New Ships, Ideas and Ports Are on the Horizon

In this cruise season of 1986-87 you can go down to the sea in ships that old-timers could not have imagined, and sail to faraway places even your atlas doesn’t know for sure.

Innovation is the name of the game, as the cruise lines haul out new ships, new ideas, new ports of departure and new ports of call to entice people who never thought about taking a cruise before.

You want something unusual? How about a four-masted sailing ship with automated rigging (controlled from the bridge) for drifting dreamily through the cerulean and turquoise waters of Tahiti or the Grenadines?

The 440-foot, 150-passenger Wind Star, first of four such vessels from Windstar Sail Cruises, makes her maiden voyage on Dec. 13 from Martinique; sister ship Wind Song is due in Papeete next June 5 for French Polynesian cruises. A toll-free call to (800) 258-SAIL gets you details.

Largest Cruise Ship

You want big? Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines is building the Sovereign of the Seas, the largest cruise ship ever built (70,000 tons) and capacity (2,276 passengers), due to debut in the Caribbean in January, 1988.

You want little and luxurious and ultra-expensive? Maxim’s des Mers, a 32-passenger yacht decorated by Pierre Cardin in the style of Maxim’s restaurant in Paris, starts Caribbean cruises out of Barbados and Antigua beginning Nov. 29. (from $4,480 per person for seven days)/

How about a high-speed catamaran around the islands of Hawaii? Exploration’s new Executive Explorer, scheduled to begin seven-day round-trip sailings out of Honolulu Oct. 18, will carry only 49 passengers in wide-windowed splendor around some seldom-visited areas. It zips between ports to give you more time on shore for sightseeing.

Want a trip down Memory Lane? From the “everything old is new again” department comes word that the 1952 Monterey, late of the Matson and the Pacific Far East Line (not to be confused with the 1932 Monterey, now called the Chandris’ Britanis) is in the Pacific Northwest undergoing renovations before steaming to Helsinki to be lavishly refitted for Hawaiian Islands cruises under the Aloha Pacific Cruises banner.

301 More Cabins

The number of cabins will be increased to 301 by extending the decks fore and aft; a gourmet menu will be designed by executive chef Stanley Pepperill-Hill, formerly with Buckingham Palace. The ship is expected to come on line as early as next July with a San Francisco-to-Hawaii inaugural sailing. You can get details from Aloha Pacific Cruises, 604 Cameron St., Alexandria, Va. 22314, phone (703) 683-5566.

Typical of volatile changes in schedules and itineraries is Los Angeles-based Princess Cruises. The line’s flagship Royal Princess is off to the South Pacific and Orient in February for a series of China cruises, while the Island Princess heads for Sydney Oct. 2 for six months of South Seas sailings.

A hefty dollop of cosmetic surgery will turn P&O;’s (parent company of Princess) staid Sea Princess, the ex-Kungsholm, into a glamorous and fun-loving Princess ship for Caribbean cruises this winter, while the company’s Pacific Princess is one of the first to announce a return to Europe and the Mediterranean next spring. Only the Sun Princess stays the same, still plying seven-day Caribbean jaunts out of San Juan.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Many seem to be in a flurry of mergers and acquisitions. Cunard recently announced a long-term agreement to take over the operation of Sea Goddess Cruises, bringing those yacht-like luxury vessels into the same family with the grande dame of the seas, the QE2, itself undergoing a $135-million overhauling this winter “to keep her sailing well into the 21st Century.”

Los Angeles-based Western Cruise Lines, Seattle-based Sundance Cruises and Miami-based Eastern Cruise Lines have merged to form a company named Admiral Cruise Line, which will begin operating all three ships--Azure Seas, Emerald Seas and Stardancer--under the “Supercruise” banner on Oct. 1.

Among the new ships, Home Line’s 1,030-passenger Homeric, Carnival’s 1,500-passenger Jubilee and Exploration’s 250-passenger Explorer Starship all made their debuts this summer and will spend next winter in the Caribbean.

Big One on the Way

Norwegian Caribbean Line has ordered a 40,000-ton, 1,672-passenger ship from Finland’s Wartsila Shipyards for delivery in May, 1988, with a second ship due a year later.

Return From Dry Dock

San Diego is winter home for Exploration’s North Star, expected to return from dry dock repairs in time to resume Mexican Riviera sailings in October.

Royal Cruise Line, whose Golden Odyssey inaugurated China cruises last spring, returns to the Pacific and Orient this fall and winter with both ships. The Golden Odyssey will offer Peking and Shanghai stopovers in the fall and spring, with Canton, Bangkok, Singapore and Bali featured on winter sailings. The Royal Odyssey will make a series of Southern Cross cruises between Auckland and Sydney via Milford Sound and Tasmania between November and February.

Royal Viking’s Star will be returning to the Orient and South Pacific this year, adding more Australian and New Zealand ports of call than ever on a series of sailings from January through March.

For Tahiti fans with more flexibility than money, American Hawaii’s Liberte is offering a standby fare of only $895 per person, double occupancy, for the weeklong cruise. Add-on air fare is $299 per person round trip from Los Angeles.

The east coast of South America, especially in combination with the Caribbean, looks like a big winner this year. Sun Line’s Stella Solaris will cruise down to Carnival in Rio again in February, along with Christmas and New Year Amazon River sailings. Sun’s Stella Oceanis adds Surinam River cruises for Christmas and New Year’s to its successful Orinoco River sailings, scheduled this year for mid-January through February.

Also Orinoco-bound this winter are the two ships from Ocean Cruise Lines, Ocean Princess and Ocean Islander, with jampacked seven-day itineraries round trip out of Barbados.

Epirotiki’s World Renaissance continues its highly successful “Caribizon” cruises between Guadeloupe and Manaus that include the Amazon and Devil’s Island, with departures scheduled between Dec. 22 and March 9.

64-Day Circumnavigation

In addition to this fall’s 64-day circumnavigation of South America departing Los Angeles Oct. 18, the Royal Viking Sea has set several new South American itineraries for next spring, including a round-trip Strait of Magellan cruise out of Rio April 18, two sailings between Fort Lauderdale and Rio, and the line’s first Amazon River cruise in November, 1987.

On the Pacific side of the continent, Epirotiki’s Jason is scheduled to return to the Galapagos Islands for fall and spring cruises. As the only classic cruise vessel and only non-Ecuadorean ship in those waters, the Jason is limited to carrying half its normal capacity, so passengers can enjoy plenty of room on board.

Way down south in Antarctica, Seattle-based Society Expeditions continues to monopolize the icebergs and penguins, with both Society Explorer and World Discoverer offering a variety of cruises including, on the latter, a 35-day circumnavigation of Antarctica departing Jan. 18 with special guest James Michener on board.

Not only is the world getting smaller but so are the world cruises. Unrest in various parts of the globe results in sleepless nights for conservative cruise companies who plan itineraries as much as two years in advance. The net result for 1986-87 world cruises: Only Costa’s 400-passenger Danae and P&O;’s 1,400-passenger Canberra are going around the world via the traditional route.

The Danae, starting in the Mediterranean, leaves Genoa on Dec. 20 and touches 33 ports in 25 countries before going back into Genoa on April 3. The Canberra celebrates P&O;’s 150th birthday by sailing from Southampton on Jan. 6 heading west, through the Panama Canal to Los Angeles, traversing the Pacific with calls at Fiji, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Mombasa, transiting the Suez and the Mediterranean, arriving home on April 7.

Cunard’s QE2 will be in dry dock this winter to get new engines, but the Cunard/NAC Sagafjord will depart Fort Lauderdale on Jan. 8 for a 99-day world cruise via the South Pacific, Indian Ocean, around Africa and up South America’s east coast. The Royal Viking Sky will follow a similar route, leaving San Francisco on Jan. 7 for a 100-day cruise that calls in Perth during the scheduled finals for the America’s Cup.

The Cunard/NAC Vistafjord will depart Los Angeles on Jan. 5 on a 75-day round trip to Pacific and Orient ports, including five days at the America’s Cup finals.

Holland America’s Rotterdam is to leave Fort Lauderdale Jan. 8 on what will probably be the last of its long voyages, ironically not going all the way around the world this time but instead, sailing around South America, across the South Pacific, up through the Orient and through the Panama Canal.

The Falkland Islands are included on the Rotterdam’s Grand Circle cruise and some of Society Expeditions’ Antarctic sailings; Fremantle will be visited in early February by, among others, the Vistafjord and RVL Sky, and Rangoon is included on the World Discoverer’s March 20 Bali to Burma sailing.

Roseau, Dominica and the resort of Labadee on the north coast of Haiti are new Caribbean calls for RCCL, while the intriguing Nananu-I-Ra off northern Fiji is on the November South Seas sailings of the Island Princess out of Sydney.

Nosy Be, on the northern end of Madagascar, is on Salen-Lindblad’s March 8 cruise to Madagascar and the Seychelles aboard the Ambassador.