cruisin'since'75

If the song you are talking about is the Oceanic song, it went like this,

Oh Oceanic ship, shes a bella bella bella.

Somehow I think that Cruzin75 will know the rest of the words. I'm sitting here humming them as I am typing (lol).

Okay, lets give this a go!

"Oh Oceanic Ship, tu se bella, bella, bella. (You are beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.)

Oh Oceanic Ship, never ever will forget 'ya!

Good Bye, So Long, Farewell!

Arreviderci...

I think that's pretty much the jist of it. And Marge106, do you remeber

"The most beautiful ship in the world, is the Carla, is the Carla."?

Oh, I'm sure you will. And if you don't remember than your other friend in Hamden, Connecticut sure does! ;)

Good morning, Moondawgie. We must have run into each other every Saturday at the pier. Never mind the $1 to get on the ship, how about waiting for the man of the week to get off the ship and bring you a pass to get on at "crew deck" as his guest? That was living the life, for sure.

Speaking of the $1 to board the ship as a guest, were you cruising early enough to remember the very, very inexpensive cost of drinks? Someone else at this site mentioned the cheap pricing in an earlier posting, but it just occurred to me that I couldn't remember when the prices changed, just that they did and we all kind of took it in stride. Does anyone remember when this happened?

I distinctly remember when Home Lines went out of business and my friends and I went on our first Costa cruise we were given our first "cards" to use to pay for drinks, etc., and I flatly refused to purchase anything on the trip. No drinks, no souveniers, nothing. I was used to using my money to pay for things and no one was gonna make me use a card just so I would end up spending more than I'd planned on (which is what I'd been told was the reason for these early "sign & sail" type cards!) That was one thirsty cruise, I'll admit. To this day my friends that I sailed with politely call me a big jerk and have a good laugh.

OMG -- I am so glad you answered me! Yes, I have a 27 year-old daughter from that little excursion! I was VERY naive... and I had just turned 17 on that cruise. I was on the cruise with my parents and sister.

 

Oh well, my daughter is a very beautiful italian girl with dark brown hair, big brown eyes and a beautiful smile. A very smart girl too!

 

I also kept a diary while on the cruise.. I just have to dig it out.

 

I would love it if you could get a photo scanned into the computer. It would be so nice of you. Tori would love to see photos.

 

He was just a player! If I only knew then what I know now..... I still have a wonderful daughter (Tori) :D

 

Take care - hope to hear from you soon.

Okay, just HAD to get in on these memories of the old days aboard Home Lines. First cruised on the Oceanic in - are you ready - October 1975. I've been on hundreds of cruises, so many of them aboard the Oceanic, the Doric, The Atlantic and the Homerice. I even sailed on the Bid Red Boat just to relive some of the old times - I thought- and although the ship was pretty much the same, nothing else was. There were no Italian crew and officers aboard the Big Red Boat. It was definitely the crew and officiers that made Home Lines the cruise line you couldn't help but fall in love with.

Dino Vecchio? Oh yes, quite a charmer, more charming to some than others, obviously, but always very polite and sweet, always very amusing, always very confident, and always the epitome of what is expected of an Italian male. You couldn't help but love that boy. And so many others just like him. Does anyone remember Danielle of that often mentioned Donzelli Orchestra? He would get out in the middle of the dance floor, invite the passengers to join him in a line dance, and then pay very special attention to each and every woman individually at some point in the evening. Each young lady came off that dance floor honestly believing she'd had the most special moment of her life. Don't know how he managed that for months at a time, or however long his contract with "the company" would last. He always looked so fresh and rested. Amazing.

From the Cabin Boys and Cabin Stewards - remember there used to be two crew assigned to your cabin to meet your every need and when they finished working at around 9:00 (after straightening the cabins of the 2nd seating dinner passengers), the night steward would take over and make sure you got into your cabin at the end of your day at sea (and also make sure you were not trying to sneak a cabin steward or waiter or some other rank of crew into your cabin!) Ah, it was great to single and sailing on Home Lines.

79Cruiser, how did you & Dino every manage to get together what with parents, siblings, and Night Stewards hagining around? The Home Lines company had very strict rules and regulations about crew fraternizing with passengers. We all heard about it all the time. Crew being sent home after a passenger complained, some other crew member being left in Nassau when it was found out he'd taken a passenger to the casino, the stories just went on and on. But they managed somehow, didn't they? And thank goodness they did. Love that stubborn Italian streak!

I could go on and on and on, but I would only bore the group and that's not my intent. We all have wonderful, happy and longlasting memories of our days with Home Lines. I tell everyone that I grew up on Home Lines ships. And I did. My entire life is different than it ever would have been had I not sailed on the Oceanic on 10/25/75 - the worst and best day of my life.

Well, that's my part in keeping this thread going. Who's next?