Cruising The Past Cruise News

From the 1930s until his death in 1966, a self-proclaimed hedonist, he was the image of a celebrity. An author, journalist, historian, raconteur, gourmet, and bon vivant extraordinary – this amazing personality was one of the first gay men to have a publicly open relationship.   Columnist Walter Winchell called ... Read More »

Elvis’ love for Hawaii ran deep, and during his lifetime he visited often. Whether it was to perform concerts and benefits, film a movie, or just to vacation, the islands would always draw him back. Elvis sailed to Hawaii from Los Angeles aboard the SS Matsonia on November 5, 1957. ... Read More »

The familiar faces of Beatle Ringo Starr and actor Peter Sellers caused quite a stir at Southampton Docks almost fifty years ago, back in May 1969, when the pair were among 570 passengers boarding the second voyage of the QE2 at Southampton. The pair were going to the United States ... Read More »

Streamline Moderne flagship store located on the Miracle Mile in Los Angeles, was designed by Stiles O. Clements and completed in 1938-39. Coulter’s stood four floors high, with a rounded exterior of white concrete and horizontal bands of glass block rather than proper windows. A dramatic seventy-two-foot-high panel of glass ... Read More »

Peter Knego’s new video is a top to bottom tour of P&O’s S.S. FAIRSTAR, the most popular cruise ship to sail in Australian waters. Besides the ship video tour, a history of the vessel, from her origins as the British trooper OXFORDSHIRE. Peter’s excellent video covers her conversion to an ... Read More »

The “SS United States” was THE liner to be on, and be seen on…luminaries from world leaders to Hollywood royalty (Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Bob Hope, to name a few) were regular passengers on her runs between New York harbor and Europe. That ended in the late 1960s… When the Unions ... Read More »

As part of its phased restart plan, Princess Cruises has eight ships back in service in North America. The premium brand first resumed commercial operations in July, offering Alaska cruises with the Majestic Princess. Eight Ships Back in Action in the Caribbean and West Coast Princess is back at two ... Read More »

Anne Rice, who has died aged 80 after a stroke, was one of the foremost writers of supernatural fiction, and the author of more than 30 novels. The best known of them was her debut, Interview With the Vampire, published in 1976, and adapted in 1994 into a film starring ... Read More »

David Bowie (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), who starred in the film The Man Who Fell to Earth, had a long-standing fear of flying. Bowie sailed aboard Cunard’s QE 2, the Italian Line’s Leonardo da Vinci, P&O-Orient Line’s Oronsay and Canberra along with many other ships.   So while ... Read More »

The Cunard Line celebrates Christmas with a long and fascinating history. The company was created in 1839 when Samuel Cunard won the Admiralty’s tender to provide a transatlantic mail service to be carried by steamships between Great Britain and North America. The service was inaugurated in 1840 when the steamship ... Read More »

The Southern Pacific’s Streamliner Coast Daylight was the West’s finest train in the 1940s, 50s, and early 1960s. Linking Los Angeles and San Francisco via San Jose on a glorious daylight trip, streaking along the edge of the Pacific Ocean for more than a hundred breathless miles. During the early ... Read More »

George Pullman pioneered sleeping accommodations on trains, and by the late 1860s, he was hiring only African-Americans to serve as porters. After the Civil War ended in 1865 Pullman knew that there was a large pool of former slaves who would be looking for work; he also had a very clear racial ... Read More »