Druke I

For those of you who really dislike to fly, have you looked into P&O's Boomerang trips?

Every spring, P&O (UK) sends two ships out from Southampton, each circumnavigating the globe, one eastbound and one westbound.

Depending on itineraries, it is possible in some years to depart US West coast, sail out to Australia, spend a week or 10 days there, and then travel back to the US West coast on the other ship.

It has often been Oriana and Aurora, although I think Arcadia might have been one of the duo a year or two ago.

I've looked longingly at doing that several times, but it has never worked out.

I did sail San Francisco to Sydney on Sky Princess' last trip as a Princess ship, but bit the bullet and flew home. I don't care to fly, but do it to get from Point A to Point B when it suits me.

Reference noise in dining rooms, we found Disney's less noisy than Regal Princess in its original incarnation. Regal Princess, after remodelling, was somewhat better.

The biggest three complaints I had about Disney:

1. Adults were not allowed to use the slide into the swimming pool - kids only.

2. Seats in main show lounge had little knee room - designed for people less

than 6 feet tall.

3. Four night cruise is much too short.

Well, I'll weigh in again regarding Disney.

My wife and I took a Disney 4 night cruise on the Magic, 12-98, as part of a package which included 3 nights at Disneyworld. We travelled without kids (ours are adult), and we found separation between children and adults to be very good. We told ourselves we were taking it as a preview to going with the grandkids.

Their dining concept is really unique. Three different dining rooms in rotation, and your waiters move with you.

The cabins were very large, with fairly spacious bathrooms.

When their new ships come on-line, we very likely will try Disney again, particularly if they have a cruise/park package that includes the park in France, Hong Kong, or Japan.

When we get back from our Danube cruise, Budapest to Constanta, I'll post a short report on this thread, if it is still going.

Reference Disney and Celebrity - I've been on both, and think Disney has a much better product. We thought Celebrity over-rated, in our opinion certainly not an equal of HAL, and the food only marginally better than Princess. (I do recognize that opinions of food are extremely subjective.)

The 1st time I was on Oriana, 7-64, was a 3 night coastal, Vancouver BC to San Francisco. She was on a line voyage from Australia to Southhampton via the Pacific Coast and Panama Canal. At that time, she still had Orient Line's cornyellow hull. We were in a Court Cabin (1st class). The Court Cabins were quite nice. They were really inside cabins with a small window looking out onto a foyer that did have a big window. Not much of a view, but you could get a pretty good fix on the weather. The ship still had a Grill for 1st class passengers who tired of eating in the dining room.

The second time was Christmas 1970, on a 10 night Mexican Riviera cruise, RT from San Francisco. At that time, P&O was attempting to compete with Princess (before they bought the line), and were running the ship as a one class vessel. We were a 3 generational group, 17 in all. My parents were up in a 1st class cabin (my mother insisted on having a tub), the rest of us were down on F deck, scattered about in "convertible" cabins. Convertible cabins could be configured as a 4 berth cabin without facilities, or a two berth cabin with facilities! All the kids were in cabins without facilities, the parents had facilities. That worked out fairly well. Oriana was white hulled on this trip, and the Grill was but a memory.

I always wanted to take her running mate, Canberra, out to Australia. My wife was reluctant to make the trip - she was sure I would book a cabin without facilities, and she did not want to make a long walk in the middle of the night. We actually did have reservations at one point, but some other crisis or event in our lives required cancelling. We did visit Canberra several times in San Francisco - I do regret not having taken a trip on The Great White Whale!

We have been on three of the R-class ships: Pacific Princess (new) Papeete to Sydney, Regatta into the Baltic, and Nautica Istanbul to Singapore.

Saga Ruby was on Nautica same time we were, and we became friends. It was an enjoyable itinerary through the Suez - something I always wanted to see.

The Tasman Sea was smooth for Pacific Princess, the North Sea was smooth for Regatta, and we had smooth sailing while on Nautica.

We'll be on Regatta again, 3-08, for a trans-Atlantic, Miami to Barcelona, and back on Nautica 3-09 for New Zealand and Australia.

I've heard that the R-class can be rough riders -we've only experienced smooth seas, and had rougher rides on some much bigger ships. Ride has a lot to do with hull shape and form, although sea state certainly makes a huge difference.

We like Oceania very much. Although I consider myself a Traditionalist, I do find their dress code very enjoyable, and it greatly simplifies the packing process.

Oceania's food is very good, superior to HAL and even Crystal, we think. They don't have elaborate production shows like many of the mainstream lines, but have an excellent string quartet that plays in the evening. There are also singers and lecturers.

Reference the Great Lakes; there is a rumor that Hornblower Yachts may buy the Cape class packet boats that were built for the Delta Queen Company just before 9-11, and run them into the Great Lakes.

They have been in storage by the federal Maritime agency, and I think tied up in the James River.

These neat little packet boats have 114 cabins , and will easily fit through the locks of the St. Lawrence Seaway and all the way to the Great Lakes.

Reference Oriana - I'd love to travel on her or her running mate Aurora. I sailed twice on the original Oriana, and in her day she was a very fast runner out to the Antipodes from Great Britain. The first time on Oriana, 1964, we were in 1st class Court cabin; the second time, Christmas 1970, in a cabin without facilities (read 2nd or tourist class), down on F deck.

John Maxtone-Graham was one of the guest lecturers on our San Francisco to Sydney Pacific Battlegrounds Cruise, 9-00, on Sky Princess' last voyage as a Princess ship.

Aside from being an excellent, fascinating lecturer, he and his wife are very friendly and approachable. He is a wealth of knowledge about passenger ships and the shipping industry.

"Sayonara" is one of my favorite movies. Sad ending indeed.

My time in the Far East was shortly after that period (movie was Korean War, I was overseas 56/58).

While an MP on Okinawa, the same dancing troupe used in the movie came on tour down to Okinawa. We guarded them, and we were their official escorts. Very talented, and pretty too boot.

Marlon Brando, star of Sayonara, was in a very good movie about Okinawa immediately after WW2, "Teahouse of the August Moon". Yes - there really is such a place!

I did get down to the Control Room of HAL's Noordam, June of 85. Very sterile, lots of gauges, and spotlessly clean.

My bro-in-law, a mechanical engineer of sorts, was able to talk his way into the engine room itself on one of our trips. He had made friends with the 1st Engineer! I was insanely jealous - I didn't get down there.

I agree that Dunedin is a lovely town. We were there in Jan 95, and were properly "piped" by bagpipers when we sailed (on the old Pacific Princess, the Love Boat).

You don't really have to travel that far to see "disappearing guns". Over at either Fort Barry or Fort Kronkite, Presidio of San Francisco, they had similar guns back in the old Coast Artillery. I have a rather interesting paperback on the Coast Artillery in the San Francisco Bay Area during WW2.

Yes, Ruby does have a good sense of humor, and she crinkles her nose when she laughs! Saw that several times while on Nautica, this past Nov/Dec., Istanbul to Singapore.

Ruby, the Arab horse cart driver in Cairo turned up his nose when I offered him a dollar tip for his horse. The fact that it was a coin (Sakajawea golden dollar) probably had a lot to do with it. Easier for them to convert paper money than coin. He readily accepted a $2.00 dollar bill.

The mighty dollar certainly is not what it once was, but that is a different story.

The effectiveness of the Gurkha Soldier goes far beyond The Raj - they have been a mainstay of the British Special Operations up to and including present Middle East conflicts.

Pretty complete review - thanks.

Editorial note: the parts that are not underlined are a lot easier to read than the underlined parts. Perhaps it is just my old tired eyes.

I knew you were a lady with many interests - but did not realize it also extended to WW2 planes.

On Sunday, 4-29-07, while at a block party at a neighbors' house, we heard the unmistakable roar of a Packard Merlin (Rolls Royce under license), looked up and saw a P51D Mustang go over, and then begin doing "lazy 8s" a couple of miles South of us.

Two weekends later, at the local airport, "Wings of Freedom" appeared: a B17 Flying Fortress, a B24 Liberator, and a B25 Mitchell. I did see the B24 and B25 on their downwind approaches, but missed the B17 that day, although I did see it flying over a couple of days later.

It was grand seeing those wonderful "warbirds". When I was a lad in grammar school, after the threat of air raids was pretty well over on the Left Coast, we used to flock to the windows when a flight of planes when over. During those days of WW2, there were a great many more military airfields in the greater San Francisco Bay Area than today.

I do recall the story of rescuing that P38 and its rebuilding.

Last night, our local PBS station ran an hour long program "Normandie: A Legendary Liner".

Very interesting, and much of it in early color film, filmed by a French family aboard.

Yes Ruby - my expat daughter in England has complained about the rain! (But she does complain about a lot of things!)

Yes, riding backwards meant you did not press against the seatback during take-off - but those old prop planes did not climb out nearly as steeply (usually) as do the jets.

I suppose that is but one of many oddities. One I have never found the answer to is why does the pilot in command in an airplane sit in the left seat, but the pilot in command of a helicopter sit in the right seat? I suppose it might have something to do with the collective and other controls unique to a chopper,, but no pilot I have ever asked has confirmed that!

In the 50s, MATS planes had the seats backwards - and they did say for safety reasons, particularly if they had to ditch at sea.

I don't have a clue why civil aircraft don't, other than many people claim that riding backwards increases their nausea level. I also don't know if military transports, passenger version, still ride backward. Most of what MATS used to do has been contracted out to the civilian market. MATS now has another name, which escapes me at the moment.

The Globemaster I that I cited had the seats arranged for paratroopers and/or infantry, and you rode sideways on tubing/webbing seats not built for comfort!

The Globemaster had small, porthole-like windows, but seated in the tubing/web seats, very difficult to be in position to see out.

The Navy Constellation we were on, as well as an Air Force C-54 (DC-4) had airliner style seats, albeit facing backwards, and both were fitted to passenger plane standards (at that time, under Military Air Transport Service, or MATS).

I've only flown once on a DC-3 (C-47), from Oakland CA to Reno NV,on a gambling junket, back in the 1960s. Considering its age, it was quite comfortable.

Uncomfortable was an USAF C-124 (?), the Globemaster I, a four engine double decked transport, with aluminum tubing/canvas webbing seats. Flew in that from Tachikawa Japan to Kadena Okinawa, June 56.

Perhaps the most comfortable, best riding of the prop planes was the Lockheed Constellation. Flew in one of USN's, from Hickam Field, Territory of Hawaii, to Tachikawa Japan, with a refueling & meal stop at Midway Island, also in June 56.

Virginia and I were in Guangzhou, 11-86, on the little Golden Odyssey, a 10,000 tonner, about half the size of Island Princess.

We didn't have as much of an adventure as you, in fact, I think we just took an "overview" bus tour. I do recall when leaving there was a kindergarten class of children that came to see the ship, and serenaded us as we pulled out. They certainly were cute, dressed in native dress and wearing makeup.

Just after that (next day or so), on the China Sea and en route to Manila, we tried to outrun the back end of a typhoon. We had green water over the bridge, screws out of the water, and inclinometer pegged. Rough time for about 24 hrs. Not too far from those waters (closer to Okinawa), Halsey's Fleet lost three destroyers to capsizing during a typhoon, closing days of WW2.

I think perhaps you are confused. She did not sink. She did run aground off Buenos Aires recently, but was refloated!

You mentioned Naples with the volcano as pretty.

9-00, we went on last voyage of Sky Princess as a Princess ship, San Francisco to Sydney. It was billed as a WW2 Battlefields cruise, and one of the scheduled ports was Rabual, Papua New Guinea (formerly New Britain).

Rabaul was a major Japanese Imperial Navy Base during WW2.

When we pulled in, one of two volcanoes at the harbor mouth was belching smoke and ash. It was heavy enough that surgical masks were passed out to passengers, and special filters were put up on the funnel's air intakes.

It is really a quite pretty harbor.

Another that we found beautiful, and reminded us of a cross between San Francisco and Seattle is Nagasaki Japan. We were there on an earlier cruise on Sky Princess (4-97).

I do believe you left out one magnificent port in your listing: San Francisco.

A beautiful harbor, and sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge is truly a thrill.

Some Captains give a mighty blast of the ship's whistle (horn) just before going under the Bridge in salute to the pedestrians waving goodbye. Brings a tear to my eye every time, and makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up!

When QM2 made her maiden call to San Francisco a couple of weeks ago, not only was she sounding her mighty whistle, but the Bridge was blowing its foghorn in return salute!

Well SagaRuby, as soon as I saw Doug's response I thought: Aha, ship pronounced by someone with a heavy Italian accent would sound like sheep to an untuned ear.

Shows what I know - but admit to having barely passed Jr.High School Spanish, which was mistaught by a lady who spoke Castillian Spanish, not the Mexican Spanish we hear in the West.