Achille and Angelina Lauro

Thanks burm, we too will have been in the absolute cheapest cabin available. My parents paid extra to take the Achille Lauro so that we could say that we had been round the world by ship - our route out to Australia was on the Castel Felice (Sitmar) via Cape Town and we definitely didn't have a bathroom on that - and there were six people in our cabin! I know that the Canberra was going the other way round but also heading back to England, but don't know about the Angelina Lauro. The Achille Lauro was positively palatial compared to the Castel Felice.

Wouldn't that be funny if we were in Sydney on the same day? I don't know the answer, only that it was quite a pleasant sunny day and that I spent a lot of time on deck playing spot the difference between the two ships, before being allowed to walk over the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Thanks burm, we too will have been in the absolute cheapest cabin available. My parents paid extra to take the Achille Lauro so that we could say that we had been round the world by ship - our route out to Australia was on the Castel Felice (Sitmar) via Cape Town and we definitely didn't have a bathroom on that - and there were six people in our cabin! I know that the Canberra was going the other way round but also heading back to England, but don't know about the Angelina Lauro. The Achille Lauro was positively palatial compared to the Castel Felice.

 

No wonder you are hooked on cruising today. You had such wonderful adventures as a child. If you made the same trip today you would have been sent to the childrens' programs every day and enjoyed a completely different type of cruise. You must have terrific parents. They had a real sense of adventure.

My first ship was the P&O Arcadia. We started our trip by flying to Oahu and spending a month there walking entirely around the island (sleeping on the beach) then catching the Arcadia to Sydney, Australia. The ship was filled with young adults, most traveling to Oz on assisted passage.

We had a ball with so many young people. I shared my cabin with 5 strangers, one a woman on her honeymoon -they couldn't afford a cabin for the 2 and the husband was in a cabin of 6 men. Every afternoon we abandoned the cabin for a couple of hours to give the newlyweds some privacy. ;) This was not a hardship. We wouldn't have wasted time in the cabin anyway.

The bathroom and showers were down the hall. :p

First and second class were totally separated on the Arcadia. Of course all the young people were in second class. The few who were in first would crawl around the barrier to get to where the fun was!

We stopped in Fijii, Samoa, Auckland and spent wonderful days exploring those ports with our new friends from the ship.

Those days form some of the best memories of my life.

Thanks for sharing your memories Burm, that was a lovely diversion off down memory lane.

Thanks for sharing your memories Burm, that was a lovely diversion off down memory lane.

Hopefully both you and I will get to make lots more cruise memories.

39 days to go 'til we leave on the Grand Princess! 14 glorious days in the Caribbean.

Hello came from England to Australia in 1970 on the Angelina Laruro we had an incident off Italy about a week out from Australia, i was told we hit a Russian submarine, i was 16 at the time, we had a choice of going on a cruise or staying in a hotel in Genoa for a week we stayed in the hotel, was great got to visit lots of places around Italy. Anyone know of anyone that was on the ship at this time ...... :D

They certainly did have their adventures on the Flotta Lauro Line.

Thanks for sharing your unique story.

DH and I took our first cruise on Costa MS Angelina Lauro September 23, 1978. We booked an inside upper and lower cabin and were upgraded to an outside upper and lower. Woohoo! Cabin was so small one of us had to sit on the lower bunk while the other dressed. We sailed from San Juan to Caracas, Venezuela, Curaçao, Guadelupe, Grenada, Saint Thomas and back to San Juan. This was a 7 day cruise with only 1 sea day. Every day we woke up in a new port. We arrived in San Juan during a transportation strike. Our bus was escorted to the ship by police. We sailed early to outrun a tropical storm. That first night at sea was rough, outer doors were roped shut. The Italian crew was attentive, had theme nights every night in the dining room as well as lavish midnight buffets every evening. Despite the rough start, this cruise ignited our love of cruising.

The first thing i remember when i hear the name of this ship is Leon Klinghoffer.. Poor man.. I was a kid when that happened and i still remember it being on the news.. it was so frightening..

There is a very bad joke in the cruise industry about a drink of the day called a Klinghoffer, and how to make it.

The 21 day outbound journey in1993 from Genoa to Durban on the Achille Lauro was the first cruise we ever did .. And the ship caught fire the following year on the same route. It was a fabulous experience ... Few passengers and my 20month old son was one of only four children on board the ship. We sailed a couple of years later on the Rhapsody and the captain was the same.

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Just married, I travelled out to Australia in 1970 on the Angelina Lauro, as a Ten Pound Pom. When we first arrived in Southampton to embark, we discovered the ship in dry dock. We had to dry our tears (my Mother and I, about to be parted, especially) and go back home to Surrey for another week or so. Folk from further afield were put up in local hotels. It was an extraordinary trip - or so it seemed at the time. I was distraught at the beginning, leaving my family behind ... but we soon made friends, and I joined the dance troupe, put together by our Entertainment Officer, Beppe (quite a character). The captain had his fiat on board, which had to be lowered first, every time we arrived in port. Only after he'd departed in a puff of exhaust, were we allowed to disembark. Visiting Cape Town was an eye opener - to see apartheid first hand was shocking and had a lasting effect on me. Earlier in the trip, the stops in Genoa and Naples were fascinating. I was thrilled to visit Pompeii, although felt for those poor people all those years ago, who were petrified in a moment. I remember our guide for the day - another character, who sang an aria in the car park while our coach driver and another motorist had a spat. Most of the travellers on board the Angelina were emigrating, and most of them were young, some with small children - which must surely have been a huge challenge. There were many Yugoslavians on board, with their whole families - ie grandparents down to tiny babies. I felt my whole life stretched ahead, and that the two years we had committed ourselves to would provide an adventure. We ended up living in Australia for fifteen years. :rolleyes:

Just married, I travelled out to Australia in 1970 on the Angelina Lauro, as a Ten Pound Pom. When we first arrived in Southampton to embark, we discovered the ship in dry dock. We had to dry our tears (my Mother and I, about to be parted, especially) and go back home to Surrey for another week or so. Folk from further afield were put up in local hotels. It was an extraordinary trip - or so it seemed at the time. I was distraught at the beginning, leaving my family behind ... but we soon made friends, and I joined the dance troupe, put together by our Entertainment Officer, Beppe (quite a character). The captain had his fiat on board, which had to be lowered first, every time we arrived in port. Only after he'd departed in a puff of exhaust, were we allowed to disembark. Visiting Cape Town was an eye opener - to see apartheid first hand was shocking and had a lasting effect on me. Earlier in the trip, the stops in Genoa and Naples were fascinating. I was thrilled to visit Pompeii, although felt for those poor people all those years ago, who were petrified in a moment. I remember our guide for the day - another character, who sang an aria in the car park while our coach driver and another motorist had a spat. Most of the travellers on board the Angelina were emigrating, and most of them were young, some with small children - which must surely have been a huge challenge. There were many Yugoslavians on board, with their whole families - ie grandparents down to tiny babies. I felt my whole life stretched ahead, and that the two years we had committed ourselves to would provide an adventure. We ended up living in Australia for fifteen years. :rolleyes:

What an exciting start to your married life. Thank you for sharing your story.

Is there anybody here who had the chance to sail on the Achille Lauro or Angelina Lauro way back when MSC was still Star Lauro/Flotta Lauro? I know both of these ships were gone by the time that the company became MSC, but does anybody have memories of sailing these ships?

I know this was posted a long time ago. But I worked on the Angelina Lauro in 1977 and loved the ship and the crew and officers. I worked under Chief Purser Auteri with Anna D'Ambrosio in the Information office.

While it was an old ship, the atmosphere on board was always super. The food was good and the ship was usually fully booked.

Oh the good old days.

I was on the Angelina Lauro in the mid 1970's...7 day carib cruise out of Ft Laud..the Italian Officers & crew were top notch......it was an older ship then & rode through a severe storm quite well.....

 

wonderful ship!!!

i was on angelina lauro in a very severe storm on august 1971 between fremantle and Melbourne. many of the crew were injured and the ship sailed on a side for few hours in the night. that was moreless a hurricane not a storm. are you sure you were in a storm on angelina lauro in 1970 instead of 1971 may be we are talking of the same situation.

i was on angelina lauro in a very severe storm on august 1971 between fremantle and Melbourne. many of the crew were injured and the ship sailed on a side for few hours in the night. that was moreless a hurricane not a storm. are you sure you were in a storm on angelina lauro in 1970 instead of 1971 may be we are talking of the same situation.

We did a cruise out of FT Lauderdale Florida to the Caribbean in February & we hit a storm so bad they closed down the ship for almost 2 days....flying passengers & bodies all over the place...But she was a great ship! Back then we were the only ship sailing out of Ft Lauderdale on a Saturday - big diference from these days! Glad you enjoyed her Croydon!