New Ship Is ‘No Place Like Home’

A few years ago on a sleepy Sunday morning on the island of Malta, we overheard a conversation in heavy Cockney accents between a couple of middle-aged Londoners sitting disconsolately on a park bench.

“It’s not much, is it?” said he.

“No,” she agreed, “but it’s better than ‘ome.”

In the case of Miami-based architect Joe Farcus, the designer of Carnival’s splashy new 2,600-passenger Ecstasy, “It’s no place like home” became the motto for this $275-million vessel.

Farcus said he aimed “to give people a chance to see something they don’t see in their ordinary lives--and to have their pictures taken with it.”

So he scoured the English countryside to find a 1934 Rolls-Royce Saloon to park permanently on the ship’s promenade deck just across from the stainless-steel diner, then turned one bar into a museum of vintage neon signs and another into a Chinatown street complete with red lanterns dangling with gold tassels and lion-headed sculptures.

“People think my ideas are wild, but the ideas that are built are not nearly as wild as the ideas that are not built,” he said with a chuckle.

“This ship has to appeal to kids of 10 or 12 today who are potential passengers 10 or 15 years from now. They should think this is a pretty wild disco even then.”

Based on the number of times Carnival Cruises’ bouncy singing commercial has played on television, all America could probably be split between those who think they’d like a Carnival cruise and those who know they wouldn’t.

“We’ve created a niche,” Farcus agreed. “You may not like it, it may not be to your particular taste, but it is designed to appeal to the broadest segment of the population. It’s an entertainment facility to give people a good time.”

Instead of the cliche shipboard revues saluting the best of Broadway, showgirls in thong bikinis and Madonna-like pointed metal bras dance on the stage of the two-deck Blue Sapphire Lounge in the first shows produced in-house by Carnival.

The 12,000-square-foot Nautica spa, the largest and certainly one of the best-equipped at sea, includes whirlpool spas, an aerobics room and an exercise room with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, men’s and women’s saunas and steam rooms, and a one-eighth-mile jogging track on the deck above.

A huge globe dominates the Explorers’ Club, the ship’s library, patterned after a gentleman’s club. Fully one-fourth of the volumes in the bookcases during our cruise appeared to have been bought by the yard--identical red-bound copies of “The New American Bible for Catholics.”

A casino patterned after the one at Carnival’s Crystal Palace Resort in Nassau contains 226 slot machines, 23 blackjack tables, three craps tables, two roulettes and a giant wheel.

Ecstasy is the second of three “megaliners.” Its sister ship Fantasy made its debut in 1990 with three- and four-day sailings from Miami to the Bahamas. The third ship, Sensation, is due in December, 1993.

The cabins aboard the new ship are clean-lined and comfortable but not so cushy that passengers are going to stay there all the time. Still, with “Hamlet” and “Reversal of Fortune” running on the closed-circuit TV around the clock, and free room service sandwiches available at all hours, the cabin proved an agreeable hideaway when the eyes and ears needed rest from the glitz and clamor.

Fifty-four suites and “demi-suites” have private balconies; top-level suites have whirlpool bathtubs. All other cabins have showers only. Each has closed-circuit color TV, a small safe, stereo radio, telephone and electrical outlets in both 110 and 220 current.

In all but the lowest-priced cabins, beds can be arranged as twins or pushed together to make a king.

The 564 standard outside cabins (with windows) measure 190 square feet and range in price from $1,365 to $1,745 per person, double occupancy, for the seven-day cruise. The 383 inside standard cabins (without windows) are the same size and range from $1,195 to $1,575 per person, double occupancy.

All rates include round-trip air fare to Miami from 175 cities in North America, including Los Angeles. The lowest prices are available in September, early October and early December.

For bottom fares of from $995 to $1,295 per person, double occupancy, passengers can share a somewhat smaller cabin with upper and lower berths. The beds are arranged perpendicular to each other, providing more space around them than if they were bunks. There are 19 such cabins, all windowless.

Each passenger pays an added departure tax of $3 and port charges of $45.

A limited number of cabins are available for singles to book on a guaranteed-share basis, four to a cabin, for $650 per person. The offer is limited to same-sex passengers who are 18 or over, and air fare is not included.

Children or friends may share a cabin with two full-fare adult passengers for a flat rate of $399 each for the cruise, plus an air fare add-on of $729 each.

The Ecstasy sails on alternate Sundays from Miami to the eastern Caribbean, calling at Nassau, San Juan and St. Thomas, and the western Caribbean, calling at Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios. There is a discount for passengers who would like to combine the two cruises into one cruise of 14 days.

Carnival, which had announced its intention of buying Premier Cruise Lines from the Dial Corporation on April 15, dropped the plan May 31, saying an examination of Premier’s books indicated the company was not as healthy financially as first thought.