Two Norwegian freighter owners ‘Isak Skaugen’ and ‘Anders Wilhelmsen’ founded the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line in 1970. Their first cruise ship was the 18,000-ton Song of Norway. With the success of that ship on cruises out of Miami, they soon ordered two more 18,000-ton ships, Nordic Prince and Sun Viking. By the early 1980s, mid sized cruise ships of around 40,000-tons began entering service. RCCL’s first ship in that category, Song of America, entered service in 1982.

This ship has 9 passenger decks, 2 pools, 9 bars, fitness center, casino, two large entertainment lounges, 417 outside cabins with 9 having balconies, 298 inside cabins, can carry 1,585 passengers and crew of 540.

Song of America was based at Miami to be operated on cruises to Nassau, San Juan and St Thomas. RCCL sold her to the Majorca based Airtours in 1999 to be operated under the name Sunbird. Being the largest of the four cruise ships owned by Airtours at that time, she became the flagship of their fleet.

Sunbird was sold to Thomson Cruises in 2005 to be operated under the name Thomson Destiny. She is now operated on 7 night fly-cruises out of Palma/Majorca - various destinations throughout the Mediterranean Sea and Iberian Peninsular. Other 7 night fly-cruises take in the Canary Islands and Madeira.

View the website for prices and itinerary of Thomson Destiny at www.thomson.co.uk.