2. The bill of fare
GORDON HOLMAN
If the sun is going to shine on our weather- bedeviled island, it seems a fair assumption that the summer months are the most likely time in which to achieve a little home-made sun tan. This fairly obvious fact has not always been appreciated by shipping companies con- cerned with holiday cruises. There are, of course, many attractions about summer cruises, but there is a growing desire among the cus- tomers to cruise out of season, when the even- ings begin to close in and the first grey days of winter come.
This has led to some cruise ships sailing during the summer with more empty berths than the operators like and, this year, it has helped to produce a bigger crop of autumn and winter cruises. It has also encouraged important passenger shipping lines to draw attention to the advantages of off-season 'cruising' in ships that are really engaged on scheduled voyages.
The P and o liners, which offer by far the largest number of cruise places of any fleet through the summer, are beginning to return to normal voyages by the autumn. In the early part of the period, however, the 30,000-ton 'Iberia' and the 24,000-ton `Chusan' are engaged in a kind of grand finale. On 15 September, the 'Iberia' sails on a snap cruise of only six days which could be attractive to those who have the odd spare week after the summer holiday. Lisbon and Ceuta are the ports of call and fares range from £56 to £116 (tourist class less). This ship has two more 1968 cruises, the last going right through to Athens and ending at Southampton on 20 October. The `Chusan,' which is engaged in more cruises than any other P and o liner, ends her programme a day earlier when she gets back from a long trip down to Las Palmas, Madeira and Dakar (fares £100 upwards).
A liner that spends all her life in the cruise business, the 27,000-ton 'Andes' of Royal Mail Lines, will not only be making voyages to the Mediterranean in the autumn but, on 20 October, is due to start a twenty-four-day round trip with calls as far away as Antigua and Barbados. This one-class ship never carries more than 470 passengers and the luxury of extra space finds some reflection in the fares. For the twenty-four-day voyage, they start at £194.
The high reputation of the Union Castle is behind the 'Reina del Mar,' which they have on charter and which cruises until November. This is also a one-class ship and fares for her seventeen-day voyage starting on 25 October, which includes calls at Tangier, Malta, Athens, Catania and Gibraltar, are from £111.
At the end of September, the Cunard resumes its Fly/Cruise holidays with a sailing from Naples. The air hop, repeated in the reverse direction when the ship returns, gives the cruise a much greater range. In ten days, with a mini- mum fare of £90, Madeira, Casablanca, Palma and Ajaccio are all on the visiting list. There are four more of these Naples-based voyages to a variety of places, the last due to begin on 17 November.
The 'school ship' tag attached to the 20,740- ton 'Nevasa' and 17,000-ton 'Uganda' of the British India Steam Navigation Co. is inclined to hide from people the fact that these fine ships are very good value for money for adult travellers. Shore excursions, which in other ships can add to the expenses, are usually free for adults sailing in the school ships. Both ships have full programmes to the end of the year some of the cruises starting from Genoa or Venice, with a free air trip from Gam ick thrown in. A fairly typical cruise would be the 'Nevasa's' Hellenic cruise in the last two weeks of November. Sailing from Venice, the ship is due to go to Piraeus, Antalya (Turkey), Santorin, Malta, Gibraltar and then home to Southampton. Adult fares, £95 te £135.
For those who have more time (the round trip cannot be done in less than three-and-a-half weeks) there is the all-sea route of Fyffes Line which takes in Trinidad, Jamaica and Ber- muda. Bananas may be Fyffes' business in the holds, but their two comfortable mini-liners 'Camito' and `Golfito; both 8,500 tons, offer a most enjoyable form of cruising for just under 100 passengers per voyage. Round voyages can be made from about £250.
Moving on to Christmas and the New Year, there are plenty of cruises to choose from. The liner 'France,' soon to be challenged as the last word in North Atlantic luxury by the 'Queen Elizabeth II,' comes into the picture just before Christmas with a crossing to New York via the Caribbean 'sunshine' route. Sailing from Venice on 17 December, the school ship 'Nevasa' will be on a Holy Land cruise (adult fares £100 to £150). On the same day, the 'Andes' will leave Southampton on an eighteen- day cruise to the south. The Union Castle's lovely 37,000-ton 'Windsor Castle,' having sailed from this country in late November, will be on her way home again with the passengers who have booked a round voyage to South Africa (Cape Town return from £416).
The P and o's 30,000-ton 'Arcadia' leaves Southampton on 11 December on one of the most remarkable voyages of all—a 'Pacific Roamer' lasting sixteen weeks. Among her thirty-two ports of call will be San Francisco, Honolulu, Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, Yokohama and Panama (fares from £736).
For Christmas sailing 20 December is the big day. From Liverpool, the Canadian Pacific's 25,000-ton 'Empress of England' leaves on a fifteen-day cruise which will take her as far as Dakar. From Southampton, the P and o's 28,000-ton 'Oronsay' will be depart- ing on a twenty-three-day cruise to the Virgin Islands, Jamaica and Trinidad. From the same port, the 17,000-ton 'Oslofjord,' of the Nor- wegian America Line, will be heading south on a seventeen-day extended Christmas cruise, and the Cunard's 'Franconia' will be off on a fourteen-day voyage.
For those who can afford it, the real get- away from the English winter will come when the 'Andes' sails from Southampton on 14 January. It is one of two thirty-four-day cruises, and anyone wishing to enjoy both may link them by nine days free living in Las Palmas. Royal Mail Lines will pay the hotel bill while the ship returns to England to collect second-cruise passengers.
And that will be two months after an even more famous Cunarder, the 83,000-ton 'Queen Elizabeth,' has said her farewells with a 3,369- mile cruise from Southampton, a sad occasion which can be participated in for as little as £100. Finally, the last minute news from the Cunard is that the 'Queen Elizabeth II' will make a four-day 'mini-maiden cruise' fronl Southampton on 10 January before starting on her maiden cruise proper to New York via the Canaries and the Caribbean on 17 January.
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