Carwardine Alpha

Carwardine Alpha is a cruise ship. The maiden voyage originally happened April 2, 1990 and launched normal operation August of 1990, in 2020, due to the Coronavirus, Carwardine Parks ceased the cruise line for a heavy relaunch, this ship re-entered service following a heavy rebuild alongside a new ship named neoAlpha.

Service history
In late 1987, Chris Carwardine sailed on Carnival's Holiday, Royal Caribbean's Song of America, Cunard's Queen Elizabeth 2 and Norwegian's Norway (better known as the SS France).

In 1988, Carwardine officially announced they are making a cruise line. He wrote down his favorite things about the four ships he went on and other ideas and added them into the ship, he expanded upon aspects, the Holiday had a waterslide, but it was very short and felt like a pool slide, so he wanted one that you would find in a waterpark, and he decided to add the first coaster at sea. The livery was based on the SS Norway's, but with lighter shades of blue. The ship's restaurant was designed to have an animatronic band rather than a real band due to the potential of a staffing shortage.

This ship was built at Meyer Werft Shipyards in Germany, in addition, several aspects of the ship were built in several locations worldwide, the rollercoaster was built in the Netherlands by a Dutch company called Vekoma, the waterslide was built in Ottawa by Canadian manufacturer ProSlide, the entertainment band animatronics were built in Orlando by Creative Engineering, and the poolside large-scale television was made in Japan.

The ship first set sail in 1990 to positive reception.

1993 Dry-Dock
The first Dry-Dock came in 1993 at Meyer Werft, this dry-dock added multiple things. The dry-dock concluded with the ship being moved to Port Canaveral, Florida.

1998 Dry-Dock
In 1998, the second dry-dock happened, upgrading the ship to the "BlueHorn 3" remodel, in which Little Dipper was replaced with Family Coaster, along with an internet café and a children's computer lab with PC CD-ROM games like Toy Story Activity Center and Mario's Game Gallery being added to the atrium. This dry dock happened at Fincantieri Shipyards in Italy. After the dry dock, the ship now sailed out of Tampa Bay, Florida. Due to the proximity to Busch Gardens Tampa from the Port of Tampa, all Anheuser-Busch beers had to be replaced with a generic brand named "Beer Carwardine" as long as it sailed out of Tampa.

2001 Dry-Dock
In 2001, the third dry-dock happened at Grand Bahama Shipyard, in which the ship added a steakhouse, the generic Meyer Werft horn sounds were replaced with custom horn sounds via a new horn programmer provided by Fincantieri Shipyards of Italy. The waterslide's original pool was replaced with a run-out exit similar to ones found on sister ships. Also, due to 9/11, The Captain's Room was closed off to the public, with Amethyst Forward's public space now used for meet-and-greets rather than bridge tours. After delays due to the September 11 attacks, the ship was now ready to board it's first passengers after the dry-dock in December of 2001.

2007 Mini Dry-Dock
In 2007, the ship was sent to Newport News Shipbuilding to have some minor refurbishments, including the addition of an atrium bar.

2009 Dry-Dock
In 2009, the ship became in dry-dock once again, adding several new features to the ship, and the waterslide was repainted from the original beige to red, and the Roller Skater was repainted from pink track and blue supports to red track and white supports. The McDonald's décor was changed from the original décor featuring the McDonaldland characters at sea to the generic "Forever Young" décor.

2015 Dry-Dock
The 2015 Dry-Dock happened at Grand Bahama Dry-Dock, in which the ship was given some upgrades.

2020/2021 Re-invigoration
During the COVID-19 pandemic, starting March of 2020, The Carwardine Alpha suspended voyages, in the Summer of 2020, the ship was sold to a broker in Aliaga, Turkey, for all but the shell to be demolished. The ship afterwards was refitted and modernized by Fincantieri. Once it launched back up, this ship became a "legacy ship" for traditional cruising with the price going down $100/per person, It still got a massive overhaul and modernization.

Ports Sailed Out Of

 * Newport News - 1990-1991
 * Norfolk - 1991-1992
 * Charleston - 1992-1993
 * Port Canaveral - 1993-1995
 * Miami - 1995-1998
 * Tampa - 1998-2001
 * New Orleans - 2001-2004
 * Galveston - 2004-2007
 * Long Beach - 2007-2009
 * San Diego - 2009-2011
 * Seattle - 2011-2015
 * Vancouver - 2015-2020
 * Baltimore - 2021-present

Details

 * Name: Carwardine Alpha
 * Owner: Carwardine Parks of Virginia, Inc.
 * Operator: Dire Dire Docks Maritime & Boating, Inc. (d/b/a Carwardine Cruise Lines) (1990-2002), Carwardine Cruise Lines, LLC (2002-present)
 * Port of Registry: Valletta, Malta
 * Builder: Meyer Werft, Germany
 * Launched: March 31, 1990
 * Sponsored by: Christopher R. Carwardine
 * Christened: April 2, 1990
 * Completed: December 30, 1989
 * Maiden Voyage: April 2, 1990
 * In service: August 1990-present
 * Tonnage: 51,000 GT
 * Length: 610 ft
 * Beam: 102 ft
 * Draft: 7.20m
 * Decks: 10
 * Speed: 22 knots
 * Serial Code: MW-08-89/1-1

Routes

 * 5 Day Bahamas (1990-1991)
 * 4 Day Bermuda (1991-1992)
 * 4 Day Bahamas (1992-1993)
 * 3 Day Bahamas (1993-1994)
 * 5 Day Eastern Caribbean (1994-1995)
 * 2 Day Bahamas (1995-1998)
 * 4 Day Western Caribbean (1998-2001)
 * 6 Day Western Caribbean (2001-2004)
 * 3 Day Western Caribbean (2004-2007)
 * 3 Day Baja California (2007-2009)
 * 3 Day Pacific Coast (2009-2011)
 * 4 Day Pacific Coast (2011-2015)
 * 5 Day Alaska (2015-2017)
 * 6 Day Pacific Northwest (2017-2020)
 * 6 Day Overnight Bermuda (2021-present)

Former (2017-2020)

 * Interior (off-season) - $139/pp
 * Interior (Spring Break) - $146/pp
 * Ocean View (off-season) - $202/pp
 * Ocean View (Spring Break) - $210/pp
 * Interior (Winter Break) - $319/pp
 * Ocean View (Winter Break) - $369/pp
 * Interior (Summer Break) - $389/pp
 * Ocean View (Summer Break) - $439/pp
 * Balcony (off-season) - $531/pp
 * Balcony (Spring Break) - $594/pp
 * Balcony (Winter Break) - $714/pp
 * Balcony (Summer Break) - $834/pp

Current (2021-present)

 * Interior (off-season) - $100/pp
 * Interior (Spring Break) - $125/pp
 * Ocean View (off-season) - $151/pp
 * Ocean View (Spring Break) - $170/pp
 * Interior (Winter Break) - $193/pp
 * Ocean View (Winter Break) - $246/pp
 * Interior (Summer Break) - $267/pp
 * Ocean View (Summer Break) - $349/pp
 * Balcony (off-season) - $351/pp
 * Balcony (Spring Break) - $459/pp
 * Balcony (Winter Break) - $471/pp
 * Balcony (Summer Break) - $483/pp

All-inclusive

 * Adult Zone
 * Diamond Pool
 * Emerald Dining Room
 * Family Coaster
 * Gold Lobby
 * McDonald's
 * Roller Skater
 * Water Slide
 * The Carwardine Cruise Entertainment Band

Up-charge

 * Casino - varies
 * Family Coaster (One Time Skip The Line) - $5/pp
 * Roller Skater (One Time Skip The Line) - $10/pp
 * Steakhouse (Kids) - $12/pp
 * Steakhouse (Adults) - $38/pp

Bronze Deck

 * Bronze Rooms (Interior rooms, 1990-present)

Silver Deck

 * Silver Suites (Ocean view suites, 1990-present)

Gold Deck

 * Gold Lobby (The lobby of the cruise ship, also known as the Gold Atrium, 1990-present)

Platinum Deck

 * Platinum Balconies (Balcony suites, 1990-present)
 * Platinum Steakhouse (2001-present)

Emerald Deck

 * Emerald Casino (A casino, 1990-present)
 * Emerald Dining Room (A Dining room, 1990-present)
 * The Carwardine Cruise Entertainment Band (An animatronic show, 1990-present)

Diamond Deck

 * Diamond Pool (A pool, 1990-present)
 * McDonalds (1990-present)

Ruby Deck

 * Family Coaster (Zamperla Family Gravity Coaster, 1998-present)
 * Little Dipper (Allan Herschell Little Dipper, 1990-1998, formerly at Lakeview Park in Pennsylvania, relocated to Story Land)
 * Roller Skater (Vekoma Junior Coaster 207m, first one built, repainted from pink track/blue supports to red track/white supports in 2009, 1990-present)

Amethyst Deck

 * Adult Zone (Adults only area, with a tanning area, hot tubs, spa, salon, and more, 1990-present)
 * Water Slide (A ProSlide Twister slide, repainted red in 2009, 1990-present)

Taglines

 * You can SEA the magic. (Launch tagline)
 * Sovereign, Fantasy, Alpha. (2nd launch tagline)
 * So big, you could throw your hat inside the Titanic's smokestacks. (3rd launch tagline)
 * Does the Sovereign or the Fantasy have a rollercoaster or a McDonalds? (4th launch tagline)
 * You don't need Florida to board a mega-liner. (5th launch tagline)

Current

 * Super Mario Bros. Theme [2001-present]
 * The Simpsons Theme [2001-present]
 * SpongeBob SquarePants Theme [2004-present]
 * Real American [2002-present]
 * Sonic the Hedgehog Theme [2001-present]
 * Pokémon Anime Theme [2001-present]
 * Thomas the Tank Engine Theme [2001-present]
 * Legend of Zelda Theme [2001-present]

Trivia

 * Originally, the lobby had a sculpture of Mario carved by Jimmy Barrera (who also designed numerous other stuff, namely the Super Mario World ride animatronics, the Carwardine River Rapids animatronics and several of the Simpsons retrofits for the RAE), but in 2007, the sculpture was removed and placed in the lobby of the Carwardine terminal of Port of Long Beach, the original location was taken up by an atrium bar, which has been a staple on newer Carwardine ships since the Theta.
 * The McDonald's notably sells Pepsi products rather than Coca-Cola products and all food items are free.