Traveling Did you record the cruise of the 1980s and 1990s? – HS is looking for old home videos and photos from Swedish ships

Is there do you have home videos from the peak years of Swedish cruises in the 1980s-1990s? HS is doing a story on the subject and is looking for photos and memories from readers in addition to the videos.

Cruise travel has plowed the rocks for two pandemic years. Now boat trips are of interest to Finns again.

Viking Line’s new Glory vessel will start operating from Turku in early March. Tallink Silja is also told that the situation during the ski holidays and spring looks positive. The number of provisions was already growing significantly at the end of last year compared to the second half of the year.

Modern-style cruises peaked in the 80s and 90s. At that time, many familiar ships started operating. Mariella, Cinderella, Amorella and Isabella joined Viking Line’s fleet. Silja Line got Symphony, Serenade and Europe on its routes.

No wonder the volume of passenger traffic grew tremendously. When about six million ship passengers left and arrived in Finland in 1979, there were about 15 million passengers a year in the mid-1990s.

Below is a video on the history of Viking Line.

In the peak decades The tax-free stores expanded into stores of hundreds of square meters, and the most famous artists in Finland were sold to the ships.

Perhaps the most important reform was the description of passengers boarding the ship. According to Tallink Silja’s assessment, filming began with the Silja Serenade in the early 1990s.

If you have such a boarding picture, please send it to us for reference. With a modern smartphone camera, you can take a valid digital photo of an old paper image. Just remember to have adequate lighting.

Sweden was still the most popular cruise destination in the last decade, but Estonia rose to number one in 2017. The popularity of ship travel is indicated by the fact that before Korona, 37 per cent of all leisure trips abroad were made on board.