Following an Established Course
By this time Caronia's annual cruise patterns had been well established, even though she was now in the twilight of her distinguished career. This year's Autumn Mediterranean Cruise was more or less a rerun of her 1962 cruise on this route, with calls to Palma and Ajaccio and Málaga added.
Even this late on in her career, Caronia was making maiden visits to ports of call on her cruises. The call to Ajaccio being her first and only visit. Clearly, following a previous itinerary helped American Express to save money on planning the shore excursions. Presumably they could pass these savings on, though adding new destinations also added temptations to try and keep Caronia's regular travellers interested.
A 60 day cruise with 24 ports of call and covering over 15,000 miles was still a major cruise, but by this time the top suites on Main Deck would cost passengers as much as the 111 day World Cruise did in the early 1950s. The “Green Goddess” was also facing some very stiff competition.
Rival liners like the Swedish-American Line's new GRIPSHOLM and later the KUNGSHOLM offered deluxe cruising accommodation to much more modern standards, which made marketing Caronia's cruises an uphill task. For example, on her Summer Mediterranean Cruise this year she was short of 150 passengers from the usual full cruising complement of 570, on what up to now had been a very popular cruise.
In 1966 the pace of life was accellerating to the point where Caronia could no longer compete, and the effects of the Seamen's strike earlier this year were now beginning to bite hard. With many British ships now being registered abroad and recruiting foreign crews at much cheaper rates, the playing field was by no means level.
Although, to Cunard's credit, they didn't follow this route, revenues from the Caronia were now falling to the point where she was barely breaking-even. A far cry from the days when her profits could be counted in the millions, and bringing in much-needed US dollars.
Caronia had led the way from the very start of her career. While many other liners attempted to emulate her in later years, it probably wasn't until Cunard purchased the Sagafjord and Vistafjord from the Norwegian America Line in 1983 that any kind of real comparison in terms of luxury and “floating country-club” type atmosphere could be made.
Both of these ships were originally registered in the Bahamas, and although Sagafjord, in her maiden year, was sailing the Mediterranean concurrently with Caronia in 1966, it would actually be the Vistafjord, only launched in 1972, that would continue the Caronia name from 12 December 1999 until October 2004.
So, today, the fantastic Caronia tradition awaits another ship to continue the legacy. As in 1967, we are left wondering - will it ever happen again? The answer is, probably not.
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