Jay Lloyd's Getaway: Cruising Anniversary
By Jay Lloyd
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- This week marks the 50th anniversary of an event that forever changed the vacation ocean cruise.
The last Furness ocean liner left Bermuda a half-century ago. With it went years of tradition that required more than a two-week vacation.
Getaway seekers arrived on the fabled island aboard the modest sized Ocean Monarch or Queen of Bermuda. They departed the ship in surrey topped taxis or horse-drawn carriages for hotels around the island. They stayed 8 days – dined, drank, danced under the stars and spent days on pink coral beaches.
But jet travel arrived.
Getaways became shorter and cruise companies got out of the transportation business. Their ships became self-contained resorts. Today many are floating cities that combine transportation, hotel, restaurant Mecca, spa and casino.
A week's vacation is all we need.
Do I miss anything of the old ways? Mostly sailing day, when we would go to the Hamilton dock, see people off and wave to the ship as the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry band played a farewell march.
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