Cruise Ships

Never got the chance to meet the captain in fact never got the chance to go aboard the ship if you can call it that to me it looks like the decorations on a wedding cake

cruise ships of today are far removed from yesteryears ,with many forms of entertainment and food everywhere , they only stay in port during the day and sail late afternoon , also sail from home ports all over the world .a great vacation choice , 5 star accomodations and food and entertainment included . a ocean front room in a hotel will cost more than the fare . its my wife and I,s favourite vacation mode ,and try too go on different ships , the last one was carnival dream ,130,000 tons WOW and that's not the nearly the largest . its just an easy car ride too our nearest port Canaveral that is .have to stay away from the high season though $$$$$

Anybody watch the "Last Voyage of the QE2" on BBC4 last night.
Interesting program though it did give an insight into part of the reasons for the demise of British Ship Building where due to the many unions involved at John Browns with many strikes going on throughout the building program the ship was eventually 6 months late.
John Browns built the QE2 at cost so desperate for work they were but the build was beset by problems with its workforce as most of them knew that once the ship sailed they would most likely all be out of a job, which proved to be correct.
The then president of Cunard acknowledged that the workmen at John Browns were some of the best craftsmen in the world as evidenced by the finished product which stood the test of time until her withdrawal in 2008. She is now languishing in Dubai with an uncertain future due to the crash in property prices in Dubai and the latest info. I could find was that in 2013 she had been brought by a new consortium, registered in Vanatua and the plan was to sail her to China for a 70 million dollar refit before mooring her as a floating hotel somewhere in China, possibly.
A sad end to a beautiful ship. Managed to get a sneak look on her in St. Croix back in 71 when I met one of the female croupiers off her on the beach there.
Another fact.
The QE2 was launched the same day that I struggled up the gangway of the tanker "Lord Mount Stephen" with a suitcase full of useless gear (mostly) from Greenbergs outfitters in Liverpool, to begin my seagoing career. 20 minutes later I was swinging valves in a noisy, hot pumproom, wondering if I had made the right choice whilst the QE2 was no doubt been towed to its fitting out berth to finish the process of turning it from an ugly duckling to a beautiful swan.
Like the Cunard directors, I too never regretted my choice.
rgds
JA

Yes saw the program as well John, she loks like a ship still, something pleaseing to your eye. I had a visit on her in the early 70`s, while in the fire service, was shortl.y after the mid atlantic bomb scare, and we were shown round , escorted by an armed guard. First thing i noticed last night was the lifeboats stored in the open on the top deck, in the old tradition, KT

She was indeed a beauty and maybe the last of the line of great British built ships. She still looked like the ships we knew and certainly stood the test of time.
n the cruise ships of today I am sure there must be anumber of 'gay' crew but unlike the days of UCL, Cunard, P&O etc there are never evident, no camping about on theses ships.

Camping about-John in Oz
Reminds me of a passenger on the E. of Canada who despite being very well educated and having an upper deck cabin, slept every night underneath his lifeboat with his life jacket as he was honestly terrified that we were charging around in the middle of the night with no head lamps on to show us the way. I took him onto the bridge at 0200 to show him we had radar and that as the ocean was pretty big we did not need lights to show us the way to go but he still thought we were nutters and never slept in his cabin at night time for the whole crossing.
Still he was not the strangest passenger I came across on the Empress.
rgds
JA

#36. 'Not the strangest passenger I came across'.....Don't stop there John:D....Could be a whole new thread:)

John I remember this guy coming aboard in Montreal he was on the passenger list as John Jesus,he realy thought that he was Jesus and he thought that he had to get to Jerusalam or somewhere in that area.He was put on a two table for him and Jesus and he would order two soups for instance when he had finished his the waiter would ask if Jesus had finished his,yes,so the waiter would take the other plate away.He was a scruffy so and so he used to walk about the ship with what I can only describe as a filthy (white) fridge coat and sandals.When we got to Liverpool he was not allowed to land,the Liverpool Echo got the story and they printed "He walks around the ship in white flowing robes",another reason to never believe what the papers say.Some religeous groups used to come down to the ship in Liverpool to see him.
Regards.
Jim.B.

The passenger who told me his wife had just died, had to drag him out of a brothel in Port of Spain as was sent ashore to find him as ship was sailing. Got set upon by the Harlots trying to get him out, he didnt want to leave either. He was nearly as old as I am now, and found out his wife had died many moons ago.The few passengers we carried were more bother than the general cargo. He didnt get any more free booze in my cabin. Cheers JS

Sea cruises seem to be getting a big write up lately I was reading this mornings paper and its got a two page supplement on cruise ships ,its got a big picture of a P&O liner in Sydney the Arcadia it gives a big write up about it .It does a world cruise and ends up in Southampton in April it gives the prices for different parts of the cruise.Our Captain Kong would be able to give us more info on cruise ships . I think I will stick to Gillys cruise on the Mersey How about that Gilly???