CRUISING: Changing Times

Even the late Noel Coward, the most urbane, unflappable cruise passenger one can imagine, spokesman for a whole generation of elegant and sophisticated travelers, might have been rendered speechless at what’s afloat these days.

On the decks he frequented there would have been no earphone-wearing joggers or aerobics classes, just stately promenaders (the kind who nod only after being properly introduced) or dozing readers wrapped in steamer blankets. Certainly nobody ever requested a nonsmoking table or a low-calorie lunch.

He would definitely have raised an eyebrow at dress codes allowing gentlemen not only to appear at dinner without black tie but without any tie or jacket at all, and he could hardly have imagined shipboard couples stealing away after dinner to screen a video in the cabin instead of dancing cheek to cheek.

But most likely, after humming a chorus of “Why Do the Wrong People Travel, Travel, Travel,” he’d admit that nostalgia isn’t what it used to be, and settle in with delight to sail away toward the 1990s.

Today’s new ships are set on delivering the same kind of luxury to all passengers that the great liners of the past could offer only in first-class, if then.

Cabins are expanding to the size of suites, with king-size beds and windows instead of berths and portholes, color TV sets and VCRs, combination safes and minibar refrigerators. Bathrooms are lavishly furnished with terry-cloth robes, built-in hair dryers and designer toiletries.

Lobbies are airy, multilevel spaces that rival hotel atriums, and the modest little shipboard shop has grown into a seagoing duty-free mall.

By blending contemporary comforts with the return of natural materials from marble to wood and introducing fresh concepts such as Windstar’s plush, computer-age sailing ships, cruise companies are creating a new romance for today rather than sounding the fading echoes of yesterday.

And it’s a fine romance, with the new ships under construction calculated to please today’s livelier, younger passengers, many of whom are setting sail for the first time.

“Cruise passengers want to do things at their own pace, when they want to do it,” says Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s Rich Steck, “and they’re tired of the same old entertainment.”

So the line’s gigantic new Sovereign of the Seas, due in Miami in early January, will offer seven entertaining options after dinner every evening--musical revue, cabaret show, casino, dance band, disco and two feature films.

Dinner Choices

“Not everyone wants to dress for dinner every night,” Norwegian Caribbean Lines president Rod McLeod says. Norwegian’s 1,534-passenger Seaward, due in June, will offer flexible dinner choices from casual deck buffets to traditional dining rooms to white-glove service in a supper- club atmosphere.

While everything but shorts and T-shirts is acceptable at dinner in The Restaurant, “casual elegance” is the requested evening dress aboard Windstar Sail Cruises, which will introduce its third state-of-the-art motor and sailing ship Wind Spirit next March in the Mediterranean.

Wind Star in the Caribbean and Wind Song in French Polynesia, both less than a year old, are attracting an extremely high percentage of first-time cruisers with their unstructured informality and active water sports program.

“People love to shop,” says Royal Cruise Line’s Mimi Weisband. “For many, it’s another form of entertainment. Ships can sell things duty free and offer terrific prices.”

Royal’s elegant new 1,000-passenger Crown Odyssey, due to make its inaugural sailing from England next June 21, will not only include an expanded boutique as well as an eight-tiered lounge for “better visibility,” another passenger request, but 600-square-foot apartments with terraces, marble bathrooms and whirlpool tubs, as well as staterooms with glass bay windows.

Royal has also ordered a sister ship to the Crown Odyssey for 1989 delivery, and sold its 800-passenger Royal Odyssey to Regency Cruises, which will take delivery in November, 1988, at the conclusion of the ship’s Mediterranean season.

At least one new line, Miami-based Sea Venture Cruises, has designed its first ship around the conclusions from a detailed 10-page questionnaire filled out by frequent cruise passengers. Among other things, they found sophisticated cruisers want larger closets, built-in hair dryers and magnifying mirrors in the bathrooms.

Alaska for Summer

The 360-passenger Sea Venture, due in Vancouver in early June for a summer season in Alaska, will also provide all-outside suite-like cabins, more than half of them with private terraces, for an average per diem of around $350 per person, double occupancy, according to sales director Douglas Hamilton.

“Our new ship is a big ship,” says Royal Viking Line president Joe Watters, “but we want it to be an intimate ship, so we have planned a lot of nooks and crannies.”

He cites a wood-paneled Oak Room with leather armchairs and gas fireplace for after-dinner coffee and cognac, an English croquet court on an upper deck and a small wine bar equipped with a Cruvinet to serve fine vintages by the glass.

The 36,000-ton ship, not yet named, will be a third larger than Royal Viking’s existing ships, but will carry only 740 passengers, making it one of the most spacious vessels ever built.

Every company launching a ship is haunted by the negative publicity from the renovated QE2’s shakedown cruise last spring. Royal Viking’s creative idea is to offer all full-fare passengers on the Royal Viking Sea’s 100-day Grand Circle Pacific cruise this winter free passage on the December, 1988, pre-inaugural sailing from Britain.

That way, they figure to stack the deck with loyal repeat passengers who are traveling free and are likely to be more tolerant of the almost inevitable glitches in a new vessel. The new ship is scheduled to be christened in San Francisco in early January, 1989, according to Watters.

In November, 1988, Royal Viking will deliver the Royal Viking Star to its new owner, Norwegian Caribbean Line, which plans to rename it and remodel to add cabins for higher passenger density.

The Largest Ship

Although Sovereign of the Seas at 74,000 tons and capable of carrying 2,600 passengers is the largest cruise ship ever built, the fall of 1989 brings a new superlative, Carnival’s Fantasy, which claims to be the most expensive ship ever built. The $200-million vessel is expected to carry up to 2,600 passengers with a gross registered tonnage of 70,000.

“The interiors of Sitmar’s new ships are being created by a company that normally designs resorts and hotels,” says spokeswoman Julie Benson, “because the line wants some fresh ideas in design and decor and non-traditional materials.”

The company plans to introduce three 1,400-passenger, 62,000-ton ships during the next several years, one in January, 1989, the second in early 1990 and the third in 1991. All three will be diesel motor vessels instead of Sitmar’s traditional steam turbine engines.

Also coming in 1989 and 1990 are two new 1,600-passenger vessels for Holland America, similar in style and quality to the Nieuw Amsterdam and the Noordam; the classic 25-year-old Rotterdam is expected to remain in service at least through 1993.

And Florida-based Crown Cruise Line, owner of the Viking Princess, which used to make day cruises out of San Diego and now is positioned in Palm Beach, has contracted for a 530-passenger vessel to be built in Spain and delivered in January, 1990, to sail on two- and five-day cruises from Palm Beach.

A large and loyal coterie of cruisers think small ships are best. U.S.-flag Clipper Cruise Line will introduce its third yacht-size ship, the 138-passenger Yorktown Clipper, March 26 with a series of Colonial South spring sailings.

Slightly larger than its sister ships Newport Clipper and Nantucket Clipper, the Yorktown is the first built in the company’s own First Coast Shipbuilding yard near Jacksonville, Fla.

The Leeward Islands

Another first--the introduction in February of a Leeward Islands itinerary aboard the Nantucket, with dockings or anchorages at the small, seldom-called-at islands of Anguilla, St. Barts, Statia, St. Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat.

An old familiar face, the beloved Monterey, which cruised the Hawaiian Islands for Matson Lines in the 1960s, is scheduled to return to service for Aloha Pacific Cruises at the end of May.

After lavish refurbishing in Finland by the same designers that created the Sea Goddess interiors, the Monterey will spend 60 days on positioning cruises from Copenhagen via Boston and the Panama Canal to San Francisco before an inaugural voyage to Hawaii at the end of July, 1988. Regular seven-day cruises around the islands will begin Aug. 13, with prices ranging from $1,195 to $2,295 per person, double occupancy, plus air add-ons.

February will mark the debut of two extensively renovated ships bearing new names. The popular Pearl of Scandinavia is scheduled to be relaunched Feb. 15 as Ocean Cruise Lines’ Ocean Pearl, with considerable refurbishing inside and out, including a streamlined funnel and a new bow that will add 12 feet to the length of the stocky former ferry.

One deck of public rooms is being completely rebuilt, and a fitness center and 24 cabins are being added to the 500-passenger vessel. The Ocean Pearl will resume a year-round program of cruises in the Far East.

American Star Lines president Dimitri Anninos notes a surprising number of passengers scheduling cruises back-to-back on the 380-passenger Betsy Ross, the former Leda/Albatross. Initial winter bookings on the Greek-flag ship, set for a Feb. 4 debut from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on a series of 14-day Caribbean and Amazon itineraries, have exceeded expectations. The ship will spend its first summer season in Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, which is seeing a major resurgence of cruise activity for 1988.

Southern Hemisphere

Some of this season’s crop of world cruises, however, have chosen once again a winter without Mediterranean sailings, with Cunard’s QE2 setting out on a three-month circuit of the Southern Hemisphere, Cunard/NAC’s Sagafjord cruising South America and the Orient, Royal Viking’s Sea sailing a grand circle around the Pacific, and International Cruise Center’s Odessa cruising East Africa and Asia. P&O;’s Canberra, along with Costa’s Danae and ICC’s Leonid Brezhnev, offer more traditional round-the-world sailings.

Sun Line Cruises will return all three of its Greek-flag ships to the Mediterranean and Greek islands next summer after a two-year absence. The Keusseoglou family, founder of the line, has also agreed to repurchase the Stella Oceanis and Stella Maris from the Marriott Corp.; the hotel company continues to hold a small percentage of stock in the Stella Solaris, according to a Sun Line spokesman.

Mexico will see more cruise ships this season than last, with one--Exploration Cruise Lines’ North Star--home based there this winter with seven-night sailings between La Paz and Acapulco.

Bermuda Star Line’s Bermuda Star will sail in West Coast waters for the first time on a series of trans-canal itineraries between Los Angeles and New Orleans, as well as seven-day Mexican Riviera sailings from San Diego. Special Expeditions’ little Polaris will cruise between San Diego and the Sea of Cortez on whale-watching excursions from late December through February.

Popular All Year

Mini-cruises, three- and four-day getaway sailings, continue to be popular all year. Joining Admiral’s Azure Seas and Stardancer on the West Coast this fall is Catamaran Cruiselines’ 49-passenger Executive Explorer, based for the first time in San Diego.

From Oct. 2 through May 6 it will offer three-night “harbor hops” north via Newport Beach to Long Beach for a visit to the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose, then on to Ventura and the Channel Islands, and finally to Catalina for an afternoon at Avalon. A four-night program adds a day in Ensenada and a tour to Tijuana and Chula Vista. Shore excursions are included in the prices, which range from $449 to $859 per person, double occupancy. Staterooms have large picture windows and color TV with VCR.

Princess Cruises will be basing both the Pacific Princess and the Sun Princess in Florida this winter for the first time, making seven-day Caribbean sailings between Miami and San Juan. The schedule of alternate Saturday departures begins Oct. 17 for the Sun Princess and Nov. 21 for the Pacific Princess; fares start at $1,260 including air fare. Brand name-conscious, first-time cruisers should be aware that Princess has lowered fares across the board.

American Hawaii has a new year-round standby deal for travelers with champagne tastes, beer budgets and flexible vacation time: a guaranteed mid-category or higher outside cabin on a middle or upper deck for $1,395 per person, double occupancy, a saving of at least $600 off the regular price.

Passengers pay a $250 deposit when booking and the balance 60 days ahead of the earliest wait-listed sailing date; confirmation will be made three weeks ahead of sailing. It’s called the “A-Low-Ha” standby fare.

Noel Coward could have made a song out of that.