"The Queen Frederica days and nights....." Personal Page by Odinnthor

How it all worked

For those who do not know, - the difference between a "voyage" and "cruise", is that a voyage goes from point A to point B,carrying passengers like a plane or a train. A cruise goes from point A back to point A, (with some variations). When we did our first season on the Queen, we left Southamton with stops in Lisboa, Cape Verde, Capetown, Mauritius, Perth, Hobart and then Melbourne and Sydney. This took a month. We travelled with a ship full of German immigrants re-settling in Australia. These were not poor people but not mega-rich either, we then did the South Pacific cruises first, - usually two and three week cruises with passengers from Melbourne/Sydney/Auckland. This pretty much covered all of Oceania and all points between. Then a couple of six week cruises to Asia, covering all main ports from Tokyo/Yokohama, Osaka, Guam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Manila, New Caledonia, - I am missing some I think. Anyway, many adventures arose and I will add them as they come back to me. One is on the Home Page, - from Mauritius. Cheers.

The Tonga Experience

The Royal Palace and a statue of King Taufa'ahau

The first time we moored off the shore of the Kingdom of Tonga, we were informed that we were the first cruise ship to stop there. Well perhaps we really were, because for the occasion, the King of Tonga, King Taufa'ahau Tupou, who died recently at the age of 88, after ruling the Kingdom for 41 years, - invited the Captain, Officers and Entertainment Staff to a Royal Feast at the Royal Palace. This was set up on the grounds in true ancient Polynesian style. I have been to a lot of luaus in my life, but this one has never been surpassed. What a night!! The beloved king was a big man too, weighing in at 440 lbs. (The photo is courtesy of the Palace Office)

Interesting point: The International Dateline runs right through the island and the International Dateline Hotel, - so in one end of the hotel when it is Sunday, - in the other end of the hotel it's Monday.

New Years Eve in the Pacific - TWICE!!

South Pacific dreams come true......

Ahhh, - New Years Eve in the South Pacific. We were on the correct side of the International Dateline into December 31, and it was a great party. When it got close to midnite no one was feeling any pain. Clock struck 12, and as we were about to celebrate the New Year, - eh - the ship crossed the Dateline and we were right back on December 31, and we had another 24 hours of revelry, before Midnite struck again. What a bloody party!! Of course we somehow lost January 2. but told ourselves that we just slept right through it. Who says that travel through time is not possible???!!