cruising : Industry rides a wave of nostalgia before the mega-ships of tomorrow arrive : LOOKING BACKWARD IN 1989

The late Evelyn Waugh, novelist and travel writer, describes how, on the last night of a Mediterranean cruise in the late 1920s, he went out from a brightly lit cabin onto the dark boat deck with a champagne glass in his hand and, “for no good reason I can now think of,” threw it over the side, watched it hover in the air for a moment, “then saw it flutter and tumble into the swirl of water. This gesture . . . has become oddly important to me.”

Looking back later, after World War II, Waugh was to say about his travels, “I rejoice that I went when the going was good.”

But the author of “Brideshead Revisited” would probably feel completely at ease if he could revisit some ships during the coming cruise season.

Perhaps it is simply a last long look at the past before the inevitable mega-ships of tomorrow arrive, but right now the burgeoning cruise industry seems to be awash, if not on a wave of nostalgia at least on a deja vu from the bridge.

Sentimental journeys are back this season, along with $100-a-day cruises (remember them?) and grand new floating palaces of marble where ocean liner Art Deco is the predominant decorative theme.

Still, the recent merger of two cruise giants, Princess and Sitmar, may remind some of the merger between Cunard and White Star after the 1929 stock market crash. Earlier this year Royal Caribbean Cruise Line merged with Admiral (Carnival has recently made a strong bid for 70% of the new line), and Holland America acquired Home Lines.

The game’s afoot, and as the big get bigger and the deluxe even more deluxe, some cruise companies struggling to keep up are apt to be absorbed or fall by the wayside.

More than 40 new ships will have been introduced this decade, with perhaps a dozen more due in the early 1990s, creating a lot of berths to fill. Perhaps 1989 is a respite, a time for a fond look backward before sailing into the busy 1990s.

For many Californians of a certain age, the return of the Monterey this month rekindles memories of cruising to Hawaii, of sailing around Diamond Head, of Boat Day greetings in old Honolulu. The extensively renovated 1956 Matson Lines vessel is scheduled to call in Los Angeles on Tuesday en route to her home port of Honolulu, where an old-fashioned Boat Day, the first in many years, is scheduled for Sept. 23.

Magical Times

Boat Days in Honolulu were magical times. When the big Matson liners--the Monterey, Lurline or Mariposa--would come in to dock, the Royal Hawaiian Band would be on the pier playing “Aloha Oe” in fast tempo while boys dived for coins, grass-skirted hula girls swayed and every passenger was greeted with kisses and flower leis.

Then when the ship sailed away again and the pier was a tangle of serpentine streamers and tropical flowers, the band would play “Aloha Oe” slowly and sadly, while more than one passenger grew as misty-eyed as actresses Donna Reed and Deborah Kerr at the end of the film “From Here to Eternity,” when they tossed their flower leis over the ship’s rail into the water and watched the waves carry them back toward shore.

The Monterey will sail from Honolulu’s Aloha Tower on seven-day cruises around the Hawaiian Islands beginning Oct. 1, at prices from $1,195 to $3,295 per person, double occupancy. Aloha Pacific Cruises is offering free round-trip air fare to Hawaii through the end of 1988 for all reservations booked by Oct. 1.

The 45th anniversary of D-day--June 6, 1989--will see cruise passengers from Society Expeditions’ World Discoverer landing on Normandy’s Utah and Omaha beaches at dawn in inflatable rubber landing craft. The evocative 14-day program, put together by Valor Tours of Sausalito, will set out for London May 24, revisit historic World War II sites in England and France, go ashore in Saint-Malo where Patton landed, then sail to Cherbourg for the commemorative assault on the beaches.

Ends at Arc de Triomphe

With veterans of the French Resistance aboard, the company will then cruise to Arromanches where they will be met by members of the French and British World War II Vehicle Conversion Society driving jeeps, ambulances and other period transports. The tour ends in Paris with a relighting of the eternal flame at the Arc de Triomphe.

Tour organizer Bob Reynolds says the mid-range cost of the package will probably be “around $6,000,” with some cabin categories priced higher and some lower. For a brochure, contact Valor Tours, P.O. Box 1617, Sausalito, Calif. 94965, phone (415) 332-7850.

Steamboat racing, Mark Twain wrote, “makes a body’s very liver curl with enjoyment.” While this year’s sellout race between the paddle-wheelers Delta Queen and Mississippi Queen broke no speed records in the unusually shallow Mississippi waters, the passengers seemed to enjoy it mightily. Next year’s Great Steamboat Race, set for June 23 to July 4 from New Orleans to St. Louis, should be booked as early as possible; fares average around $2,900 per person, double occupancy.

The first ship in the Royal Viking fleet was the Royal Viking Star, which has sailed more than 1.5 million nautical miles to virtually every port on Earth since her maiden voyage in 1972. Now this graceful and stylish ship is scheduled to leave Royal Viking service in March to be converted to the higher-density Norwegian Star for sister company Norwegian Cruise Lines.

The Star’s last long voyage for Royal Viking, part of the Geographers’ Series with guest lectures aboard from the Cousteau Society, will leave Los Angeles Jan. 29 for a lazy, luxurious loop around the Pacific from Hawaii to French Polynesia to Easter Island, then hug the South American coast, transit the Panama Canal to Costa Rica, and sail through the Caribbean into Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., arriving March 11. The full 43-day cruise package begins at $8,320, but segments are available for $2,325.

A Sedate Pastime

Ten years ago, when cruising was still a sedate pastime of the leisure class, $100 a day was considered a good rule of thumb to figure the cost of a cruise. This year, thanks to growing competition in the marketplace, eight or more ships offer some cabins this fall under that figure. Rates given below are per person, double occupancy, per day for a minimum-category inside cabin on certain low-season sailings.

Along the Mexican Riviera: the Cunard Princess from Los Angeles, $68, and Bermuda Star Line’s Bermuda Star from San Diego, $78.

In the Mexican Caribbean: from New Orleans, Bermuda Star’s Queen of Bermuda, $78, and from Tampa, Bermuda Star’s Veracruz, $60.

The Caribbean: Chandris’ Britanis from Montego Bay, $93 including air fare; Commodore’s Caribe I from Miami, $85, and Regency’s Regent Sea and Regent Star from Montego Bay, $99.

Some of the “niche” cruise lines, those that appeal to a special segment of the market, have also lowered prices this year.

Windstar Sail Cruises, whose three 148-passenger computerized sailing ships cruise the Mediterranean, Tahiti and the Caribbean, marked down fares by 30% last spring to average around $300 a day per person, double occupancy, on many sailings.

Seattle-based Society Expeditions, sold last year to German shipowner Heiko Klein, longtime owner of the World Discoverer and Society Explorer, has lowered its 1989 prices on many expeditions. A 13-day cruise to Indonesia aboard the Society Explorer, for instance, will cost about $228 a day, down considerably from last year’s average fleet per diem of $291.

Connecticut-based American Cruise Lines, with three 125-passenger ships that cruise the Inland Waterway, Florida and the Mississippi, reduced prices by 12% earlier this year “appealing to our major market, the seniors,” and are holding firm for the coming season with average per diems of around $200.

For all their modern sophistication, most of the new ships due in the coming months could be compared to those grand old floating palaces built early in this century.

Oh, the technological advancements are there behind the mirrors and etched glass, the fountains and waterfalls, the sumptuous marble interiors and the fireplaces. But the details luring the passengers in are vast open atriums, glass elevators, separate a la carte restaurants, champagne bars, ice cream parlors and luxurious rooms with king-size beds, marble bathrooms, room service, TV sets with VCR, mini-bars, and perfumed toiletries in the bathroom.

Back in 1922, ship designer Arthur Davis reminded the Institute of British Architects that “the people who travel on large ships are the people who live in hotels . . . American ladies (who) want to forget they are on a ship . . . so all we can do, as things are, is to give them gigantic floating hotels.”

Largest Cruise Ship

Royal Caribbean’s 2,600-passenger Sovereign of the Seas, which debuted in January, is, for the time being, the world’s largest cruise ship. But waiting in the wings are two ships so huge that it’s difficult to visualize them.

The long-discussed Phoenix project, a 5,600-passenger, 250,000-ton vessel, is under study again by World City Corp., a subsidiary of Kloster Cruise Ltd., which also owns Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Viking Line. If the order is given, the World City Phoenix could be ready for a 1992 debut.

Entrepreneur Ravi Tikkoo has announced plans to build a 3,000-passenger cruise ship called Ultimate Dream, with all-outside cabins and a gross registered tonnage of 160,000.

One of the most palatial of this year’s new ships is Royal Cruise Line’s Crown Odyssey--large (1,052-passenger capacity) without being huge, opulent without being flashy. Like Sovereign of the Seas and Norwegian Cruise Line’s Seaward, both also introduced earlier this year, it relies on high-quality materials such as marble, leather, hand-rubbed woods, polished brass and chrome along with lavish, spacious public rooms and hideaways such as small bars, libraries or card rooms.

Christening Festivities

Royal Viking’s eagerly awaited and ultra-luxurious 740-passenger Royal Viking Sun is due to arrive in Miami in early December. After a sold-out Panama Canal cruise, it will call in San Diego Jan. 3 and Los Angeles Jan. 4 before a three-day round of christening festivities in San Francisco. Then it departs on a sold-out Inaugural World Cruise.

Passengers-to-be may mark their calendars for April 18 for the ship’s transatlantic crossing from Ft. Lauderdale to Lisbon; that’s the first date for which cabins are still available.

Meanwhile, a former president of Royal Viking, Warren Titus, will be welcoming his own 212-passenger Seabourn Pride, first ship for the new San Francisco-based Seabourn Cruise Line, on its scheduled Dec. 4 arrival in Ft. Lauderdale. The transcanal voyage home to San Francisco is set to arrive Dec. 19.

Prices will average about $600 a day per person, double occupancy, on this super-deluxe ship that promises the most lavish and expensive standard accommodations at sea short of Donald Trump’s yacht. A second ship, Seabourn Spirit, has been ordered for delivery Nov. 10, 1989.

March 24, the date Sitmar’s 1,400-passenger FairMajesty is scheduled to debut in the Caribbean, may mark the swan song for Sitmar’s graceful red, white and blue swan logo, created less than a year ago. Once details of the merger are worked out, it could be replaced by the Princess logo: distinctive blue and green flowing tresses.

Splashy Debut Set

What’s in a name? Carnival’s 2,600-passenger, 70,000-ton “fun ship” Fantasy is scheduled for a splashy debut next fall, followed in 1990 and 1991 by sister ships Ecstasy and Sensation.

And Club Med Cruises anticipates having its 450-passenger computerized sailing ship ready in time for Christmas, 1989. A giant version of the Windstar ships, the five-masted vessel will cruise the Caribbean in winter and the Mediterranean and Red Sea in summer, with fares about $225 to $250 a day.

First of the new ships for 1989 to arrive, on Nov. 13, will be Holland America’s Westerdam, the former Homeric from Home Lines. The handsome 2-year-old ship will alternate eastern and western Caribbean itineraries as well as introduce the Bonaventure Spa at Sea, a seven-day spa package that includes a deluxe outside stateroom, massages, exercise classes, spa cuisine, manicure, pedicure, facial, body treatment and beauty make-over, for $2,335 per person, double occupancy.

Holland America plans to lengthen the ship by 131 feet next year and add 195 staterooms, increasing passenger capacity to 1,500.

Exprinter Cruises’ 470-passenger Berlin, registered in West Germany, is being marketed this year for the first time in the United States, with per-diem prices starting at $245 per person. The peripatetic and cosmopolitan 8-year-old ship rarely repeats an itinerary; exotic ports of call this winter include Easter and Pitcairn islands, plus the Gambiers and Tuamotus in French Polynesia, and Rarotonga. Brochures: (800) 221-1666.

Regency Cruises’ new 816-passenger Regent Sun, the former Royal Odyssey, joins the fleet Dec. 4 with a series of winter cruises from Montego Bay into Gatun Lake, Costa Rica, San Blas and Cartagena.

The former Home Lines Atlantic will be reconfigured for Premier Cruise Lines, expanding capacity from 1,167 passengers to 1,600 by adding third and fourth berths in cabins. Premier’s moderately priced family program, combining three- and four-day Bahamas cruises with Walt Disney World packages, has given them a quarterly occupancy rate of 123% based on a normal occupancy of two people per cabin.

Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Star, now sailing as the Royal Viking Star, will debut in April with New York-to-Bermuda service followed by a winter in the Caribbean.

Crown Cruise Line’s 448-passenger Crown del Mar, a renovated Spanish ferry, is expected to charge around $200 a day for two- and five-night cruises from Palm Beach beginning in November.

And Ocean Quest, a new cruise company planning to specialize in year-round diving itineraries from New Orleans to Belize, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, says it is renovating the 320-passenger Sunward I in Singapore to turn it into the Ocean Spirit by the end of January. Information: (504) 586-8686.