Carnival Conquest to make big first impression with impressionist interiors
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The 110,00-ton Carnival Conquest, to be the largest vessel in the "Fun Ship"
fleet and the first ship in the line's new Conquest-class, has interior spaces
unified by a theme based on the works of great Impressionist and
post-Impressionist painters.
From the bold brush strokes and primary colors of Vincent Van Gogh to the
gentle, muted tones of Claude Monet's "Water Lilies," Carnival Conquest's
interiors present a huge canvas for the vivid imagination of Carnival's ship
architect Joe Farcus.
The 2,974-passenger ship, which is slated to debut in New Orleans in December,
will operate seven-day western Caribbean cruises year-round from the Big Easy.
Farcus pointed out that this is the first "Fun Ship" whose interior design was
directly tied to its intended home-port.
"When I learned the ship was to sail from New Orleans, I was inspired to use
the Impressionists as a jumping-off point for the interior design," said
Farcus.
"Edgar Degas actually lived in New Orleans for a time, so there is definitely a
connection between the city, which is an artist's city with a definite French
influence, and the Impressionist painters."
Farcus describes the ship's main atrium and lobby as a "testimonial to all of
the Impressionist and post-Impressionist painters."
The Artists' Lobby design is dominated by a large hand-painted mural collage of
details from famous Impressionist paintings on the central ceiling dome and
vertical wall of the Atelier Atrium.
The collage effect is picked up again in the promenade and in other public
areas throughout the ship.
Internally illuminated Murano-glass sculptures of flowers on antiqued bronze
stalks provide muted lighting effects and the walls are of wood paneling with
inlaid wood marquetry and hand-laid mosaics.
The bar fronts are wood inlaid panels interspersed with Murano glass flowers.
The Toulouse-Lautrec Show Lounge takes as its inspiration the diminutive French
painter's sketches and portraits drawn from the subjects he found in the
cabarets, theater, circus and brothels of Paris' Montmartre district.
The lounge's walls display hand-painted reproductions of the artist's poster
works, while gold and red dominate chromatically and the overall style is art
nouveau.
To the sides of the stage are the famous windmill signs of the Moulin Rouge
cabaret, its vanes turning in an imaginary breeze, and the windmill motif is
repeated in the carpet design.
The ship features two two-level dining rooms.
"For the restaurants, I wanted to do something quiet and beautiful," explained
Farcus, "so I chose Monet and Renoir." Both rooms are architecturally
identical, and both feature panels of stylized wood veneered images of the
Eiffel Tower in the walls and ceiling.
The fabrics and colors are based on different works by the two namesake
painters.
The forward Renoir Restaurant takes its inspiration from "Lunch at the
Restaurant Fournaise," a tranquil scene of boaters relaxing at a cafe'
overlooking the Seine, which is featured in the wall-covering fabric.
The flower-covered trellis in the painting is repeated in the carpet's colors
and pattern.
In the aft Monet Restaurant, one of the artist's famous "Water Lilies" series
of nature scenes sets the atmosphere.
Here, the carpet pattern repeats the green water lilies floating in a
reflective blue pond, which is featured on the wall fabric.
The two-level Restaurant Cezanne on Lido Deck takes elements from the
post-Impressionist painters works to create the atmosphere of a 19th-century
French cafe'.
The period hand-painted ceramic-tile wainscoting is complemented by details and
reproductions of wall covering patterns seen in classic Cezanne works,
including "Chateau Noir," "Self-Portrait on a Rose Background" and "House of
Pere Lacroix in Auvers." The Point is the Conquest's reservations-only supper
club, located high up on Panorama Deck.
The restaurant takes its name from the style of Georges-Pierre Seurat, known as
pointillism, which is the rendering of images through thousands of individual
dots, or points, of color.
The walls have murals in the style of Seurat's famous "Le Cirque (The Circus),"
featuring circus tents rendered in the pointillist style.
The ceiling is a mural of clouds in a blue sky with special LED and star lights
which will provide a sunset-to-night effect during the course of the evening.
New for the Conquest-class is an expanded game room and teen area that serves
as a "second promenade for teenagers," said Farcus.
Decorated to resemble the back alleys of the infamous Montmartre district of
19th-century Paris, the room sports brick walls with peeling stucco decorated
with rock concert posters and graffiti, building facades and wood fences.
The facilities for teens include a dance floor, video wall, lounge, soft-drink
bar and the latest state-of-the-art video games.
The Polynesian world of post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin is re-created in the
Tahiti Casino.
Beams and columns of bamboo and wood, and cast thatch ceiling panels impart the
feeling of a Tahitian village with colorful jungle-motif fabrics and rich wood
tones add to the ambiance.
Gauguin style native figurative sculptures with simulated flames rising from
their heads complete the mysterious, rustic décor.
Gauguin's Bar, the Conquest's sports bar, carries on the Tahitian theme from
the adjacent casino, but incorporates more wall murals of Gauguin's paintings.
Henri's Dance Club takes its theme from the exotic jungle paintings of Henri
Rousseau.
Painted metal cutouts made to look like the coarse grass of Rousseau's
paintings are mounted on the wall, with occasional three-dimensional heads of
animals similar to the kind often seen lurking in the artist's works.
Muted reds, golds and greens dominate the fabrics and window treatments, while
the carpet is a colorful, cartoon-like pattern of animals peeking from behind
bright-green leaves of grass.
Vincent's Piano Bar breaks with the design of the other public rooms by not
reproducing any actual Van Gogh works as part of the décor.
Instead, the architecture itself is made to imitate Van Gogh's surreal style
with twisted columns painted bright yellow typified in his painting of the
Church at Auveres.
The walls are finished in murals of sunflowers reminiscent of the artist's
famous painting of a vase of sunflowers, accented by shuttered windows.
Light fixtures are colored glass in the shape of irises - another prominent Van
Gogh subject.
The Blue Piano Bar takes as its theme from the blue color commonly found in the
works of Henri Matisse, considered the greatest French painter of the 20th
century.
The walls, ceilings and doors are highly decorated - as if painted by Matisse
himself - with swirls, flowers, arabesques and abstract designs.
The carpet is a pattern designed after the artist's work "Icarus," which shows
a silhouetted figure falling across a background of blue sky and yellow stars.
Alfred's Bar, located on Atlantic Deck beneath the dance club, is named for
Alfred Sisely, an Englishman raised in Paris and one of the fathers of the
Impressionist movement.
The room is decorated like a wood-paneled English drawing room with large
reproductions of Sisely's cityscapes, landscapes and rural subjects displayed
on the walls.
Dark, rich colors dominate, and between the windows are pedestals supporting
busts of the artist's likeness.
The Degas Lounge, aft on Promenade Deck, takes its theme from the artist's
fascination with ballet dancers. Bronze cast sculptures of ballerina figures
are fitted into niches around the room.
The ceiling has case decorative bronze-colored moldings and chandeliers, and
the fabrics are deep burgundy and gold, creating a very classy venue.
Prior to entering year-round seven-day western Caribbean service departing New
Orleans every Sunday, the Carnival Conquest will operate a series of three
special voyages.
A four-day cruise departing Nov. 15 will feature a visit to Cozumel, Mexico; a
six-day cruise departing Nov. 21 will visit Georgetown, Grand Cayman; and
Cozumel; and a four-day Thanksgiving weekend cruise departing Nov. 27 will call
at Cozumel.
Seven-day cruises will visit Montego Bay, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel.
(Source: Carnival Cruise Lines)
Erkan ISIK
Anchors Away Cruise Center
Burlingame-CA
1-888-516-6306
http://www.mustcruise.com