Hotel on the waves
BRITISH cruise liner Pacific Princess docked in Fiji on December 8, 1975, marking its first voyage to the country.
According to an article published in The Fiji Times
a day after its arrival, the ship would introduce a new era of shipboard life to people keen on the delights of a luxury ocean holiday.
Nicknamed “the floating hotel” the Pacific Princess
was modern, luxurious and stabilised comfort with features lesser ships could not match.
After service in the Caribbean, Alaska and Mexico the vessel was in the South Pacific for a five-month cruising program.
A special plaque was presented as a souvenir from the Ports Authority of Fiji to the Pacific Princess.
The plaque was presented by the then Minister for Communications and Tourism Edward Beddoes who was chairman of the Ports Authority, to the master of the ship, captain JA Crichton during a lunch on board.
The plaque, made entirely from local timber, was shaped like a shield with “PAF” engraved.
The ship was designed for cruising and was an elegant leisure resort afloat.
She was built in West Germany and had on board international staff members ranging from British officers, Italian chefs and dining room stewards, British bar and cabin staff, Mexican staff, Pakistani deckhands and a Chinese laundry.
Pacific Princess was no ordinary ship, she had been built specifically for cruising — and luxury cruising at that.
The cuisine featured special dishes from Italy, France, Polynesia, England, Indonesia and China.
The ship had an overall length of 554ft with a beam of 81ft and drew 25ft of water. Designed in Scandinavia, the ship had twin screws which could work up a speed of 20 knots.
Her cabins provided a standard of accommodation to equal that of a deluxe hotel on land.
Pacific Princess had a wide range of passenger facilities. The rooms included a sliding glass roof (sun drome) which could convert and open deck into an indoor pool area was one of the more unusual features of the ship.
It had two swimming pools, saunas, a gymnasium lounge, cosy galleries, cinema, gift shop, boutique, library, beauty salon and a barber’s shop.
A beauty salon on board was provided for the ladies, a barber shop for the men together with a gift shop and a boutique.
The gift shop provided for passengers needs and novelty items while the boutique stock ranges from high fashion clothes and jewellery to attractively priced electrical goods.
There were open decks for sports such as shuffleboard and facilities for clay-pigeon shooting, plenty of entertainment and unlimited opportunity to just relax on deck or in air-conditioned comfort.
Most cabins had twin beds and could be used as three or four berth units.
Décor was light, modern with careful colour coordination and the cabins had a dual channel music system, individual air conditioning control, telephone with wall-to-wall carpet.
Many cabins could be converted into comfortable sitting rooms by day and special suites had their own refrigerator with separate sitting rooms.
Pacific Princess carried a permanent entertainment team consisting of an entertainment director, his assistant, two hostesses, stage manager and four rating to back up the stage manager. To ease the mind of people onboard, the ship had an array of entertainment each night and standards was high according to reports.
The boat arranged a wide variety of entertainment such as bingo, blackjack, clay-pigeon shooting, table tennis tournaments, keep fit classes, rumba dance lessons, backgammon, horse racing, casino night and other theme nights.
Communications were well catered for abroad ship with ship-to-shore telephone and telex facilities.
Medical care was another important factor and Pacific Princess had a self-contained hospital managed by doctor and a nurse. Between December 1975 and May 1976, she would undertake 10 cruises to the South Pacific.
It had two swimming pools, saunas, a gymnasium lounge, cosy galleries ... and a barber’s shop