DEEP SEA HOLIDAY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume VL, Issue 3132, 9 February 1934, Page 5

DEEP SEA HOLIDAY.

PENNY-A-MILE LUXURY CRUISES.

With countless lights gleaming through the portholes in her snowwhite hull, the first of a fleet of floating hotels which will cruise 250,000 miles in search of sunshine, health and novelty steamed out of Liverpool harbour for New York on January 9 on a five months’ voyage around the world. She has been specially painted white in order to resemble a gigantic yacht. And she is in fact a floating luxury hotel. For the past two months she has been overhauled from stem to stern. Miles of alleyways and corridors have been redecorated in tones of pale blue and biscuit, and the whole, of the ship’s flooring has been strip-* ped and relaid -with over an acre of" new covering.

Bedrooms and public rooms have been redecorated, and a new beautyparlour for women installed. The sporting facilities cover some 5000 square feet of space and include a large swimming pool, a squash rackets court and a gymnasium.

In the reconditioning of the ship’s cabin accommodation alone a mile and a half of wall fabrics, six miles of piping, over 2i miles, of new carpets and hundreds of gallons of paint have been expended. From January to October seven ships of the Cunard fleet —the giant Mauretania and Aquitania, the Carinthia, Samaria, Laconia, Lancastria and Franconia —will make some 43 cruises from this country and the United States.

Some of the cruises will cost only nine guineas, while for others, such as the Franconia’s world voyage, a luxury suite will cost 2540' guineas. This ambitious scheme of voyages in search of health and relaxation is due to the great success of this past year’s pleasure cruise, in which the Cunard line alone carried over 28,000 passengers.

The new programme allows for double that number of clients, many of whom will be transported, housed and fed at charges which work out at less than one penny a mile.