I thoroughly enjoyed reading this piece from Kevin Griffin of Late Breaking Cruise News.
"For something different this week, we look back thirty years. Looking at the third weekend of January, at the start of the Caribbean high season in the traditional cruise trades from Florida and Puerto Rico, we compare what is on offer now to the same weekend in 1982. Last week, we announced that Classic International’s Australian arm had succeded in finding a replacement ship for the arrested Athena. This announcement appears to have been premature, however, as only two days later Classic’s Australian went into administration. Finally, we look at what would normally be considered a hairbrain idea – a passenger liner service between Europe and Australia – except that the design for the two ships is apparently to be entrusted to one of the world’s pre-eminent naval architects.
THIS WEEK’S STORY
Cruising: What A Difference Thirty Years Makes
Thirty years ago, in 1982, the modern cruise business was just coming into its second generation. Two years earlier, Norwegian Cruise Line had acquired the fabulous Transatlantic liner s.s. France and converted her into the largest cruise ship in the world, the s.s. Norway, to, operate 7-night cruises from Miami.
As an indication of how successful the industry was becoming, as recently as the 1970s, people had been predicting that cruise ships would never exceed 20,000 tons. But by the early 1980s, cruise lines were starting to build ships such as Royal Caribbean’s 37,584-ton Song of America, Carnival Cruise Lines’ 36,674-ton Tropicale and Home Lines’ 33,800-ton Atlantic. Today, there are more than sixty ships above 100,000 tons, two of which are above 200,000 tons!
So this week, for something different, here is what was on offer from Florida ports and San Juan in the third weekend of 1982, compared to what is now on offer for the same weekend in 2012:"
Continue reading detail and view table at: cybercruises.com
