The Grand Princess

The Grand Princess, one of those giant cruise ships, is in the news just now for all the wrong reasons. It's the ship that's stuck off the coast of California because of the Coronavirus outbreak. The authorities haven't yet decided whether she can dock and let her passengers disembark. The fear is that such an event will fuel a Coronavirus epidemic in populous California. Meanwhile the unfortunate passengers and crew are in limbo, just as much as any illegal migrant boat intercepted by the vigilant US Coastguard.

The Grand Princess...now didn't I have some pictures of her? Taken when moored in Barcelona in 2009? Indeed I had. It was the work of seconds to locate them. I thought it might be useful to present them, in case any readers hadn't yet formed a clear idea of how very big the typical large cruise ship is.

The much smaller ship tied up next to her at Barcelona, with the blue hull and yellow funnel, is the Saga Rose, then on her last voyage as a Saga cruise ship. I was on her with Dad on our one and only cruise together. By no means his first cruise - he and Mum had enjoyed many together, including the QE2 for their fortieth wedding anniversary - but it was my first. And as it happened, this was the only cruise possible with Dad, who died two and a half weeks after our return.

Barcelona was a port we visited late in the cruise, which had already enabled me to see (and blitz with my camera) Lisbon, Gibraltar, Rome, Florence, and Toulon. After Barcelona we put in at Vigo, then it was back to Southampton and ordinary life. As I said, it was my only taste of cruising so far. I really liked it, but then the little Saga Rose, a ship that had been a favourite of Mum and Dad's on some previous salty jaunts together, was intimate, and you could get to know other passengers quite well, and naturally several members of the crew. It had such a nice feel.

Dad enjoyed that last trip on her, with myself as his companion, substituting for Mum (who had died two months earlier, leaving Dad pining for her). It was an opportunity to bond with Dad in a way not possible before, and as you can imagine - looking back on it - I am so glad we had such a wonderful 'first and last' trip.

The fact that it was the ship's own last outing, her last hooray, as a Saga liner was also poignant. Her replacement would be twice the size, and therefore a better money-making machine. Scale matters with these cruise ships. The larger they are, the more profitable. The really big ones are like floating holiday resorts, a complete holiday experience, and you can easily book time on them as an end in itself, never leaving the ship, and only vaguely glancing at the destinations so smoothly reached and barely noticed. That suits many people. Their comfortable cabins lead out onto their own private sunny balcony. That and the onboard entertainment and facilities may be all they want. And the private balcony is a boon if they are incapacitated, or unsociable.

But that cabin and balcony is all they have, if they are confined to cabins because of a virus outbreak on board.

The usual virus, according to my cousin Rosemary, who is a seasoned five-cruises-a-year lady, is Norovirus, which can be expected to strike now and then. It's spread through bad personal hygiene - generally by careless (or ignorant) passengers using the public toilets on board and not washing their hands. The crew instantly confine those with symptoms to their cabins, then commence a strict routine of thorough cleaning until the trouble passes. A shipwide lockdown isn't normally necessary.

But Coronavirus seems to be a rather worse thing to tackle, especially on super-large ships like Grand Princess.

On the much smaller Saga Rose, the thought of viruses didn't intrude. It still wasn't a perfect holiday for me; I was going through a difficult personal time, and I was constantly scared at the way Dad dozed off into a death-like sleep, so that when I was away on trips around Gibraltar, Rome, Florence, Hyères, Barcelona or Baiona (when Dad preferred to stay aboard, as he couldn't walk far on his arthriticky ankles) I never knew what news might await me on my return. But it was always all right. And we didn't suffer the slightest malady. We could enjoy all the sights and treats to the full. And what sights I saw on that cruise! I enjoyed my cruise experience, at least as I had it on the elegant, last-century Saga Rose!

I am so glad Dad and I weren't on a large ship. I am especially glad that we didn't face a virus outbreak. Because Dad booked only at the last moment, we had an inside cabin, not one with a porthole and a view. Being confined in that would have quickly felt like being a prison inmate!

Judge for yourself from these pictures, whether you'd survive solitary confinement with just a balcony to go to.

The car on the quayside suggests how vast the Grand Princess is close up.

She's a very impressive ship!

Going back along the quay, the size of this ship compared to the little Saga Rose was really clear. Spot, if you can, the chap on his balcony.

They could have done with lifeboats like that on the Titanic!

How small our ship seemed!  I tried to capture her lines to the best advantage.

Further up the quay, sandwiching Saga Rose in, was another huge cruise ship, Navigator of the Seas. I got some shots of her, but a port official on a motorbike turned me back and I couldn't do her from end to end. She seemed even larger than the Grand Princess.

How she dwarfs those container lorries. That's the chappie on the bike who turned me back.

From a high viewpoint overlooking the harbour, on a stop made during my coach trip around Barcelona, I could get a great view of three big cruise ships together. One thinks of sheep for some reason.

It all looks mass-market - at least, mass-market for those who can afford to cruise at all. Next time - if there is ever a next time - I'll try to avoid these monsters and book a cabin on a much smaller ship, one the size of Saga Rose. It'll cost more, but hey, it'll feel so much nicer.