| IMO | 9008598 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 12,969 GT |
| Length | 159.6 m |
| Beam | 19.6 m |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 312 |
| Service speed | 19.2 knots |
| Builder | Schichau Seebeckwerft |
| Hull number | 1071 |
| Launched | 1991 |
| Maiden voyage | 1992 |
| Operator | Windstar Cruises |
| Status | Active |
| All names | Star Legend; Seabourn Legend 1996; Queen Odyssey 1995; Royal Viking Queen 1992 |
Overview
Star Legend is a small luxury cruise ship operated by Windstar Cruises — and she has been, under other names, almost everything a small luxury ship of her generation could be. She was completed in 1992 as Royal Viking Queen for Royal Viking Line, became Queen Odyssey for Royal Cruise Line in 1995, joined Seabourn in 1996 as Seabourn Legend — in which identity she starred, under her own name, in the 1997 film Speed 2: Cruise Control — and transferred to Windstar in 2015 as Star Legend. Few hulls carry the whole history of 1990s luxury cruising in one career.
She matters for a second reason. Between 2019 and 2021 Windstar's Star Plus initiative cut her in half at Fincantieri's Palermo yard and inserted a new midship section, lengthening her from about 135 m to about 160 m, raising her tonnage to about 12,969 GT and her capacity from 212 to 312 guests, with new engines in the same operation. The spec box above gives her as-built figures; the ship sailing today is measurably larger.
Key specifications
As built, the dataset records Star Legend at IMO 9008598, 9,961 GT, 135.0 m by 19.6 m, with a maximum capacity of 212, a speed of 19.2 knots, built by Schichau Seebeckwerft as hull 1071, launched in 1990 and on her maiden voyage in 1992. Detailed ship histories agree closely: a technical summary of the hull gives 9,961 gross tons as built, a length overall of 135 m (112.4 m between perpendiculars), breadth figures around 20 m, twin-screw diesel propulsion by Bergen engines totalling 7,280 kW, 208–212 passengers and a crew of about 164 as built. Her designers were the Norwegian pair Petter Yran and Bjørn Storbraaten, who shaped all three ships of her type.
After the Star Plus lengthening, the same sources give about 159.6 m overall, 12,969 GT, 312 passengers and a crew of about 200, with four new Wärtsilä 26 engines in place of the original Bergen plant. The dataset has not absorbed the lengthening — its tonnage, length and capacity are the 1992 figures — and that staleness is logged in this batch's notes. Her launch date also needs care: the dataset says 1990, the year construction began; ship histories give a launch in May 1991 and completion in February 1992.
Design and construction
She was planned as a third unit for Seabourn, whose Seabourn Pride and Seabourn Spirit were built to the same Yran/Storbraaten design; when Seabourn did not take her up, the hull building at Schichau Seebeckwerft in Bremerhaven was bought by Kloster Cruise for Royal Viking Line. Construction began in 1990, she was launched in May 1991 and completed in February 1992 as Royal Viking Queen — the last ship built for Royal Viking Line, and its smallest.
The design is a yacht-scaled luxury ship: six passenger decks, all-outside accommodation, proportions intended for ports big ships cannot use. Her build cost is recorded at about US$87 million.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
As Royal Viking Queen she began her maiden voyage on 11 February 1992, completing it on 29 February, and spent her first seasons on Royal Viking's worldwide itineraries, regularly voted among the world's top cruise ships of the day. Her later renamings were corporate, not ceremonial: each — 1995, 1996, 2015 — marks a change of owning fleet, and IMO 9008598 runs unbroken from Royal Viking Queen to Star Legend.
Career by operator
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 1992–1995 | Royal Viking Queen | Royal Viking Line (Kloster Cruise) |
| 1995–1996 | Queen Odyssey | Royal Cruise Line (Kloster Cruise) |
| 1996–2015 | Seabourn Legend | Seabourn Cruise Line |
| 2015–present | Star Legend | Windstar Cruises |
Transferred within the Kloster group in 1995, she sailed one season as Queen Odyssey before being sold to Seabourn in January 1996 — finally joining the sisters she was designed to follow, as Seabourn Legend. Her nineteen Seabourn years include her film appearance: she played herself, the hijacked ship of Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997). Windstar announced the purchase of the three sisters in February 2013; she left Seabourn in April 2015, took an $8.5 million refit, and entered Windstar service that May as Star Legend.
Onboard character
Her character was set in 1992 and has survived four liveries: intimacy as a luxury feature. With about two hundred guests she was designed for cruising in which officers know the passengers, the bridge keeps an open door, and the itinerary — small ports, long stays — is the entertainment. Her rooms were scaled accordingly: a show lounge rather than a theatre, a compact casino, a library, a pool and whirlpools, and a single elegant restaurant.
Star Plus was designed not to change that character: the inserted section carries fifty additional suites, a larger spa and fitness centre, more dining space and a bigger pool deck — "more of what guests love" — while keeping the yacht-like profile and small-port capability.
Major refits and incidents
The Star Plus lengthening is among the most extensive refits ever applied to a ship of this size. Announced in 2018 as a US$250 million programme across the three sisters, it began for Star Legend with steel-cutting for her new section on 6 September 2019 at Palermo; work on the ship started in March 2020. Delayed by asbestos found in her sister Star Breeze's engine room and by the pandemic, the lengthening was completed and the ship redelivered on 26 May 2021. Her Bergen engines were replaced in the same operation by four Wärtsilä 26 engines, with advanced wastewater treatment fitted.
Her earlier documented refit is the $8.5 million programme that prepared her for Windstar service in 2015. No major casualty is recorded for this hull in the sources used; her most famous "incident" is fictional, the computer-hijack plot of Speed 2, filmed aboard her as Seabourn Legend.
Sister ships and class
Star Legend is the third of three near-identical ships designed by Petter Yran and Bjørn Storbraaten and built at Bremerhaven: Seabourn Pride (1988, now Star Pride), Seabourn Spirit (1989, now Star Breeze) and this ship (1992) — the only one of the three not to begin life with Seabourn, which is why she reached the fleet by the Royal Viking and Royal Cruise route instead. All three transferred from Seabourn to Windstar under the 2013 purchase (completed ship-by-ship in 2014–15) and all three were lengthened under Star Plus between 2019 and 2021, so the class survives intact, enlarged, under Windstar names.
Fate and where she is now
Star Legend remains in active service with Windstar Cruises, as the dataset records — but in her lengthened form, not in the configuration the dataset's figures describe. She is a 1992 hull that has been renamed three times, sold twice between luxury fleets, cut in two and re-engined once, and is still doing the work she was designed for: small-ship luxury cruising. Of the ships in this batch she is the clearest example of why this directory tracks hulls rather than names.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships; Wikipedia, "Star Legend (ship)" (career and Star Plus chronology), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Legend_(ship); Dover Ferry Photos / ship technical history, "MV Star Legend – Past and Present" (as-built and post-lengthening data); Riviera Maritime Media, "Star Legend transformation" (Star Plus scope, capacity 212→312, new section and re-engining); Fincantieri / Windstar Star Plus announcements (2018–19).