#732 The MV World Odyssey, The Dream Ship

 SEMESTER AT SEA SHIP HISTORY

MS Seven Seas, 1963-1966
SS Ryndam, 1966-1971
SS Universe, 1971-1995
SS Universe Explorer, 1996-2004
MV Explorer, 2004-2015
MV World Odyssey, 2015-present

During our previous Semester at Sea voyages when the program was sponsored by the University of Virginia, the MV Explorer was our shipboard home for more than 500 days/nights.  We have a gazillion photos of this modern ship built in 2001 but the beautifully photographed article in Maritime Matters is the place to go to best understand the contemporary style of our previous home.

MV Explorer

The MV World Odyssey is the sixth shipboard home of the SAS program and we are eager to see it up close this fall.  In 1998, she was built in Kiel, Germany - just north of our embarkation point in Hamburg.

MV World Odyssey

We have a lot to learn about our new ship, but we already know that she has a cinematic history. The German television show Das Traumschiff ("The Dream Ship"), based off the American TV series "The Love Boat", was filmed on board for 15 years.  Fans of The Dream Ship have the opportunity to sail during the summer when the MV World Odyssey is not used for SAS.  It would be fun to sail on The Love Boat, ie, the Pacific Princess, but it was decommissioned and taken apart for recycling in 2013.

I've done some serious cinematic research of films set on ocean liners, so I'm happy to have found this cinematic connection with the MV World Odyssey.  For the official results of my research, see my Top 20 Films at Sea and even More Films at Sea. Spoiler alert: My favorite is One Way Passage, 1932.

Yours in dreaming of The Dream Ship,
Mary Jo