American Samoa is the only area south of the Equator controlled by the USA, not counting the Antarctic. The above is the flag of American Samoa and Pag Pago (pro Pango Pango) is the capital, which is located on the island of Tutuila. The US had been interested in this part of Samoa from as […]
Our third and final promo was with Aer Lingus – the above shows Aer Lingus B 707 at Manchester Airport.We picked New York again, but this time we didn’t fly direct, but via Dublin and Shannon. The memorable thing about this flight for me was at Dublin Airport while we were in transit. I visited […]
A friend of mine that I used to work with in BOAC in the 1970’s, heard that Maureen & I would be sailing in the Majestic Princess, and that she would be visiting Dubai for a day on the way to Singapore. He suggested that we should meet so as to catch up on the […]
Even though Calcutta is a 170 km (100 miles) from the sea the river Hooghly is large and deep enough for deep sea ships to sail to Calcutta to load and discharge. The Company that I worked for began life in Calcutta in 1856 so it was not a surprise to see other BISNC (British […]
At last Australia opened the border to cruise ships and the first Princess vessel to visit Sydney was the Majestic Princess. She had sailed from Vancouver via Los Angeles, Tahiti and New Zealand to be based in Sydney for the southern summer. Maureen and I had sailed in this ship in 2017 from Rome (Civitavecchia […]
With a capacity of 800 you had to be seated at least 30 minutes before the show began. The Princess ships have their own dancers and singers, and their own musical backing – in addition, various outside entertainers are engaged for one or two nights. They would fly in – entertain the passengers and fly […]
I’ve known a number of Princesses – Island, Diamond, Dawn, Majestic and have booked future time with Golden (see above picture) & Diamond (again) – see picture below. My wife & I enjoyed our time so much with each Princess we thought it only right that we share our good fortune with our friends around […]
During WW2 the US Navy created a classification of ship as ‘Attack Transport’, which consisted of a specially built ship that would carry troops in to battle, but as normal troop ships were usually converted merchant ships, and relied on either docking or tenders to deliver the troops ashore an ‘attack transport’ carried her own […]
Am I the only one who objects to the current use of inappropriate language in films, books, TV and on the radio? Are the current crop of ‘artists’, whether they are authors, scripts writers, actors, TV producers etc, incapable of producing entertainment without the reader or viewer being embarrassed, especially when sitting with family members? […]
Sky Tower, Auckland. Picture from the web 328 metres (1,076 feet) high – the tallest free standing structure in the southern hemisphere. The Observation platform is on level 51 at 186 metres, and above this level is the Skydeck at level 60 – The Sugar Club level 53, and orbit dining at level 52. The […]
Civitavecchia pronounced ch-ee-v-ee-t-aa-v-EH-k-k-ee-aa On arrival at Hotel Traghetto, which is a family run hotel, we were shown to our room on the second floor. The room boasted a small balcony, which we didn’t use. I’d booked us for three nights, but two days, just incase anything happened to our luggage. Having seen two ladies distressed over […]
During the night of the cruise from the Bay of Islands to Tauranga I was woken around 2.00 am to the sound of the ship’s foghorn, which was set to sound every two minutes.In the ‘old days’ of the 1960’s when sailing in a cargo ship the officer of the watch would haul on a […]
Once the decision had been made to join the Majestic Princess in Rome, and to sail back to Singapore, the next thought was how to get to Rome and home from Singapore. I checked various airlines that we have used in the past, and considered the cost via each one, but as one gets older one […]
After visiting Silverton we decided to visit Pro Hart’s gallery in Broken Hill. I am not a particularly enthusiastic art viewer – I know that it has been said before, ‘I know what I like’, but I don’t always understand what I am viewing. The gallery is well laid out over three levels. Many of […]
