Flavia (1968-82)
This ship was originally built as the Cunard cargo-passenger liner Media of 1947. She was sold to Codega in 1961 and rebuilt as the Europe-Australia emigrant ship Flavia. In 1968 she was chartered to Costa, who refitted her as a cruise ship. She operated Caribbean cruises from Miami, and was so successful, Costa bought her in 1969. Her engines became troublesome, so she was sold in 1982. She was sold to Hong Kong based C.Y. Tung Group. Her name was changed to Flavian and was to commence cruising locally. Instead, she was laid up for four years and was sold in 1986 to another Hong Kong shipping company, Virtue Shipping, who changed her name to Lavia. She remained laid up at anchor near Landau Island. On January 7, 1989, but neglected Lavia caught fire. She was completely gutted and her hulk was sold to Taiwanese shipbreakers.
This was our first cruise and it was a fun trip with John, Denda, Donna and Don. The sea was rough as we sailed Monday from Miami and over half the passangers were seasick including Don. We did have a fun day in Freeport shopping in the straw market and touring the shops before we sailed for Nassau. There, we rented a jeep surrey with fringe on top and drove to the marina where we rented a 17' motor boat and went to Angel Island to snorkel. That night, we drove over to Paradise Island that connected to Nassau by bridge to do the nightclubs. The trip was done when Air Florida started a nonstop flight to Miami from Hobby airport for $50/pp each way. We went on a Saturday and sailed on Monday. This was our only trip on a ship with a rivited hull. The ship docked on Friday morning and we rented a car and drove to Key West. Our group returned to Houston on Sunday after a fast paced week of fun.
A quite beach on Paradise Island, Bahamas.
