Earlier this month Discovery Princess sailed into Sydney as part of Princess Cruises’ celebration of 50 years in Australia. Pacific Princess was its first ship to visit our shores in 1975.
Many Australians will have happy memories of family cruises with Princess, which is Australia’s longest-serving international cruise line still in operation. But it does have a few more decades to sail before it bags the 92-year record of the now defunct P&O Australia.
The 3660-passenger Discovery Princess will be on its maiden season in Australia for four months, homeporting in Sydney and sailing local as well as round-trip New Zealand and Fiji cruises before heading across the Pacific to North America.
Princess Cruises was launched in 1965 with a single chartered ship carrying 320 guests to Mexico. The ship’s decor was heavy on sombre wood panelling, and cabins had no balconies; some didn’t even have ensuites. Shuffleboard on deck was one of the big entertainments.
Cruise ships at the time had tiny swimming pools and nothing that resembled the modern cruise-ship theatre. Atriums were a just-introduced novelty on some vessels. Menus were staid. On an Alaska cruise in 1971, Princess guests dined on prosciutto with chilled melon, chicken consomme with sherry and broiled beef before finishing up with peach melba.
By the mid-1970s Princess Cruises had three ships and would become famous thanks to television series The Love Boat, which ran from 1977 to 1986 and is credited with sparking the boom in modern cruise holidays.
Princess expanded rapidly and started sailing to many more international destinations. (It now has 15 ships sailing to 300 ports.) Its Alaska program introduced the concept of cruise-tours. Other innovations included 24-hour dining, speciality dining venues, poolside movie theatres, adults-only sanctuaries and personal-device technologies for individual passenger use.
Things have certainly moved on over the last five decades. Discovery Princess features three main dining venues and a host of other options from Italian to Japanese, kids’ clubs, an expansive spa, four swimming pools and a theatre that holds 1000 guests at a time. Entertainment runs from magic acts and comedians to rock opera productions.
Cruise ships more broadly have changed enormously over the last half century. Ships are exponentially bigger and infinitely more complex. There are fewer portholes and more balconies.
Dining choices are dazzling, and you no longer have to eat at set times. Cabaret acts have been replaced with Broadway-style extravaganzas. At the luxury end, you can enjoy butler service, Molton Brown toiletries and fine sheets.
What all this reminds me of is that, for nearly all of human history, travel by ships was dangerous and deeply unpleasant. It has taken all our technological and organisational ingenuity to make cruises a comfort, never mind a joy. How lucky we are to be able to travel the seven seas in such ease and style.
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Brian Johnston seemed destined to become a travel writer: he is an Irishman born in Nigeria and raised in Switzerland, who has lived in Britain and China and now calls Australia home.
