Kalos Orisate

Can anyone give advice about finding a ship that would have a dark place to go (away from light pollution) to get a good look at the sky while out in the ocean - preferably on a more affordable line?

 

Generally, there's no good place. Sometimes, there's an area at the back of the ship behind the funnel which is darker than elsewhere, but even there there are navigation lights, and smoke from the funnel.

 

On "Astronomy" cruises — especially to eclipses, the astronomy charter group will ask the ship's captain to darken an area of the ship, usually again this is towards the stern, behind the funnel.

:confused: Which Dawn Princess are you all taking about. The one that I sailed on was the sister ship to the Sun Princess, and was built in 1997. According to Berlitz, this 'Dawn Princess' was never re-named. :confused: john taylor

I'm talking about the "original" Princess Dawn Princess - a small /medium ship ~800 pax, ex Cunard Sylvania, ex Sitmar Fairwind. The original Dawn Princess went out of the Princess fleet, and Princess saw fit to give the same name to another new ship - the 2nd Dawn Princess.

Anyone know what ship was used for Alec Guinness' movie The Captain's Paradise ?

 

The movie is a 1950s British comedy about a ferry captain who has two wives - one in Gibraltar, and a spicy wife at the other end in Morocco.

Bill Miller of WOCLS reports that the Albatros is now just a quarter of a ship....The scrapping is taking place at Alang, India.

As Sitmar's Fairwind, she introduced many people to the joys of cruising and to the delightful, excellent service of her Italian crew. Her Italian kitchen produced memorable meals.

I first sailed on the Albatros in 1964, when she was a Cunard ship - the Sylvania. At that time, the Sylvania was a passenger liner - a true steamship - between England and Canada, sailing out of Liverpool, via Greenock, to either Halifax or Montreal, depending on the season. This was a time when British trains would deliver emigrants from Industrial England to the docks in Liverpool, and a train would be waiting near the ship in Halifax to take immigrants to industrial Ontario. In the Port Immigration Hall in Halifax, we each got a little package containing helpful hints about our new life in Canada ("take showers daily"), bars of soap, etc.

 

Through some investigation, I found out that the Sylvania went through some transitions and was sailing in the mid-90s for Princess Cruise Lines as the Dawn Princess. Some things had changed. The lavatories were no longer "down the passageway" from the bunk cabins. I believe a superstructure was added - but I still remembered aspects of the ship thirty years later. At the bow, underneath the paint, one could stiil see the faint outline of the word "Sylvania". At this time the ship was still transitioning from Italian Sitmar operation, so still had Italian hotel staff and the pizza bar. I went on several more trips on the Dawn Princess out of Florida and Los Angeles.