Schofield, 47, but police say it "wasn't an accident".

Queensland Police Inspector Rob Graham said Ms Schofield's death was intentional.

"This wasn't an accident," he said.

"Let's be open and honest about mental health.

"It's a tragic end to what should've been a lifetime holiday experience for a loving family.

"Her husband was standing right next to her when she went over.

"Her husband tried to grab on to her... her legs... but she fell."

Earlier reports she had been sick or fell due to a freak wave were incorrect, he said.

After the woman fell her husband immediately raised the alarm and the ship turned around as a search began.

"We're just lucky that there's not two people missing," Inspector Graham said.

"What you've got is a loving husband who was there when his wife departed," he added.

The cruise operator, Carnival Australia, said it was co-operating fully with the police investigation.

"We will be able to give police CCTV footage providing an unobstructed view of what happened and portraying an obviously devoted and loving couple," Carnival said in a statement.

"We extend our deepest condolences to the family and hope that they will find comfort in their grief."

Counselling is available for passengers.

One traveller said passengers had been updated with developments from the outset.

"The captain and crew have been put in an unimaginable position yet have handled themselves professionally and with the respect to the victim and her family," Teg An told AAP on Friday.

The first photos from inside the cruise ship during the frantic search for Ms Schofield emerged overnight. One photo shows cruise ship staff on the deck of the ship. Another shows people using torches to try and spot the woman.

The images came as an eyewitness, who asked not to be named, said she saw the tragic incident unfold. She said the woman walked over to a deck and began to vomit while leaning over a railing of the Pacific Dawn.

"(She was) vomiting outside, near the table tennis area" the guest on-board recalled, the Courier Mail reported.

"Leaning over, not far over, then she fell. When she went over he collapsed."

The guest claimed that there was no freak wave that hit the ship before the victim lost her footing and fell overboard.

WHERE TO GET HELP:

If you are worried about your or someone else's mental health, the best place to get help is your GP or local mental health provider. However, if you or someone else is in danger or endangering others, call police immediately on 111.

Or if you need to talk to someone else:

• LIFELINE: 0800 543 354 (available 24/7) • SUICIDE CRISIS HELPLINE: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) (available 24/7) • YOUTHLINE: 0800 376 633 • NEED TO TALK? Free call or text 1737 (available 24/7) • KIDSLINE: 0800 543 754 (available 24/7) • WHATSUP: 0800 942 8787 (1pm to 11pm) • DEPRESSION HELPLINE: 0800 111 757 (available 24/7) • SAMARITANS: 0800 726 666 • OUTLINE: 0800 688 5463 (confidential service for the LGBTQI+ community, their friends and families) • RURAL SUPPORT TRUST: 0800 787 254.

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Man dies after falling off cruise ship in Australia

Australian police have found a man's body off Sydney's coast while searching for a cruise ship passenger who went overboard on Monday.

The man fell overboard before dawn near Sydney Heads, about 18 kilometres from the shore, with police and other emergency services launching a search, New South Wales police said.

About 10:30 am (0030 GMT), officers located the body and retrieved it, police said.

Police will now prepare a report for the Coroner and have launched an investigation into how the incident unfolded.

P&O Cruises' ship Pacific Adventure was due to arrive in Sydney Harbour on Monday.

"We thank guests for their care, understanding and patience on what's been a distressing day for guests and crew," a statement from the company said, as quoted by local media. "Our thoughts are with the family of the guest at this difficult time."

The ship was making its way back to Sydney from a three-day trip to Queensland's Morton Island.

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The disastrous voyage of Satoshi, the world’s first cryptocurrency cruise ship

Last year, three cryptocurrency enthusiasts bought a cruise ship. They named it the Satoshi, and dreamed of starting a floating libertarian utopia. It didn’t work out

O n the evening of 7 December 2010, in a hushed San Francisco auditorium, former Google engineer Patri Friedman sketched out the future of humanity. The event was hosted by the Thiel Foundation, established four years earlier by the arch-libertarian PayPal founder Peter Thiel to “defend and promote freedom in all its dimensions”. From behind a large lectern, Friedman – grandson of Milton Friedman, one of the most influential free-market economists of the last century – laid out his plan. He wanted to transform how and where we live, to abandon life on land and all our decrepit assumptions about the nature of society. He wanted, quite simply, to start a new city in the middle of the ocean.

Friedman called it seasteading: “Homesteading the high seas,” a phrase borrowed from Wayne Gramlich, a software engineer with whom he’d founded the Seasteading Institute in 2008, helped by a $500,000 donation from Thiel. In a four-minute vision-dump, Friedman explained his rationale. Why, he asked, in one of the most advanced countries in the world, were they still using systems of government from 1787? (“If you drove a car from 1787, it would be a horse,” he pointed out.) Government, he believed, needed an upgrade, like a software update for a phone. “Let’s think of government as an industry, where countries are firms and citizens are customers!” he declared.

The difficulty in starting a new form of government, said Friedman, was simply a lack of space. All the land on Earth was taken. What they needed was a new frontier, and that frontier was the ocean. “Let a thousand nations bloom on the high seas,” he proclaimed, with Maoish zeal. He wanted seasteading experiments to start as soon as possible. Within three to six years, he imagined ships being repurposed as floating medical clinics. Within 10 years, he predicted, small communities would be permanently based on platforms out at sea. In a few decades, he hoped there would be floating cities “with millions of people pioneering different ways of living together”.

Politics would be rewritten. The beauty of seasteading was that it offered its inhabitants total freedom and choice. In 2017, Friedman and the “seavangelist” Joe Quirk wrote a book, Seasteading, in which they described how a seasteading community could constantly rearrange itself according to the choices of those who owned the individual floating units. (Quirk now runs the Seasteading Institute; Friedman remains chair of the board.) “Democracy,” the two men wrote, “would be upgraded to a system whereby the smallest minorities, including the individual, could vote with their houses.”

In the decade following Friedman’s talk, a variety of attempts to realise his seasteading vision were all thwarted. “Seavilization,” to use his phrase, remained a fantasy. Then, in October 2020, it seemed his dream might finally come true, when three seasteading enthusiasts bought a 245-metre-long cruise ship called the Pacific Dawn. Grant Romundt, Rüdiger Koch and Chad Elwartowski planned to sail the ship to Panama , where they were based, and park it permanently off the coastline as the centrepiece of a new society trading only in cryptocurrencies. In homage to Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of bitcoin’s mysterious inventor (or inventors), they renamed the ship the MS Satoshi. They hoped it would become home to people just like them: digital nomads, startup founders and early bitcoin adopters.

Their vision was utopian, if your idea of utopia is a floating crypto-community in the Caribbean Sea. No longer was seasteading a futuristic ideal; it was, said Romundt, “an actual ship”. The Satoshi also offered a chance to marry two movements, of crypto-devotees and seasteaders, united by their desire for freedom – from convention, regulation, tax. Freedom from the state in all its forms. But converting a cruise ship into a new society proved more challenging than envisaged. The high seas, while appearing borderless and free, are, in fact, some of the most tightly regulated places on Earth. The cruise ship industry in particular is bound by intricate rules. As Romundt put it: “We were like, ‘This is just so hard .’”

A s with many stories about techno-libertarian fantasies, the tale of the Satoshi begins in an all-male, quasi-frat house in San Francisco in the late 90s. Romundt – a softly spoken Canadian with the optimistic, healthy glow of someone who combines entrepreneurial success with water sports – was living with a bunch of software engineers, all of whom shared an intense dedication to personal improvement. “I was a huge Tony Robbins fan,” Romundt told me in one of several Zoom calls from his office in Panama. (Robbins’ themes of individual freedom, self-mastery and the accrual of significant wealth are evident from the titles of his books from that time: Unlimited Power; Lessons in Mastery; Unleash the Power Within; The Power to Shape Your Destiny, and, next level, Awaken the Giant Within.)

After his San Francisco stint, Romundt, the son of a hairdresser, created ScissorBoy in 2009, a popular online TV series on hairdressing, and then ScheduleBox, a website which offered a digital receptionist service for hairstylists to book in their clients. (Always digitally inclined, he had, according to his website, the world’s “most advanced mobile paperless office in 1995”.) “I used to work 17 hours a day, so I didn’t have a lot of freedom,” he told me. He did, however, make enough money to semi-retire in 2016 and then spent “no more than five hours a month” running his business. The giant fully awakened, he moved back to Canada, where he lived on a houseboat on Lake Ontario and went kayaking in the mornings as the sun came up. Enraptured by his lifestyle, Romundt wondered why everyone wasn’t living this way. On a flight one day, he saw a man wearing a T-shirt with “Stop arguing. Start seasteading” printed on it. Romundt was curious, they got talking, and the man turned out to be Joe Quirk, who was by this time running the Seasteading Institute.

So far, the Seasteading Institute had experienced variable, or zero, success with its projects. Early ideas for a “Baystead” and “Coaststead” off the coast of San Francisco and a “Clubstead”, a resort off the coast of California, never made the leap to reality. An attempt to create a floating island prototype in French Polynesia in 2017 met with fairly fierce resistance from the people of French Polynesia and collapsed a year later when the government pulled out of the scheme.

After meeting Quirk, Romundt decided he wanted to try again. Quirk introduced him to two other aspiring seasteaders, the passionately libertarian American Elwartowski and the bitcoin-wealthy German engineer Koch. Together, the trio founded a company, Ocean Builders. Using their own money, they funded the first attempt at a single residential seastead, in the form of a floating white octagonal box 12 nautical miles off the coast of Thailand . Elwartowski and his girlfriend, Nadia Summergirl, lived there for two months in early 2018, until the Thai government discovered the seastead’s existence and declared it a threat to the country’s independence, possibly punishable by life imprisonment or death. Elwartowski and Summergirl had to flee the country before the Thai navy dispatched three ships to dismantle the floating box.

The seasteading movement did not die there. In 2019, Romundt, Koch and Elwartowski moved their company to Panama, where they had found a government willing to back their next project: the SeaPod. These would be individual floating homes held 3 metres above the water by a single column and a tripod-shaped base beneath the ocean. The man responsible for their design, Koen Olthuis, is a Dutch “aquatect”, an architect specialising in water-based schemes. In rendered drawings, the SeaPods look fantastical, like a giant’s white helmet emerging monstrously from the waves. Inside, every surface is curved, as if you were living within the smooth, colourless confines of a peppermint. Romundt compared the SeaPods to the architecture in The Jetsons, the 60s cartoon where the characters lived in glassy orbs in the sky. “It’s like that,” he told me, “but on water.” The team built a factory from scratch in Linton Bay, a marina on the north coast of Panama, hired a team of about 30 engineers and mechanics, and, in early 2020, began building the first SeaPod prototype.

Progress was slow. Even once they had a successful prototype, Romundt predicted the factory would only make two SeaPods a month. They’d had the idea before of buying a cruise ship – a quick way of scaling up the community – but the cost had always been prohibitive. By autumn 2020, though, the situation had changed. Like many parts of the travel industry, the cruise ship business was collapsing because of the pandemic: multiple cruise lines were going into administration, empty ships filling up ports like abandoned cars in a scrubby field, or being sent to the scrapyard. Cruise ships, the Ocean Builders trio realised, would be going cheap.

Sure enough, they found a bargain. In October 2020, Romundt, Koch and Elwartowski bought the ex-P&O cruise ship Pacific Dawn for a reported $9.5m. (Built in 1991 for $280m, the ship could have sold pre-pandemic for more than $100m, one industry insider told me.) They instructed Olthuis to draw up the plans, placing the ship at the heart of a floating community surrounded by SeaPods. “We had a kind of funny idea,” Olthuis told me. In his scheme, the Satoshi would connect, via two looping tunnels on the water, to human-made floating platforms designated for agriculture, manufacturing and parkland. From the air, the whole community would form the shape of the bitcoin B.

The scheme had the support of the Panama government. In fact, the Ministry of Tourism hoped that a new ocean community would be a draw for visitors. In a page-long statement, the ministry told me how a floating development fitted in with its Sustainable Tourism Masterplan 2020-2025, by highlighting the country’s biodiversity and “the blue heritage of Panama”. It didn’t seem to mind the idea of a load of crypto-investors floating off their coastline, not paying any tax.

“O ut of adversity comes opportunity, so they say,” wrote Elwartowski, on 10 October 2020, introducing Viva Vivas, the new company that he had created to run the Satoshi. Its name was adapted from the Latin phrase, “ vive ut vivas ”, meaning “live so that you may live ”.

Ten days later, he announced the venture on Reddit: “So, I am buying a cruise ship and naming it MS Satoshi … AMA.” The responses were quick (“Need an apprentice aviation mechanic?” “I know how to use a yo-yo! Any room for me??”) and included the inevitable sceptics. (“Anyone remember the good old days of the Fyre festival?”) But plenty took the proposition seriously and wanted to go over the small print. (“Where is power coming from? Gas? Internet? Food? Water? Toiletries? What taxes will she be subject to?”)

Elwartowski answered every question with grave attention to detail. There would be generators at first, followed quickly by solar power. This would be an eco-friendly crypto-ship. High-speed wireless internet would come from land; utilities would be included in the fees at first, but would be metered when the systems were upgraded: “You don’t want to have pay for someone else’s mining rig in their cabin,” he wrote, referring to the resource-intensive computational process that introduces new crypto “coins” into the system. As for tax, you would not pay any on earnings made from ventures based in territory beyond Panama. You would be free to make, or mine, as much money as you liked. It would be a remote worker’s regulatory paradise.

But as the Reddit Q&A continued, Elwartowski’s meticulous responses revealed some of the more knotty practicalities of life on board. It turned out that the only cooking facilities would be in the restaurant. For safety reasons, no one was allowed to have a microwave in their rooms – though some cabins had mini-fridges, noted Elwartowski, determinedly sidestepping the point. He offered residents a 20% discount at the restaurant and mentioned that some interested cruisers had already talked about renting part of the restaurant kitchen so they could make their own food. “We want entrepreneurs to come up with solutions and try them out,” he wrote, in a valiant attempt to convert a fairly fundamental stumbling block into wild startup energy. “This is your place to try new things.” Not all the Redditors were convinced. “No microwave but mining rig. Incoherent scam.”

Marketing of the Satoshi soon began in earnest. Her 777 cabins were to be auctioned off between 5 and 28 November, while the ship was crossing the Atlantic towards Panama. Viva Vivas listed the options, including cabins with no windows ($570 a month), an ocean view ($629), or a balcony ($719). Ocean Builders held a series of live video calls for potential customers which attracted 200 people at a time, Olthuis told me, with Romundt, an expert steward of the multilateral video call, at the helm.

On the Viva Vivas website, a Frequently Asked Questions page covered the basics of the cabin auction process, fees and logistics. Specially trained staff would be hired to keep the ship Covid-free and through a partnership with a platform called coinpayments.net , multiple cryptocurrencies would be supported for payment, including bitcoin, ethereum, digibyte, bitcoin cash, litecoin, dai, dash, ethereum classic, trueUSD, USD coin, tether, bitcoin SV, electroneum, cloak, doge, eureka coin, xem and monero.

The final entry on the FAQ page, regarding the possibility of having pets on board, gave a bracing insight into the tension between the idea of freedom and the reality of hundreds of people closely cohabiting on a cruise ship. The answer linked to a separate document , containing a 14-point list of conditions including one that declared no animal should exceed 20lbs in weight, and any barking or loud noises could not last for longer than 10 minutes. If a pet repeatedly disturbed the peace – more than three times a month or five times in a year – it would no longer be allowed to live on board. “Any pet related conflict,” instructed point 13, “shall be resolved in accordance with Section V (F) of the Satoshi Purchase Agreement or Section IV (F) of the Satoshi Master Lease, where applicable.” Dogs would only be permitted in balcony cabins, and it was advised that owners buy a specific brand of “porch potty”, a basket of fake grass where your pet could relieve itself. (Pet waste thrown overboard would result in a $200 fine.)

One Reddit respondent – maxcoiner on Reddit, Luke Parker in real life – was as close to the target market of the Satoshi as it was possible to imagine. A longtime follower of the seasteading movement, he was also such an early and successful bitcoin adopter that he and his wife were able to retire early thanks to their investments. The Satoshi was the most plausible idea for a seastead he’d ever heard. “I did not buy a room during the Satoshi’s sale window,” he told me over email, “but it was hard to keep my hand off that button.”

A variety of considerations held him back. “The wife,” as he put it, had her doubts. He wasn’t sure about the “ginormous leap down in luxury” from living in deep residential comfort on land in the US midwest to living in a very small cabin on board a 30-year-old cruise ship. He was worried, too, by the limited facilities – “No kitchen of my own? Tiny bathrooms? Tiny everything?” Also, the constant rocking of the ship on the water: “I just can’t stomach that life around the clock.” He preferred the idea of the SeaPods. If Parker was going to live on a boat, he concluded, he’d prefer to buy his own luxury catamaran.

On 29 November, Elwartowski published another post on the Viva Vivas website, announcing the official opening of the Satoshi in January 2021. “This will be a new experience for all of us so we must manage your expectations,” he warned. The novelty was too much for Parker. “It takes a rare kind of person indeed to move your life on to a deserted cruise ship in Central America with so little information up front,” he told me. If Parker, part of that highly select, freedom-seeking, system-abandoning, overlapping community of seasteaders and bitcoiners, wasn’t going to buy, it was hard to imagine who would. As he put it: “This may have been the smallest sales demographic in history.”

O ver 30 years of service, the Satoshi herself had seen enough of the world to know every permutation of life at sea – apart, perhaps from what it might be like to be a permanent home to 2,000 crypto-investors. Built in 1991 in the Fincantieri shipyard in Trieste, Italy, she is one of only two cruise ships designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. (The other, the Crown Princess, was sent to the scrapyard last year, a Covid casualty.) Her first incarnation was as the Regal Princess (owned by Princess Cruises), after which she became the Pacific Dawn (P&O Australia). Throughout her life, she has been admired for her distinctive features: a domed roof rising above the navigation bridge, water slides that curl round her funnel and a stern whose elegantly rounded form is in marked contrast to the blunt, sawn-off rears of some giant cruise liners. Those who prefer an understated cruising experience also appreciate her discreet size: compared to the largest cruise ship in the world, The Symphony of the Seas (18 decks, 23 swimming pools) she is a modest vessel (11 decks, two swimming pools).

For many years, the Pacific Dawn cruised the south Pacific, enjoying a serene phase of life, interrupted only by an onboard swine flu outbreak in 2009 and the time she lost power and came within 70 metres of crashing into the Gateway Bridge on the Brisbane River. In 2011, a devoted Facebook group was established by fans. “Dawnie was the party ship,” remembered one. “I fell in love with my wife all over again,” added another, crediting the ship for his romantic renewal. Then, in 2020, it briefly looked as though Dawnie was set to join her sister on the scrapyard, after her sale to British cruise company, Cruise and Maritime Voyages, collapsed in the pandemic. Her fans were grief-stricken, weeping emojis piling up on the Facebook group. (“Well 2020 just became even shittier,” said Kathie.) When it was revealed that the ship had been rescued by Ocean Builders, there was a wave of relief, if a little mystification at her new name. “She’ll always be Dawn to me.”

On 29 October 2020, Dawn began her journey to Panama, sailing from Limassol, Cyprus to Piraeus, Greece. A week later, she was handed over to her new owners Ocean Builders and officially became the Satoshi. Koch flew over from Panama to cross the Atlantic aboard their new purchase. The team hired a management company, Columbia Cruise Services, to run the ship and provide a minimum crew of about 40 people, mostly Ukrainian, including a cook, engineers and cleaning staff. A seasoned British cruise captain, Peter Harris, arrived to take charge. “We didn’t know anything about running a cruise,” Romundt told me, “so it was like, we didn’t want to have to figure all this stuff out.”

As soon as Capt Harris joined the ship and met Koch on board, he realised there would be challenges ahead. “I was thinking a week into the job, I can see I’m going to be resigning,” Harris told me, immaculate in a striped shirt on a video call from his home in Kent. Koch, he said, was admirable in his ambition, and a likable, law-abiding man, but he was naive about how shipping worked and had an abhorrence of rules. “He didn’t understand the industry,” said Harris, who has the frank, upbeat air of a born leader for whom hierarchy is a kind of creed. “He just thought he could treat it like his own yacht.”

To sail anywhere, Harris explained, a ship requires certificates of seaworthiness. These expired on the day the deal with P&O was completed. Usually, a new buyer would ensure they lasted a couple of months to cover any onward journey, but no one on the Ocean Builders side had checked. By the time Columbia Cruise Services came on board and informed the team of the situation, the contracts had all been signed. Before the Satoshi could cross the Atlantic, the team were obliged to sail the ship to Gibraltar and have her removed from the water, a process known as dry-docking, to perform essential repairs and renew the certificates.

The Atlantic crossing began on 3 December. Harris – who didn’t resign, grateful for the four-month contract mid-pandemic – found it oddly lovely. With only 40 or so people on board, rather than the usual 2,000-odd, the atmosphere was relaxed, if a little surreal. Among other things, P&O had left about 5,000 bottles of wine and 2,000 bottles of spirits on board. Harris asked Koch if he wanted to charge the crew for drinks, but Koch, generous by nature, said no. “Obviously, we restricted them to three drinks a day,” said Harris. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had a crew.”

A s the crossing continued, questions about how the project would actually work once the Satoshi arrived in Panama grew more pressing. According to Harris, Elwartowski thought he could convince the Panamanian authorities to let the ship anchor permanently in its waters and de-register as a ship, becoming a floating residence instead, so as to avoid some of the more exacting requirements of maritime law. But while Panama was happy to have the ship moored off its coast, it specified that the ship had to remain officially designated as a ship. Which led to another difficulty: the discharge of sewage. Though the ship had an advanced wastewater management system, which could turn sewage into drinking-quality water, they were not permitted to discharge this wastewater into Panamanian waters, and so would have had to sail 12 miles out every 20 days or so to empty tanks into international waters.

Such obstacles made the ship an off-putting proposition for insurers. No one would agree to cover them. “They wouldn’t even tell us why we weren’t insurable, they just kept saying no,” Romundt said. “It’s kind of hard to remedy something if you don’t know what the problem is.” Of the several insurance experts I asked about this, none were willing to comment on the case, citing a lack of expertise, presumably because no one had ever tried to insure a cruise ship turned floating crypto-community before. Harris, however, had his theories: that a risk-averse insurance industry was wary of both a bitcoin business and a ship that would presumably be mostly populated by quick-to-litigate Americans.

After trying multiple insurers and brokers, Romundt began to realise that the cruise ship industry was, as he put it, “plagued by over-regulation”. (Along with airlines and nuclear power, according to Harris, it’s in “the top three”.) The Ocean Builders’ great freedom project, whose intrinsic purpose was to offer an escape from oppressive rules and bureaucracy, was being hobbled by oppressive rules and bureaucracy. As Elwartowski would reflect a few months later on Reddit: “A cruise ship is not very good for people who want to be free.”

To Romundt, the whole cruise ship business began to seem like an impenetrable old boys’ network. He estimated that, given six months, they could have hired a crack marine legal team and navigated a way through the loopholes. But by mid-December, the Satoshi was already halfway across the Atlantic, burning through gallons of diesel, with a 40-person crew they’d have to keep on board even when she was stationary in Panama because a cruise ship requires constant maintenance. A ship can cost, even when docked, up to $1m a month to run. “Because, you know,” said Romundt, “it’s huge .”

Fuel alone was costing the Ocean Builders trio about $12,000 a day. According to Harris, Koch wanted to try to make the ship more fuel-efficient by installing a smaller engine, which he thought he could do while the ship was at anchor. “We were like, how are you going to cut a hole in the ship’s side big enough to get the engine out, which is below water level, and not sink the ship?” Harris shook his head, his memories of Koch clearly fond, if perplexed. “I was forever saying, ‘No, Rudi you can’t do this; no, Rudi you can’t do that.’”

Before the Satoshi hove into view of the white sands of a Panama beach, Romundt, Koch and Elwartowski had to make a call. They couldn’t afford to keep the ship moored and empty for months on end while they tried to solve the insurance problem, a problem they weren’t even sure they’d be able to solve. They were insured to sail her, and they could go on sailing her, but they didn’t want to run a travel company. They wanted to run a floating society of like-minded freedom-lovers arranged in the shape of the bitcoin B. It wasn’t even clear that there were enough people who wanted to do that. Koch admitted to Harris that the cabins weren’t selling.

“It was almost like a fantasy, James Bond-ish,” said one cruise industry insider. “But to their credit they believed in it.”

T he dream was over, they realised, before it had even begun. The project was dead, except it wasn’t quite, as they still owned the ship, which was still steaming across the Atlantic with Koch, Harris and the crew on board. The Satoshi, already thousands of miles into a 5,500-nautical-mile voyage, had travelled too far to be turned around mid-ocean, so on she sailed. They’d have to sell her, the Ocean Builders realised, but who was going to be crazy enough to buy a cruise ship in the middle of a pandemic? Only a company who wanted to tear her apart. On 18 December, while she was still at sea, the team announced the sale of the Satoshi to a scrapyard in Alang, India. The Satoshi was once again destined for dismemberment.

On 19 December, Elwartowski announced on the Viva Vivas website that the Satoshi’s journey was coming to an end. “We have lost this round. The New Normal, Great Reset gains another victim,” he wrote, looping in the collapse of the Satoshi with a popular Covid conspiracy theory that the pandemic and its response had been stage-managed by a global elite. (Over subsequent months, Elwartowski’s activity on Reddit would include other Covid themes, including suspicion of government vaccination programmes.) Romundt emailed their list of potential customers to let them know the ship’s fate. Deposits for cabins would be refunded.

The Satoshi arrived in Balboa, Panama on 22 December. On Christmas Eve, she anchored off the coast of Colon. There, Romundt joined Koch and the crew on the ship. Elwartowski, meanwhile, stayed in Panama City. “He didn’t want to get on board,” said Romundt. Koch spoke to Joe Quirk one evening on the phone while he was sitting in the ship’s cafe drinking a bottle of wine, feeling regretful that the onboard hospital he’d planned to open to medical entrepreneurs would never come to life. Even so, Koch was “utterly unbowed”, reported Quirk in a Seasteading Institute blog post entitled How the Grinch Stole the Cruise Ship .

Romundt, a man more driven by the practical issues at hand than the romantic symbolism of his endeavours, realised that, though the entire plan had fallen apart, he was still the part-owner of a massive cruise ship. He decided to spend Christmas on board, along with the crew. Master key in hand, he wandered around the Satoshi, making sure to enter every room that said Do Not Enter. He toured the engine room, and sat on the sun deck. He worked, because he can’t help working, even at Christmas, but he also went on all the water slides, alone. (Harris told me he’d turned them on specially for Christmas Day.) Though Romundt doesn’t usually drink, he had a glass of wine and called all his friends saying, “I’m on my own cruise ship for Christmas!” He had the kind of good time it is perhaps only possible to have when you have just made an unbelievably expensive mistake born of a desire to invent an entirely new way of living and involving the purchase of a huge floating vessel. “I was king of the ship!” he said, still delighted.

E ven scrapping the Satoshi proved to be a debacle. After a deal had been done with the Indian scrapyard, the Ocean Builders team realised that according to the Basel Convention, which covers the disposal of hazardous waste, they weren’t allowed to send the ship from a signatory country (Panama) to a non-signatory country (India). The contract with the scrapyard had to be cancelled.

All was not completely lost, at least for the Satoshi herself. The cruise ship industry is a compact ecosystem. The grapevine did its thing. A ship broker heard about the plight of the Satoshi, realised it was precisely the kind of ship a new client of his was looking for, and did a quick deal.

The client was Ambassador Cruise Line, the first British cruise company to launch for 10 years. According to Ambassador’s ebullient, red-sweatered chair, Gordon Wilson, the company’s name is intended to reflect the highly optimistic idea that ambassadors, like cruise ships, take the best of their own culture with them wherever they go. The Satoshi would be the first ship in the company’s new fleet, which would offer cruises to the over-50s. Many of the new team at Ambassador had come over from Cruise and Maritime Voyages, who had nearly bought the Satoshi before it went bust in 2020. As such, they knew the ship well, which sped up the sale. Wilson wouldn’t confirm the amount – “they thought it was a good price” – but the trade press reported that Ocean Builders sold her for $12m, more than they paid for her, though possibly not quite enough to cover the elaborate costs of running an empty cruise ship for three months.

On 23 February 2021, the Satoshi set sail from Panama, heading all the way back across the ocean she’d just crossed. She arrived in Bar, Montenegro on 27 March. Wilson went over to visit her, and, like Romundt, relished the experience of climbing aboard his new asset. Exploring the engine rooms of an empty cruise ship seemed to give these men a particular sensation: perhaps just the buzz of owning something so vast and powerful; a mechanical, proprietary thrill.

The Ocean Builders team, meanwhile, returned to their own private missions. Elwartowski was on sabbatical, Romundt told me. He did not want to talk to me for this story. Koch, who also declined to be interviewed, was building his own boat in Panama, and working with Romundt on the SeaPods. Over Zoom, Romundt gave me a tour of the SeaPod factory, and showed off the hulking sheets of fibreglass that would form the structure’s mould. “It feels like touching a UFO,” he said, stroking his invention.

Seeing the pod’s nascent form, I felt a boringly pragmatic urge to ask Romundt what happened if, once afloat, you needed to buy a pint of milk. My question seemed to miss the point, too wedded to old-fashioned notions of locality and human connection. The Pods had been designed to have a hatch in the roof, Romundt said. He was talking to some drone creators and imagined people flying to their pods independently, landing on the roof and entering through the hatch. Perhaps that’s how you’d get your milk.

At her new home in Montenegro, meanwhile, the Satoshi needed some sprucing up. For the fourth time in her three decades on the water, she had been renamed. “We thought Ambience a lovely name for a ship,” said Wilson, pronouncing it in the French style, Ambi- ence . “This is a very elegant ship,” he added, proudly. “She looks like a cruise liner; she does not look like a floating block of flats.”

When Ambience finally sets sail on her maiden voyage, from the industrial dock of Tilbury across the North Sea to Hamburg in April 2022, she will offer a more traditional experience to her passengers. “Back to what cruising is all about,” said Wilson. The atmosphere will be refined. There will be promenading on deck and plentiful opportunities for photography as the horizon swallows the evening sun. There will be cocktails at the bar, a five-course dinner and a glittery show. It is unlikely bitcoin will be accepted as currency. The water slides will be removed.

This article was amended on 8 September 2021 to include the full name of Ambassador Cruise Line, and to clarify that the Ambience’s dinners will have five courses, not three.

• The long read
• Cryptocurrencies
• French Polynesia

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Body found after man overboard on Sydney-bound cruise

A major cruise ship has made its way back into Sydney Harbour after a desperate early morning search for a passenger who went overboard ended in tragedy.

Water police battled big swells on Monday in the search for the passenger from P&O's Pacific Adventure after a person-overboard alarm was sounded on the ship at 4am.

More than six hours later, officers from NSW Police's Marine Area Command retrieved a man's body from the water.

An investigation has been launched into the incident and a report will be prepared for the coroner.

P&O said its vessel, which has capacity for more than 2600 passengers, had been cleared to return to port following the search, which took place about 18km outside Sydney Harbour.

"We thank guests for their care, understanding and patience on what's been a distressing day for guests and crew," a company spokeswoman said.

She said the family of the dead man was "being cared for by our onboard team".

The Elvis-themed cruise made its way under the Harbour Bridge on Monday afternoon en route to White Bay Cruise Terminal, where it had been due to dock in the morning after a three-day cruise of the NSW coast.

Marine Area Command head Joe McNulty earlier said swells of up to five metres forced authorities to rely on heat-seeking technology in the search.

Authorities had hoped to find the passenger alive given a life ring from the cruise ship was yet to be recovered at the time.

The Pacific Adventure's next scheduled departure, for a four-day trip to Queensland, has been delayed until Monday night.

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Body found after man overboard on Sydney-bound cruise

A man's body has been pulled from the water after a desperate early morning search for a passenger who went overboard as a P&O cruise ship approached Sydney before dawn.

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Water police battled rough seas on Monday in the search for the passenger, who went overboard as the Pacific Adventure sailed about 10 nautical miles south-southeast of Sydney Harbour.

Cruise operator P&O said a person-overboard alarm was raised on the ship at 4am.

More than six hours later, officers from NSW Police's Marine Area Command retrieved a man's body from the water.

An investigation has been launched into the incident and a report will be prepared for the coroner.

Marine Area Command head Joe McNulty earlier said swells of up to five metres forced authorities to rely on heat-seeking technology to find the passenger.

The search area was 18km outside Sydney Heads and covered a large area, spanning around 60 square nautical miles of water, he said.

Authorities had hoped to find the passenger alive given a life ring from the cruise ship was yet to be recovered.

The search was led by police and involved the Pacific Adventure and nearby cruise ships.

A P&O spokeswoman said the family of the overboard passenger was "being cared for by our onboard team while every effort is being made to find (the passenger)".

The Pacific Adventure was due to dock at Sydney's White Bay Cruise Terminal inside the harbour on Monday morning after a three-day cruise off the NSW coast.

Australian Associated Press

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