Liner Cruising

By Gerry Dubbin

The writer of two previous books, neither having any connection with cruising, this is my first entry into the expensive, overly hyped and glitzy world being promoted by the major cruise lines. The book evolved following my first cruise in 2012, on board a large freighter, CMA-CGM line’s Columba, during which I kept a detailed day-to-day diary of events experienced on the cruise, copies of which I emailed to friends back in Melbourne. Through them, others also requested a copy – so much so that I eventually found myself emailing multiple copies of the diaries, from both my first cruise on Columba and a later cruise on Princess line's Sea Princess. In 2014 I added diary notes on a third cruise - the maiden voyage of Regal Princess, Princess line's latest ship. As a result, some who had received or viewed copies of my first two diarised reports - suggested that the three diaries be included in a book - a different kind of book on cruising - designed to provide anyone contemplating a vacation at sea with an objective assessment of cruising - both on board a freighter and luxury liner. The book also seeks to provide a sometimes critical exploration of this expensive form of escape from everyday living; particularly when it comes to those forms of sea borne vacations being aggressively promoted by the world's up-market purveyors of world cruises - offering their version of "Utopia afloat".

• Language: English
• Publisher: ReadOnTime BV
• Release date: Nov 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781742844954

Gerry Dubbin

Gerry Dubbin spent the first eighteen years of his life in Harehills, a working-class suburb of Leeds, principal city of Yorkshire in the north of England. As a boy, he aspired to becoming a writer, a profession that circumstances put out of his reach. Instead, he entered the apparel manufacturing industry as a learner tailor. He studied apparel and textile design at the Leeds College of Technology, emerging with the highest national qualifications, including the prestigious English Silver Medal. Following two years of compulsory national service in the RAF, and seeing few future prospects in austerity-bound post-war Britain, he decided to migrate to Australia in 1959. Following a number of years working as apparel designer in Melbourne, during which he was responsible for establishing Australia’s first apparel-industry school of technology at the Melbourne College of Textiles, he joined the Australian Wool Board—later the Australian Wool Corporation—and was eventually appointed as the corporation's international marketing director, based in New York. Since returning to Australia in the late 1970s, he has held senior management positions in the apparel, textiles and timber industries. He later went on to establish a successful signage and architectural lighting company. Following a bitter but successfully fought dispute with a prominent Melbourne real-estate company at the Victorian Civil & Administrative Tribunal, he was appointed as an independent consumer advocate in the real-estate field, a role that resulted in his first book, “Smoke & Mirrors, Egos & Illusions: The World of Real Estate”. Ultimately, he decided that it was time to step away from the executive jungle, and rekindle his boyhood desire to become a published writer. “Why Should I Learn to Speak Italian?” is his fourth book. He currently resides in Hastings, a small town located on the Mornington Peninsula’s eastern shore, 60km south east of Melbourne.

Book preview

LINER CRUISING

Your guide to travels afloat.

- All the Hype and Glitz!

Gerry Dubbin

LINER CRUISING - Your guide to travels afloat. - All the Hype and Glitz!

Copyright © 2014 Gerry Dubbin

PO Box 214, Tyabb, Victoria 3913, Australia.

Email: [e-mail]

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

The information, views, opinions and visuals expressed in this publication are solely those of the author(s) and do not reflect those of the publisher. The publisher disclaims any liabilities or responsibilities whatsoever for any damages, libel or liabilities arising directly or indirectly from the contents of this publication.

A copy of this publication can be found in the National Library of Australia.

ISBN:  978-1-742844-95-4 (pbk.)

Published by Book Pal

www.bookpal.com.au

Contents

Chapter 1

All ABOUT CRUISING & CRUISERS

Chapter 2

CRUISING ON BOARD A FREIGHTER - from Malaysia to France

Chapter 3

SEA PRINCESS - A 7 week odyssey - from the UK to Australia

Chapter 4

REGAL PRINCESS - Her maiden cruise - from Venice through the Mediterranean & Aegean

Chapter 5

ON WHAT SHOULD I CRUISE?

Additional References

Index

Which kind of cruise?

Chapter 1

ALL ABOUT CRUISING & CRUISERS

Before committing yourself to the kind of sea borne vacation that has become known generally these days as cruising, and here specifically I refer to the kind of cruises being promoted aggressively by the world’s major cruise and shipping lines; it is important that you gain a greater insight into what to expect, once having committed yourself to a glitzy world on board one or other of the world′s growing fleet of floating dream palaces.

The question here: will the experience really turn out to be all that the advertising promised - and you had hoped for?

This book seeks to provide an occasionally critical exploration of a growing and increasingly expensive form of escape from everyday living; expensive particularly when it comes to those forms of sea borne vacations being aggressively promoted by most of the world′s up-market purveyors of world cruises.

I am not enamoured with the world of cruising, regardless of how enthusiastically the various cruise lines go about promoting their particular version of paradise afloat; a usually glitzy, pseudo luxurious environment, designed to titillate the senses of a group of travellers, some who appear to have lost the zest they once may have had for a more personalised form of overseas travel, through which to experience the world and its wonders.

Perhaps this particular group of travellers feel cosier consigning themselves to one or other of the major cruise lines - to share in the manufactured glamour, often over-the-top entertainment features and questionable safety of the floating multi-storied blocks of human cubbyholes, regularly being added to the worldwide fleet.

A cruise devotee acquaintance interestingly described the latest multi-balconied, bigger-and-better trend in cruise ship construction as having the appearance of a floating ‘never, never world’. A quasi riche environment within which a captive audience is being gently manoeuvred and massaged, toward becoming part of a dedicated group of cruise company aficionados.

It seems that nearly all forms of current day ocean cruising are gradually segueing into the kind of vacation whereby overlarge, mainly white painted liners are being packed to the gunwales with willing spenders of what many would regard as excessive amounts of the world′s leading currencies.

As a result, and for a relatively short time, they (the passengers) are able to wander about wide-eyed, in and around an overpoweringly large and ostentatiously designed, multi-storied layout, in company with a couple of thousand (or more) other similarly willing souls. An environment within which they can gaze about in wonder at the range of ′exciting′ features that surrounds them.

On this theme, one recent addition to one of the world′s prominent cruise lines has gone well beyond bigger and better swimming and light show pools, by including a large country garden style environment - with living plants and water features, complete with the services of a full time gardener to nurture, prune and water the masses of branches, fronds and flowers.

Perhaps such a move was thought necessary, in the belief that it will remind passengers of just what they are missing ashore?

They now have the dubious thrill of being able to stroll through a country garden - way out at sea. All the while having to jostle their way through a crowd of fellow passengers, within the confines of a ship.

The newest Princess line ship offers a cantilevered glass enclosed walkway, a structure that extends outboard from its pool and spa deck. Passengers can now walk or stand on this walkway, look down and experience the doubtful thrill of watching the sea, as it passes - 20 decks below - through its glass floor.

And so it goes on - each new ship trying to outdo the competition. But to what end we might ask?.........................

Something else to think about

WOULD YOU really enjoy having to scramble and cope with a milling, often overlarge crowd, every time you feel the need to attend an after dinner show or dine at one or other of the various on board smorgasbord and specialty feeding stations?

IS IT really in your body′s interests to tempt it daily with a tantalising excess of food and alcohol, too much of which you know will provide little in the way of support, particularly when it comes to maintaining your weight, fitness and general health to a desirable level?

WILL YOU really be happy to find yourself jostling daily among a couple of thousand (or more) strangers, all day and every day, from morning until night - whichever way you turn and at whichever entertainment or other on board venue you choose to attend?

Yes, I must agree that those great big sexily shaped cruise ships do provide a range of entertainments and an assortment of other joys. Nightly stage shows that eventually become repetitive, the opportunity to purchase all manner of expensively gaudy bling and glitter; watches and ′original′ art, (most of the latter which you wouldn′t look at twice in the real world); not to mention ship′s emblem encrusted cups, caps, T shirts, towels, bathrobes, scarves, jackets - and lots of other useless stuff, which you will probably rarely, if ever use.

Figures touted around these days tend to suggest that a growing number of people are being drawn moth like toward the questionable joy of becoming a ′cruiser′; some perhaps in the mistaken belief that by regularly taking to the sea on board an oversized and glitzily laid out ship will assist them to ‘get away from it all’..........whatever ′it all′ really is?................ So be it - who am I to judge?

Oh to sail with the wind………

To sail with the wind, that is my idea of cruising. So dear reader I will preface the following pages and the three detailed and daily diarised cruise reports that follow, by declaring that, as a sailing purist, my idea of cruising across an ocean, or anywhere else for that matter - the accent very definitely on the word sailing, has always meant finding myself on board a well found yacht as it broad reached over the surface of a serene, you could say pacific ocean - propelled by a kind wind. At the same time, I also recognise that sailing as I have described it may not be everyone′s ′cup of tea′.

My first cruise

My first cruise experience on board a large ship was a most memorable one.

It was the first time ever that I had ventured out upon the sea in a ship, or even a rowing boat or dinghy of any description.

That memorable month long voyage was on board the ageing but still comfortable liner Orion, one of the then Orient Line′s ships that carried my wife and I, along with a thousand or so other fellow travellers, speedily and safely from England to Australia.

In our case we travelled as a newly married couple of £10 ′Pommie′ migrants.

Until recently, Orion was the one and only liner on which I had voyaged for any length of time. I should add here that as a young and inexperienced 23 year old Yorkshire lad, that journey in 1959 was a world away from the range of cruises an increasing number of travellers are being encouraged to experience these days.

These are also days when vigorously competing fleets of luxury liners and their owner companies are beckoning, like voluptuous sea sirens, to a growing segment of the western world′s ageing and affluent populations, many it seems desperately seeking nirvana. More people also seem intent these days on reaching for something different in the way of a vacation experience, while others perhaps are more inclined toward running down their later years on Earth, in company with others of a like mind.

In the latter case, it seems that a growing percentage are being attracted to life on board a large ship (i.e. becoming dedicated cruisers); doing so while they still possess the financial resources with which to meet the cost - and the physical and mental capabilities with which to survive the experience.

Incidentally, the title ′cruiser′ these days is a relatively recent addition to the sailing lexicon; previously the term having the meaning of either a small warship, police car, or as described in at least one dictionary as: ′somebody seeking a sexual partner′.

Nowadays of course, following the increasing popularity of sea going cruises, the term has taken on a whole new meaning; these days describing the growing number of those regularly taking their vacations at sea. While no longer only a small warship or police car, the reference to somebody seeking a sexual partner hasn′t been totally lost however - as illustrated in the "Love Boat" film series and on one or two occasions discussed later in this book.

Cruise advertising

You only need to scan through the pages and pages of glossy cruise and shipping line brochures being distributed these days, each offering cruising holiday destinations that continue to inundate travel agencies, motoring organisation magazines and readers of the daily press across the more affluent parts of the world, to begin to recognise the spread of advertising in support of cruising.

These and many other similar organisations throughout a number of countries, although themselves not directly connected with the various cruise or cargo shipping lines, continue to demonstrate a parallel keenness, particularly when it comes to promoting the dream of boarding an overpoweringly large ocean going liner to their readers.

The amount of advertising revenue being expended on the promotion of cruising holidays is increasing rapidly with each passing year. This alone probably accounts for much of the enthusiasm with which these and similar organisations rush to climb on board the cruise bandwagon.

Many reading one or other of the myriad of attractive brochures offering cruising vacations, could not be blamed for being easily influenced toward imagining themselves being wafted over one or more of the fabled seven seas; borne along in the lap of luxury, comfort and absolute safety - their every whim and creature need being catered for.

The question of safety at sea

When it comes to the question of safety, there have been a growing number of events in the more recent past which have brought issues of safety at sea very much into the spotlight, with more than one large, modern and supposedly safe luxury liner finding herself (ships are usually referred to as she) either coming to grief or nearly so - in one way or another.

Everyone will recall I am sure, the luxuriously appointed liner Costa Concordia, that in recent times managed, almost unbelievably, to impale herself upon the rocks off a small Italian island - with, it should be noted, the assistance of some very questionable captaining to aid the process. Not only did that relatively new ship come to grief on those rocks, but the captain and some senior officers appear to have been among the first to make good their personal escape from the rapidly tilting ship, without any apparent thought as to the safety of their passengers, a number of whom unfortunately lost their lives.

Add to that a number of other potentially dangerous and threatening situations during 2013, one of the more notable that involved the Carnival Cruise Lines ship Carnival Triumph. In Triumph′s case, while cruising in the Gulf of Mexico and carrying more than 4,200 passengers she suffered a fire at sea which resulted in the ship losing engine power. Carnival Triumph eventually had to be towed into the port of Mobile, Alabama by tugboats.

Her unfortunate passengers meanwhile, instead of being able to lie back and enjoy the luxury cruise they had anticipated, found themselves instead having to put up with conditions reminiscent of, or even possibly worse than those experienced by passengers on Governor Philip′s ′first fleet′ that sailed from England to Australia over 200 years earlier!

The case of those ill fated ships in 2012 and 2013, when added to reports of various other cruise line ships getting into some sort of trouble, sometimes reported while a number of other safety issues were kept quietly ′within house′ by the various cruise lines, has surely put paid to the generally accepted theory regarding the relative safety of travel on board a modern day ocean going liner.

The loss of Costa Concordia and a whole string of other major and minor mishaps over recent years has highlighted the fact that even with the most modern of cruise liners, equipped with the best and latest equipment that money and modern technology can buy, at sea there will always exist the risk that an accident could and will in all probability occur - sooner or later.

Whether caused by human frailty or mechanical breakdown, it also seems to this writer that with the ever-increasing size of liners currently in service and others being planned for the future, many designed to carry more and more passengers, it surely follows that there will always exist the risk of an accident, injury, sickness or equipment failure occurring - probably at a time when the world - and more to the point, those on board at the time least expect it.

It is also useful here to emphasise the point that with more and more larger, luxuriously appointed ships coming onto the cruise market, some now and in the future capable of embarking between 3,000 and 5,000+ passengers at a time, that mechanical reliability, passenger health, on board safety and safe navigation issues will continue to represent a potential concern. This is seen to be so on ships carrying a large proportion of their passengers, particularly on longer voyages, categorised as being relatively geriatric. In other words passengers who are older, senior, ageing, infirm - or a combination of these conditions.

Regardless of how ships destined for cruising are designed, or their apparent size, once at sea they will inevitably continue to represent some form of health risk at the very least, if only due to the number of breathing and consuming human beings being carried, fed, serviced and entertained, all within a relatively confined space; each regularly close to, touching and being touched by strangers. This regardless of the ship’s size and warnings as to the potential danger of spreading illnesses and viruses of various kinds, all within a relatively restricted and crowded environment.

In discussing the risks, low as they may be claimed to be by the cruise companies offering ocean going vacations, having already myself cruised recently on board two modern luxury liners, Sea Princess, over 55 days, and Regal Princess on her maiden Mediterranean cruise of 13 days, I came to the conclusion, that prior to anyone contemplating a vacation ′going cruising′, they should carefully consider if and how they would be able to cope, in the event of them succumbing to a serious sickness, an accident - or the ship upon which they are travelling becoming involved in a collision or some other form of incident, or near disaster at sea.

To the above should also be added the probability of experiencing an occasional attack of ennui.

They need also to consider just how they would cope with the kind of extreme sea conditions that can and often will affect the ship at any time; any ship that is, regardless of its size and whatever stabilising appendages they have been fitted with, before committing themselves to a vacation upon one or other of the world′s oceans.

Cruising into turbulent waters

On the question of safety at sea, and in order to add some balance to the discussion, it is also generally recognised that flying is still regarded by many as being a more potentially dangerous mode of travel, itself sprinkled with more than its fair share of tragic accidents. At least, often the comment goes:

"If anything does goes wrong at sea, it is in all probability better happening there than as a passenger on a commercial airliner - strapped inside a sealed metal tube, often uncomfortably and - some 35,000 feet up into the lower stratosphere!"

While this sentiment may well be true, also the thought that any form of travel has its dangers, why pick on cruising at sea?

In defence of cruising, it would be useful here to quote from a Wikipedia report titled "Cruise ship", which itself referred to an article published in the Adelaide Advertiser on 21st January 2012, titled Cruising into turbulent waters.

This report, in addition to other information, noted that: "From 2005 to the Costa Concordia disaster in 2012, out of more than 100,000,000 people worldwide who had taken cruises, there had been 16 fatalities. Only 16 fatalities in a hundred million cruises - I keep wondering about that?

The figures included in that report do not appear to include injuries, near death or other severe maladies that may have befallen a number of unlucky travellers, while cruising on one or other of the world′s liners or freighters during the same period. One wonders also if the statistics presented refer specifically to ocean cruising, or do they also include all sea, river and other relatively short cruises in local waters? If so, it seems reasonable to comment that the 16 fatalities noted are at best located at the extremely low end of the actual potential fatality, injury and sickness equation.

When it comes to the sort of cruising being discussed in this book. The diarised notes that follow would appear to disprove the statistics on fatalities, as quoted in the Adelaide Advertiser article.

Rogue waves & ships at sea

A potential safety at sea issue rarely, if ever, talked about by cruise companies, is that surrounding the professional seaman′s long time fear of meeting up with an unpredicted, often deadly monster sized rogue wave.

Now you might think that the design and size of modern liners makes them less susceptible to damage, as a result of being hit by a rogue wave; well, think again!

This very subject was reported on in detail, just prior to the publication of this book, in a searching article that appeared in the ′Focus′ section of the Melbourne AGE newspaper of August 11, 2014. The article titled HIGH ROLLERS was sub-headed:

We know colossal rogue waves exist. But predicting where and when these deep-sea monsters will strike is another matter.

The article, along with a great deal more detail on both the history and reasons why such destructive waves have been appearing over many years, included a relatively recent example of a cruise ship that came off second best following being hit by a series of rogue waves.

The incident in question involved the 40,876 ton Greek cruise ship Louis Majesty, during what was described as a ′hopscotching′ tour around the Mediterranean. It occurred following her departure from Barcelona for Genoa in northern Italy, on the final leg of her tour. But, the Mediterranean apparently had other ideas - as reported in the article:

"Storm clouds were gathering as the ship ventured eastward out of the port at around 1pm on March 3, 2010.

The sea swell steadily increased during the first hours of her voyage, enough to test those with less experienced sea legs, but nothing out of the ordinary.

At 4.20 pm, the ship ran, without warning, into a wall of water 8 metres or more in height. As far as events can be reconstructed, the ship′s pitch as she descended the wave′s lee tilted her into a second and possibly a third monster wave immediately behind. Water smashed through the windows of a lounge on deck five, almost 17 metres above the ship′s water line. Two passengers were killed instantly and 14 more injured.

Then, as suddenly as the waves had appeared, they were gone. The ship turned and limped back to Barcelona."

The article goes on to discuss the phenomena of rogue waves suddenly and unexpectedly appearing - and in doing so also pointed out that:

We know that rogue waves can arise in every ocean. The North Atlantic, Drake′s passage between Antarctica and the southern tip of South America, and the waters of the southern coast of South Africa are particularly prone. Rogues possibly also occur in some large freshwater bodies such as the Great Lakes of North America.

Also add to these locations, the Mediterranean as described above and presumably other stretches of ocean like the north and south Pacific?

The point to remember here is that even with current day technology, added to proposals to set up a worldwide early warning system capable of providing predictions on the possibility of encountering wave disturbances, prior to ships leaving port, the early prospects of setting up such a worldwide warning system appear doubtful. On this point, the Age article ended with the comment: "at this point it′s not a shortage of theory, but a shortage of communication".

A CBS report on the Louis Majesty incident dated 6th March 2010 also featured on the ′You Tube′ Internet site.

What both the AGE article and the CBS report tells us is that even with the best that modern technology can currently provide in the way of ship design and accurate and timely weather warnings, mother nature and the world′s wind systems, oceans and seas, will continue to possess the capacity to spring a deadly surprise at any time, on any ocean going ship or cruise liner.

While the potential of another large cruise ship meeting up with a dangerous rogue wave similar to that which caused so much damage and deaths on Louis Majesty is rare, it still remains a possibility and perhaps something else to think about perhaps, prior to boarding that beautiful white cruise ship?

Air travel too has its issues

I am providing the foregoing only to draw a comparison between the relative dangers that any traveller may face, at any time during a vacation away from home base, particularly if taking that vacation in a foreign country, or at sea.

I also offer the view that most people contemplating long distance travel, particularly when it comes to being packed into an aluminium cylinder and blasted off into the lower stratosphere, like me may well harbour one or two bad feelings at some time during any flight they decide to undertake.

Like most other travellers by air, I too, a long time world traveller, have often found myself thinking twice, prior to booking an air ticket to a destination far away from my home in Australia. Over many years of travel though I have come to accept the statistics - which appear to tell us that in terms of the chances of becoming involved in an airliner accident, there is more chance of being killed or injured venturing out onto the roads of our cities, than either of flying or cruising. Let us therefore leave the question of safety at that for the time being.......... at least until discussed in more detail, later in this book.

On shorter river cruises, there does seem to be less that could or should go wrong; at least so the statistics thus far would seem to indicate. Sailing majestically down one or other of Europe′s great rivers appearing not to present much in the way of the same kind of conditions than can often be found at sea. We don′t yet expect to hear of something similar to Costa Concordia′s demise being re-enacted on one of the long riverboat cruises being advertised so heavily these days. It could happen though....couldn′t it?

Why this book?

I decided to write what could be regarded as a critique of cruising following three recent personal experiences, each gained on three different kinds of ships. I should note here that not all that follows is intended to be overly critical, with the possible risk of being accused of unfair comment, when it comes to how the major cruise lines design, build, promote and operate their ships.

Cruising does provide an increasing number among the world’s more affluent populations, with what can appear to represent an attractive, alternative way by which to enjoy a short or even a lengthy sojourn at sea. Cruising has in fact become a vacation mode offering much to recommend it - to a specific kind of traveller.

My reasons for deciding to cruise in the first place, particularly as I hadn′t sailed on a large, modern luxury liner prior to 2013, was to try out the experience for myself and, having already done so