The 18,455gt casino ship Long Jie (1972/18,455), which first entered service 39 years ago as Royal Caribbean’s Sun Viking, has been sold to Chinese interests, renamed Oriental Dragon and will operate cruises from Shanghai to Korea and Hong Kong. She is the third of a trio operated by Royal Caribbean, together with sisters Song of Norway and Nordic Prince. These are now sailing for different operators but have similar names, Ocean Pearl (1970/22,945) and Ocean Star Pacific ((1971/23,149) respectively.
Sun Viking was also the only one of the three ships not contractually obliged on her sale to remove the distinctive Viking Crown Lounge, which partially encircled her funnel. She left the RCI fleet in 1998 and was briefly renamed Superstar Sagittarius for Star Cruises before changing hands again, this time going to Hyundai Merchant Marine for whom she sailed as Hyundai Pongnae.
