Caronia's Very First World Cruise

Any doubts that Caronia could not be marketed as a yacht are clearly dispelled by the image shown below, taken from the frontispiece inset of the 1951 Great World Cruise book.

Introduction

This Great World Cruise Virtual Tour has been added to the Timeline to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the foundering of the “Caribia”, the erstwhile Caronia, on the rocks and sea wall of Apra Harbour, Guam on 12 & 13 August 1974.

Instead of the usual month to a page view, this tour delves a great deal deeper, thus giving a better insight into the luxury of the cruise and the places that Caronia visited during this 111 day adventure.

As much information as can be gleaned for each single day or small groups of days, such as when Caronia was at sea or in one port, has been presented here. It will be added to as researches bring new details to light.

I'm also hoping that visitors from all around the World will also get involved by sending in pictures of their part of the World as it looked when Caronia visited.

The Planning Options

The tour is in five parts…

• Planning the cruise with the brochure
• Browsing and arranging the shore tours
• See page that illustrates the Booking of Accommodation for the 1955 Great World Cruise
• See slide show of 7 pages of a Cunard Passenger Contract Ticket for 1965 Autumn Med Cruise. (Note: Requires javascript and good eyesight to follow tiny print.)
• Following the Day-to-Day passage of the cruise

Planning to Go on a World Cruise…?

Clearly, embarking on a dream cruise around the World over a period of 111 days is not something to be taken lightly. For the initial planning we will need access to a brochure that not only tells us all about where the cruise will take us, but also has cabin details and of course a rates schedule. All the early brochures produced for the Caronia had this information on one large sheet, with the deckplans and rates on one side and all about the Caronia and where she was headed on the other.

Of course finance will only be an issue for someone on a budget. To all intents and purposes, the cost of this cruise is not one to be considered by other than some very well-off people. The costs to consider would be…

• The Cruise Accommodation on board Caronia, according to the number travelling and your cabin choice. The cabin rates will need to be paid for only in US dollars, with the entire cruise paid for about 3 months before the departure date
• All of the conducted tours provided by Thos. Cook & Sons in each port. A combined tour membership can be bought for $780 and is also payable in full a week or two before departure
• All your personal day-to-day expenses, from laundry and beauty treatments to drinks in the bar. Quite apart from the services and shops aboard, there's the not so small matter of souvenir buying from some of the most exotic ports on earth
• All gratuities, both on-board and ashore. Gratuities on board Caronia were prodigious and supported a heirarchical system right across the board
• The ability to stay away from home, and its shoreside costs for 111 days, or longer! As the cruise ends at Southampton, with accommodation reserved for the crossing on any Cunard ship back to New York, here is an opportunity to extend your stay in Europe if you wish. You would disembark at Cherbourg, for Continental Europe, or at Southampton on the same day for the UK

Assuming that we have the funds, and money is no object, here's access to all the information you need to plan your Great Around the World Cruise. Enjoy…

The Next Stage

Here you can make some choices…

• Usually the next stage would be to arrange the shore tours, see what the booking process involves, and see an actual cruise ticket
• however, if you are a free-spirit, perhaps you'd prefer by by-pass these and choose your own starting point on the Day-to-Day Index
• on the other hand, if you are a seasoned traveller, you may prefer to go directly to Embarkation & Departure
• of course, if you were a regular Caronia traveller, then perhaps Names on the Passenger List may bring back memories

With all these options available to you ahead of setting sail, you didn't think that you'd quickly get bored, did you?