I haven't said much about the Norwegian Encore.  Everything is average, but not much worse than a Regent Seven Seas or Seabourn ship.  In fact, the service here is better.  Some details. No great surprise, but this American cruise line was founded in Norway in 1966, as a car ferry between Southhampton, UK and Gibralter.   Headquarters are in Miami. One of the original owners, Israeli Ted Arison ( right ), left in 1972 to form Carnival Cruise Lines.  My posting of a few days ago showed that Carnival is, by far, the biggest cruise company in the world.  The other co-founder, Norwegian Knut Kloster, renamed the company Norwegian Caribbean Lines. Pioneered many firsts in the cruise industry. Its second and third ship, the Starward and Skyward, were the first newly built ships designed for cruising. Their Seaward in 1971 was the first true cruise ship without any car-carrying capacity. Their Norway in 1979 was significantly larger than any other cruise ship...

A little more than a year ago I posted on The Best Cruise Disaster Films .  Then a few months later I reinforced that topic .  Titanic was a particularly popular movie, getting 89/69 ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, and was 3 hours and 15 minutes long. If I did my mathematics correctly, there is another cruise production that ran for almost 200 hours.  The Love Boat  had a pilot in 1976, then lasted on television from 1977 to 1986, followed by four 3-hour long specials in 1986, 1987 and 1990.   I bring up this subject because the ship used for the television series was the Pacific Princess, the sister of Island Princess.  But this was not the Island Princess we will be on for our around the world adventure beginning on 19 January 2022.  The first Island Princess began operation in 1972 as the Island Venture.  In 1974 she was sold to P&O's Princess Cruises with the Sea Venture.  They were renamed the Island Princess and Pacific Princess...