Awarding the Best and Worst of Cruising in ’91

It’s time for a brief look back at the highs and lows of cruising in 1991. It was a year of deep discounting, ship swapping and some distinctly ungentlemanly behavior in what used to be considered a gentlemanly business. To the winners go champagne, to the losers a Captain Bligh keelhaul. The envelopes, please:

--A keelhaul to Epirotiki’s Capt. Yiannis Avranas and those members of his crew who abandoned the sinking ship Oceanos ahead of its elderly passengers off the coast of South Africa last August, leaving a few crew members, shipboard musicians and entertainers to direct rescue efforts on board. Fortunately, there were no lives lost. But ever since, we’ve noticed all cruise passengers paying much more attention to instructions during the lifeboat drills.

--A case of champagne to Majesty Cruise Line, whose new Royal Majesty will debut next Sept. 18 with a completely nonsmoking dining room and a substantial number of cabins designated nonsmoking.

Majesty’s parent company, Dolphin Cruise Line, also announced the first-ever smoke-free cruise, sailing from Miami Nov. 16, with no smoking permitted in any public areas by officers, crew, staff or passengers. The four-day sailing to the Bahamas and Key West, Fla., priced from $499 per person, double occupancy, plus air fare, will be a fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society, with $100 being donated for each adult who sails. Passengers who book before Jan. 31 get a free two-night hotel package in Miami before the cruise. For more details, call (800) 223-2026.

--A “what’s in a name?” double keelhaul to Clipper Cruise Line and Princess Cruises. Clipper brought litigation against the new sailing-ship cruise line Star Clippers on the grounds of alleged copyright infringement, saying Star Clippers’ four-masted sailing vessels are not entitled to use “clipper” in their name, whereas Clipper’s motor yachts are.

Meanwhile, Princess Cruises sought a preliminary injunction against Ocean Cruise Line when an ad for the latter’s Ocean Princess was headed “Cruise Antarctica with a Princess.” Princess Cruises, which does not sail to Antarctica, said it would “cause confusion in the marketplace.” What’s next, rumblings from England about the Royal Viking Line’s new cruise ship Queen?

Earlier, Princess had also threatened litigation against tiny U.S. flagged American Canadian Caribbean Line, when the line announced that its newest 90-passenger vessel, due to debut May 31, would be named Mayan Princess. ACCL president and CEO Luther H. Blount then announced that since he couldn’t afford the legal costs to defend his right to use the name “princess,” his vessel “would undergo a sex-change operation” and become the Mayan Prince.

--Champagne to Tom Hunt, chief of the vessel sanitation program for the Public Health Service’s Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, for his ongoing program of education in cruise ship sanitary inspections. At the end of November, only 21 ships had failed to score an 86-or-better passing grade, out of 114 inspected, and 7 of those scored 80 or above. The worst marks went to Costa’s Danae with 32, Vistamar with 33 and Starlite’s Empress with 49.

--A bottle of the best bubbly to resolute Bill Gannett from Hopedale, Mass., a passenger aboard Salen Lindblad’s Frontier Spirit last fall when it attempted a west-to-east transit of the Arctic’s Northwest Passage, extending from the North Slope of Alaska to Greenland. The vessel had to turn back due to impassable ice pack in the Beaufort Sea. It was Gannett’s second try. The first, also unsuccessful, was aboard an earlier Society Expeditions cruise. “We’ll try it a third time,” he said as he disembarked the Frontier Spirit. “The third try never fails.”

--And speaking of Society Expeditions, that company, long a respected expedition cruise operator, deserves a keelhaul for lagging behind in repaying passengers whose cruises aboard the Society Adventurer last summer and fall were canceled when the company did not accept delivery of the ship. Abercrombie & Kent, the company that markets Society Expeditions in the United States, has long since reimbursed all bookings made through its office for the cruises, while those made through Society’s Seattle offices had not been refunded by early December.

--A champagne salute to Cunard Line, which offers passengers the option of paying their shipboard tips for waiters and cabin stewards up front when they pay their cruise fares. The policy applies to all Cunard vessels except the two Sea Goddess ships that do not allow tipping.

--And a champagne toast to Minneapolis-based RSVP Travel Productions, which has announced the debut next summer of the 100-passenger SeaSpirit, the first cruise ship to be owned and operated by and for gay travelers. The ship is the former Newport Clipper from Clipper Cruise Line. Itineraries planned include the Caribbean and New England/Canada. Prices will range from $895 to $1,595 per person, double occupancy, for seven-day sailings.

--Keelhauls to those passengers, especially during holidays, who bring their children on board and then turn them loose to wreak havoc. We’ve watched 10-year-olds ignore the “No Diving” signs to belly-flop into swimming pools, splashing everyone in the vicinity, and seen toddlers crawling, long past midnight, around the disco’s dimly lit dance floor. And during the inaugural sailing of Princess’ elegant new Regal Princess, one doting mother laughed as her two toddlers ran up on stage while singer Jack Jones was performing.

--A bottle of the best champagne to Celebrity Cruises for installing safety-procedure videos in every cabin. Rather than replacing the need to attend the lifeboat drill, which is required by the U.S. Coast Guard, the videos, similar to those used on aircraft, reinforce the information given at the drill and illustrate evacuation procedures.

Finally, some farewell champagne toasts to ships that won’t pass this way again, at least not under their old familiar names:

--The three original Royal Viking ships, almost as famous on the West Coast as the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. The Royal Viking Sea is now the Royal Odyssey for Royal Cruise Line; Royal Viking Star has become Norwegian Cruise Line’s Los Angeles-based Westward and the Royal Viking Sky was turned almost overnight into NCL’s new Southward. NCL’s previous Southward has become Epirotiki’s Triton, cruising the Caribbean in winter and the Mediterranean in summer. And NCL’s Skyward has been sent to Singapore on a long-term charter.

--Epirotiki’s Pegasus was scuttled in Venice harbor last June after severe fire damage. The ship was the former Sundancer of Sundance Cruises, which partially sank off Seymour Narrows, British Columbia, in June, 1984, and had to be evacuated.

--Costa Cruise Lines’ CarlaCosta has been sold to an undisclosed buyer and will leave service Jan. 25. The venerable ship, once the French Line’s Flandre, first sailed in 1952.

--And goodby to the Azure Seas, which sailed twice a week from Los Angeles to Ensenada for more than a decade. It will become Dolphin’s OceanBreeze next May. Sister ship Emerald Seas is also being sold to an unnamed buyer, effectively marking the end of Admiral Cruises, a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruise Line.