Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 15, 1994 TAG: 9404150072
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
The luxury liner sailed into New York harbor Wednesday on its first crossing of the season, arriving in rainy weather that obscured passengers' views of the Statue of Liberty but didn't dampen their exhilaration over crossing 4,000 miles of ocean.
``You can't explain it. It's luxurious,'' said Karin Kloka of Frankfurt, Germany, after walking down the gangplank at Pier 88, where families and limousine drivers waited.
At $2,095 to $10,745 per person for one-way passage, crossing the Atlantic in an ocean liner is far more expensive than flying. But passengers say they find the pace more relaxing - and there's no limit on baggage. There's even room for cars.
Arriving after her first trans-Atlantic crossing, Elma Denmark of New Orleans saw no reason to choose between two eras of travel.
She and her granddaughter flew from New York to London on the Concorde in a speedy three hours and 15 minutes. Their return was a more leisurely five days aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2 from Southhampton, England.
``It was just something I always wanted to do. I wanted to travel on a ship and I wanted it to be on a large ship,'' Denmark said.
This ship is the biggest, best known and, with a speed of 32 knots, the fastest of the British-owned Cunard Line Ltd. It has traveled 3.75 million miles since it was launched in 1967, and is slated for a $45 million overhaul this fall.
The QE2 will cross the Atlantic 26 times from April to December before leaving in January on a 100-day, round-the-world cruise. It also runs as a cruise ship in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean.
The advent of trans-Atlantic nonstop flights in the 1960s marked the end of an era of ship travel that had brought legions of European immigrants to the United States and provided first-class passage for wealthier travelers.
Still, crossing the Atlantic by ocean liner conjures up romantic images.
The ship, three football fields long, contains four restaurants, a spa and fitness center, eight bars, four swimming pools and a casino. It can carry up to 1,850 passengers in 900 cabins.
``We can take people across the Atlantic in a style that is very difficult to find anywhere,'' said the QE2's Capt. John Burton-Hall. ``The word is `pamper.'''
But two nights of rough seas may have illustrated to some passengers why so many travelers have taken to the skies.
Not Wolfgang Kloka, a Lufthansa pilot making his first ocean voyage. ``It was thrilling,'' he said. ``It went up and down and sideways. Not a lot of people slept that night. I did.''
Bad weather or no, it's the only way Margaret Smith of Cleethorpes, England, will cross the ocean to visit a cousin in Connecticut. She's made the trip seven or eight times.
``I don't fly,'' Smith said. ``Because I'm a coward, I think.''
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"We can take people across the Atlantic in a style that is very difficult to find anywhere. The word is `pamper.' ''
Capt. John Burton-Hall
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"We can take people across the Atlantic in a style that is very difficult to find anywhere. The word is `pamper.' ''
Capt. John Burton-Hall
by CNB