THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601160451
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEPHEN HARRIMAN, TRAVEL EDITOR
LENGTH: Long : 187 lines
THE SUN PRINCESS is not the biggest cruise ship ever and certainly not the biggest forever, but she is the world's biggest right now.
This baby of the Princess Cruises fleet, which made her inaugural Caribbean cruise in mid-December, is an awesome sight and a BIG baby indeed: at 77,000 gross tons, 14 stories tall and 856 feet long, she carries 1,940 passengers. A whole lot of Love Boat.
While the Sun Princess will be eclipsed as the reigning behemoth of the waves by the end of this year, it and its several sizeable successors make a significant statement about the course the cruise industry seems to be charting.
That statement, in its briefest form, would be: Bigger is better. It may seem curious that this launching of megaships comes in the middle of the first decline in cruise bookings in a decade, but bigger ships offering more choices and the economies of scale should mean more profitability to the cruise lines. They're banking on it in a very big way.
This potential glut of berths could signal good news - that is, bargain prices - for cruise vacationers. In other words, big could be very good for you, too.
Let's first try to understand just what big is. There are several interpretations. Is the world's largest cruise ship the one that carries the most passengers, the one with the largest gross tonnage, the one with the greatest length or width . . . or what?
In terms of passengers, Carnival's Imagination currently ranks at the top with a capacity of more than 2,500 and a staff of more than 900. That record will be surpassed in November when Carnival christens the 101,000-ton, 3,400-passenger Destiny.
In terms of length, Norwegian Cruise Line's Norway is the longest at 1,035 feet (three football fields with end zones), and, until Sun Princess' debut, that venerable ship - launched years ago as the France - also was the largest in gross tonnage at 75,200.
The conventional measure of ship size is gross tonnage. That is NOT how much a ship weighs. A ton, in nautical terms, is a measure of capacity - theoretically the amount of space required for a ton of cargo, or 100 cubic feet. Therefore, gross registered tonnage is all a ship's enclosed space divided by 100 cubic feet.
Historically, there have been larger ships than either the Norway or the Sun Princess. In the heyday of trans-Atlantic ship travel, the French Line's Normandie (1935) was registered at 79,280 tons, and Cunard's Queen Mary (1937) and Queen Elizabeth ('38) both were more than 1,000 feet long and over 80,000 tons.
The megaship sweepstakes will continue when Carnival's 101,000-ton Destiny takes over the ``biggest ship'' mantle - a title it will hold until the spring of 1998 when Princess reclaims it with the 104,000-ton, 2,600-passenger Grand Princess, featuring a nightclub suspended off the stern, 15 decks above the sea and reached by a moving sidewalk.
They won't get any bigger than that in the foreseeable future.
Both the Destiny and the Grand Princess will be too wide to transit the Panama Canal and will be permanently based in the Caribbean, where about half of the nearly 5 million people who take cruises every year take them.
Prior to the Grand Princess' arrival will be the 1997 debut of the Dawn Princess, a nearly identical sister ship of the Sun Princess. Carnival also will continue its building spree with a couple of more megaships.
Even Mickey Mouse is getting into the act. Disney Cruise line has commissioned a pair of 85,000-ton, 2400-passenger ships. The first, Disney Magic, is scheduled to enter service in January 1998. Disney will pair a three- or four-day stay at the Disney World resort with a three- or four-day cruise.
Holland America Line is building two more ships in its superb 60,000-ton series that includes the Statendam, Maasdam and Ryndam.
Royal Caribbean recently introduced the 70,000-ton Legends of the Sea and this year will introduce the Splendor of the Seas. Celebrity Cruises' new 70,000-ton Century will soon be followed by a sister ship, the Galaxy.
Costa Cruises expects delivery in June of the 75,000-ton, 1,950-passenger CostaVictoria, to be followed in 1997 by an even larger, yet unnamed ship.
With the exception of the few smaller ships that have established a special niche, it seems evident that as we approach the 21st century the world of cruising will soon belong to the megaships.
Is a big ship for you? Chances are you have no idea.
Princess Cruises thinks so, and they've committed more than a billion dollars to their megaship fleet expansion. When the Dawn Princess and Grand Princess join the Sun Princess, they will have added 6,500 more berths.
This is Princess' corporate thinking:
``With less than eight percent of Americans having ever taken a cruise, we believe there is tremendous opportunity to grow,'' said Peter Ratcliffe, president of Princess Cruises. ``To do so, we are combining a range of features traditionally associated with a landside resort with the traditional cruise benefits of spectacular ports-of-call and attentive personal service.''
I was aboard the Sun Princess on her maiden voyage last month - a brief introductory sojourn from Fort Lauderdale to Princess Cays, the company's private island in the Bahamas, and back - a two-day venture that offered just enough time to explore all the ship had to offer.
Gleaming white, she loomed very large from dockside, but once aboard I was struck much more by her intimacy than by her vastness. The Sun Princess was far from an impersonal floating city that is often the image a megaship projects.
I found her more like, well, as Ratliffe said, a landside resort. A very classy one.
Which should not have been a surprise.
Perhaps you were unaware that the slang word ``posh'' - luxurious and fashionable; elegant - came into our language from a designation first used on the venerable, London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), the parent company (since 1974) of Princess Cruises.
When P&O pioneered passenger cruising in the mid-19th century, the baggage of its most elite guests traveling to Egypt, India, Malay and China were marked with the designation P.O.S.H. - Port Outbound, Starboard Home. In other words, in this pre-air conditioning age, those passengers were assigned to staterooms on the shady side of the ship.
Attention to detail sets the Sun Princess apart: teak chaise lounge chairs on the decks, an art collection valued at $2.5 million, electronic outlets in the soft leather chairs in the library so that you can LISTEN to books (or music) as you gaze out to sea, a stunning grand double atrium with two sets of curving cantilevered marble staircases where I listened to a string quartet play at tea time.
``We were very keen to see that we didn't overcrowd,'' said Ratliffe, pointing out that the Sun Princess' passenger capacity of 1,940 is far fewer than that of many of her competitors' smaller ships. ``We wanted to achieve a very different space ratio. The entire ship is a whole series of intimate rooms.''
Twisting and turning passageways, marble lined and deeply carpeted, in the public areas do seem to make the ship smaller, even cozy.
``We want the cruise experience to be unregimented,'' Ratliffe said. ``We want to give our guests alternatives, a choice of things to do. And the sheer scale allows us to attract a wide range of people with our facilities.''
For instance:
More outside verandas than any ship afloat - 410, nearly 70 percent of the ship. Also 19 cabins for the disabled. Most cabins average 180 square feet or more.
Two 500-guest showrooms offering a choice of a classic Broadway-type theater event or a cabaret-style production.
Several intimate bar lounges.
A casino, of course.
Two age-specific children's centers - one for the really young and another for teens. The latter includes a wealth of video games.
A computer-simulated golf center.
A well-equipped health and fitness center and a jogging track.
Three major pools, plus one for kiddies and another foot-dipper outside the exercise room.
A paddle tennis court that also can be used as a half-court basketball court.
Enough greenery throughout the ship to have a full-time gardner on staff.
How was the food? Of course you wanted to know that. Everyone always does. The short answer: excellent, with an attractive selection including healthy choices and attentive, responsive service. Every bit as impressive was the variety of venues at which it was served.
There are a pair of nearly identical 500-seat dining rooms that are imaginatively designed with separators and with different floor levels that, in effect, create a whole series of small dining areas.
Verdi's pizzeria, with Italian marble tabletops, serves up wonderful hand-made pizzas.
A large area called Horizon Court serves, buffet style, 24 hours a day.
There also is a Terrace Grill, which serves light lunches poolside, and Le Patisserie, offering croissants and Danish pastries. Plus an ice cream shop on the lido deck.
And, of course, room service.
You can go a lot of places on the Sun Princess, but you won't go hungry.
Ready to board? The Sun Princess sails out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on seven-day western Caribbean cruises (Princess Cays, Montego Bay, Grand Cayman and Playa del Carmen/Cuzumel) from now through April 13. From May to September she will sail out of Vancouver, B.C., on seven-day Alaska Inside Passage cruises.
Caribbean cruise list prices begin at $1,448 per person double occupancy in an inside cabin, including air, and go up to $3,548 for an outside suite; Alaska cruises range from $1,199 to $3,599, air extra. In these days of discounting, much lower fares often are available. Ask a travel agent for more information. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
PRINCESS CRUISES
The Sun Princess has a stunning Grand Atrium, above right, with two
sets of curving marble staircases. Below right: the Lido and Riviera
decks.
Graphic
SPEAKING OF PLUSH
How would you like to cruise on a ship that offered a Turkish
bath and pool, a fully equipped gym, squash courts, an a la carte
restaurant, a replica of a Paris sidewalk cafe and a lavish grand
staircase with chandeliers and hand-carved oak panels that took 300
master carvers five years to complete?
The Titanic had all that.
by CNB