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Letters: Ocean liners of old, car rental returns and Boaty McBoatface

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I read “Turning Ships Into Big Resorts” [Cruise News, May 15, by Rosemary McClure] with great interest.

When I was a child and again as a young adult I traveled on the “old-fashioned” ships, cruising the Caribbean on the venerable Nassau and crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Mary and the France. This was before the advent of nonstop entertainment.

The mega-ship craze has kept me from another big-ship voyage until recently. We have booked a cruise to Alaska this summer. It’s a test to see if we like modern cruising. I don’t understand the need for constant stimuli.

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I was never bored on those classic ships even as a child and wish a shipping line would bring one back with teak decks, shuffleboard, an elegant ballroom and just the ocean going by. It could be the “vintage” experience.

Kathrin King Segal, Chatsworth

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Thank you very much for “Turning Ships Into Big Resorts,” which brings back fond memories of the Cunard Line’s Queen Elizabeth.

I sailed on this “Queen” on Oct. 23, 1957, from New York to Southampton, England.

I could have flown to London, but I chose to sail on the Queen Elizabeth because I knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience I didn’t want to miss.

Aw Taik Moh, San Gabriel

Returning a rental car? Get the sign-off papers

Re: “The Key to Rental Car Mystery,” On the Spot by Catharine Hamm, May 15: The best advice I ever got regarding renting a car was to never leave a car without getting the final sign-off papers.

When we returned a car to one agency in Paris, the friends we were with wanted to leave it without the final papers. Because I had to pay half, I insisted, though they were perturbed.

I went with the agent to check out the car in the lot. He went to pull it from the parking space and mistakenly went forward instead of back, almost hitting another car. If he had hit the car in front, he would have said we did the damage.

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Another time, when we returned a car at the Munich airport the man slid under the car and said there was damage. We said there was no way we could have checked underneath when we picked up the car. He sent us to the office inside the airport, where we had no problem getting the papers.

Once in the U.S. we returned a car and got the papers. Two hours later we were called and told there was damage. We said there was no damage when we left the car and had the papers to prove it.

Ilene Oller, Los Angeles

‘Boaty’ just seems more jaunty

Shame on the British governmental agency that will replace Boaty McBoatface, the popular name of a polar exploring ship, with the name Sir David Attenborough. (Yawn).

Huge mistake. In an online poll, as Mary Forgione wrote [Cruise Briefs, May], more than 100,000 voters like the original name, which to me conveys fun, whimsy and adventure on the high seas.

Another example of how removed the politicians are from the people, I guess. Pity.

David Tulanian, Los Angeles

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