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It is true that dining on Home Lines is a difficult, if not impossible act to follow. I remember that the plates had a crown insignia which the waiters always placed at the 12 o'clock mark. My freinds and I would twist the plates ever so slightly so that the crown was not in it's proper position.:p Every time, the waiter or bus boy would come back to the table they would re adjust the plate so that the crown was at the top again. This became a game for us after a while, and the wait staff always took it all in good fun!

I remember that the waiters would bring you anything your heart desired, even if it wasn't on the menu. On the first night of the cruise, I asked for cappucino which wasn't on the menu (and which you didn't have to pay extra for in those days) . Our bus boy, Nicola from Molfetta, Bari, brought it out to me that evening and every evening for the rest of the cruise, without ever having to ask again!:rolleyes:

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  • 3 months later...

1961 my dad took us on the Ocean Monarch of Furness lines. 1962 It was the Queen of Bermuda. 1963 The Italia of Home lines. I was so young I couldn't tell if we were on the dock or the ship till we left. I was 6 years old my sister was 8. Who would want kids on a cruise back then? My Mom and Dad! They took a cruise on the old Hanseatic and missed us so much they would never leave home with out us again! Rest their beautiful souls. I remember June of 1964 driving to NY in the old Buick to catch the ship. My sister and I were so excited after sailing the old ladies and seeing the brochures with the modern Magradome Roof! The car over heated around Molly Pitcher service station (NJ Tpk) and I thought it was the end of the world. Good old Dad came thru again some how and we limped through the Lincoln tunnel turned on to 42nd street and low and behold under the west side highway was a sight I will never forget! A huge white streamlined ship with a yellow and blue funnel and golden crown that was just breath taking. My sister and I could not sit still and just as mom tried to calm us down the skies opened up and it poured. The rain made her glisten like a new wax job. We cried the last night of the cruise and went back 2 more times "68" and "70" I believe. These were the days that made me whom I am. I would never trade it. Too bad the monsters of this industry can't reproduce it.$$$$. Rudolfo was our matre' de and his brother Etzio the blondest man in all of Italy was our waiter. They made us feel like we were their only table. They drew cartoons, always had chocolate milk plus a joke. our cabin was always O59. If I only knew...............

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<snip> Who would want kids on a cruise back then? My Mom and Dad! <snip>

 

My parents took me as a child too ... many cruises on Homeric and Oceanic. I do really believe those cruises had a defining impact on my life ... well, 24 years in the Navy for one! Took my kids on Oceanic when she was sailing as the Big Red Boat and, while there was no comparison, they still talk about it all these years later. I still take my family on cruises, and we still enjoy them but, it is obviously not the same. What great memories.

 

... Cal

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  • 2 weeks later...

A person using the name joewelcome posted saying his father was on the maiden voyage of the Oceanic in 1965.

 

I would love to get in touch with you if you are still reading this list and hear more about that trip.

 

Thanks

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I am collecting stories about Home Lines and what it was like aboard the ships for a writing project about this firm.

 

I first sailed with Home Lines about the first Homeric and then sailed with all of their ships until they went out of business. It was a great cruise line that did so much for the industry and left so many people with happy memories.

 

Keep your stories coming or contact me private to tell more.

 

Thanks

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  • 2 weeks later...
Enjoy .i found this on youtube .

 

Hey Mr Veendam06 ... too bad I did not notice this before we left but apparently we both were on AOS last week! I thought is a well done cruise in general with a noticeable improvement in main dinning room food (although Portofino was, I thought, not up to previous cruise standards).

 

Too bad none will ever match a Home Lines cruise!

 

... Cal

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  • 4 weeks later...

I was a sales assistant on board the Oceanic, I loved every minute of it. I am still in touch with a couple of the girls who worked on board. I dated one of the most handsome officers on board "Daniel" an officer from the bridge. oh boy was he handsome....Handsome just wasnt the word. But as he was Italian it didnt last :( I really do miss Homelines but I did work on other ships after the Oceanic but they just wern't the same.

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They dont exist anymore, when I worked on board it was the Jeff Lorriman Orchestra, I think thats how you spell it, did you know them ? :rolleyes:

 

Hey, it's funny you should mention that about the record album. My grandfather sailed Oceanic out of NY several times in the 70's & early 80's, and he bought all the Donzelli albums, the Sergio and his Band Souvenir Oceanic album, Geno Stante Quartet ... and yes!! I have them all, God rest my papa's loving soul! I can't send you an audio file as an attachment on this site, but if you send me your email, I will send you some Donzelli MP3's ... fresh off the vinyl record! Great stuff -- I like this music way better than any contemporary stuff on the radio today!

Ciao,

Christoff

 

P.S. To anyone else reading this: Does anyone know the whereabouts of Donzelli Group nowadays? There's not much on the internet about this bunch ...

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I used to work in the shops on board the Oceanic 1983 -1984 before chancing to another ship. I saw one of the officers on the Oceanvillage ship when I won a caribbean cruise in nov 2006

 

It was strange seeing him after 23 years :rolleyes:

 

I, too, would love to know when one of those reunions are. I keep in touch with several of the passengers and we'd love to see some of the crew members. Only keep in touch with Spiros who was Greek and was a bartender. Have become good friends with his family.
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Hi Trisha:

Not sure if you remember 1 of the girls from the shop, Linda from Bournmounth. I still keep in touch with her. I aslo occassionally speak to

Maria from London now living in Calabria and sometimes Pinuccia.

Marge

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  • 4 months later...

Hi Trisha,

I sailed on the Oceanic in 1983 and had a fabulous time on my first cruise, with my new husband. We loved our waiter, Michele, and his assistant, Lelo, from Italy. We kept in touch with Michele and used to visit him in New York, when he was in port. Do you have any idea of his whereabouts today?

Thanks for any information!

Cindy

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  • 1 month later...

My first cruise was on the Oceanic. I was five years old. I remember the name of the captain but I can't spell it. Pasquale was our waiter and Angelo was the water boy (that is what I called him) They made such a fuss over me. I remember eating the breadsticks, they were awesome. We went to Bermuda and my parents rented those scary mopeds. Jobsons Cove was the most beautiful and secluded beach I have ever been to.

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  • 1 month later...
I am collecting stories about Home Lines and what it was like aboard the ships for a writing project about this firm.

 

I first sailed with Home Lines about the first Homeric and then sailed with all of their ships until they went out of business. It was a great cruise line that did so much for the industry and left so many people with happy memories.

 

Keep your stories coming or contact me private to tell more.

 

Thanks

 

I sailed Homeric in 1955, great ship!

 

john

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Although I was introduced into crossing and cruising at an early age, I took my 1st solo cruise aboard the Oceanic from New York to Bermuda and Nassau. It was August of 1978, and I was 14 years old and I had paid for the cruise with a paper route. It cost $535 for a tiny single cabin, O-18 on the Oceanic Deck. Most thought I was in college, but I learned early that shipboard life was second nature to me. I cannot imagine the same thing happening in today's world.

 

I repeated the sailing, cabin and solo travel the following year, again in August. It was more amazing than the 1st. I felt I knew every detail of the ship, and the crew were very attentive and social with me, being a young passenger traveling alone with mostly older clientel.

 

Later in life during my shipboard career, one of the cruise lines I worked aboard was Premier Cruises. First I was abaord the Royale. But when word came that Premier had purchased the Oceanic I had mixed feelings as she was stately, high caliber and HUGE (for the then 3/4 day Bahamas cruise market). When I saw her painted red, lifeboat propellors painted yellow and the idea of Disney character aboard, I wondered if she would work. Then I was assigned to her.

 

As soon as I stepped aboard I was overwhelmed in emotions. The scent of the ship was familar. And to my amazement, my staff cabin assignment was Bahamas Deck 18...formerly Oceanic Deck O-18. Kismet.

 

The layout unchanged, yet a vibrant infusion in decor was both good, and not so much. I did not care for the Aegean Room makeover to the casino, and the forward showroom now called Broadway Showlounge was backwards and stuffed with odd colored ampitheater like seats. We immediately nicknamed it the 'FrootLoops Room'. The former Mont Martre night club became a disco, and eventually converted space to suites.

 

Still, the ship was a presence then unheard of in that cruise market. Long, lean, stylish and incredibly smooth. But no more athletic jogs to Bermuda and Nassau from NY, instead leisurely sails from Port Canaveral.

 

The Oceanic was key in making not only the short cruise market a bigger success, but Premier introduced family orientated cruising, and in those days as the "Official Cruise Line of Walt Disney World" still very high caliber service and dining, while being an unbeatable value for family vacationing. Then the Atalantic joined and she was the newest, freshest product in the Bahama Cruise market. Premier had changed the face of ships in Nassau, and later even the Majestic would be in port when weather cancelled tha Abaco calls. The seeds of Premier and the Oceanic are in almost every cruise product of today.

 

Not long after an aborted intention to be purchased by Carnival (still in Carnivale and Mardi Gras days) I could see the writing on the wall. A new generation began, first with the Fantasy. The older ships could not longer draw attention as the newer, larger, ammenity rich ships started to eclipse the graceful long lean lines of Oceanic. And still, to this day, the onboard experience of the megaships cannot compete, in my mind to what the Oceanic offered either in Home Lines style or in Premier's earlier days.

 

I carefully watch to see what will be Oceanic's fate. Operating costs, SOLAS requirements and newer ship inventory will overturn a stellar reputation and an exceptionally built ship. My hopes and prayers are that she can find a permanent home as did her short term running mate Rotterdam V (as Rembrandt). But Oceanic aside from her artful exterior lines (the Ferrari of cruise ships we called her), her interior has been remodeled, reinvented and honestly was a modern execution for her time that had less to preserve than did stately Rotterdam V.

 

Things that will never change about Oceanic is the scent embossed in my mind, the echoes under the Magrodome, the memory of the winding stairwells with bronzed artwork, the slight wagger of her stern at speed, the sea breezes through the verandah promenade, and the view off the tip of her long and graceful prow.

 

And just for the record, I was 'KING OF THE WORLD!" aboard the Oceanic, bound for Bermuda during a balmy sunset in August of 1978. That was long before Leonardo Di Caprio was able to mimic that sensation on a contrived Hollywood set. As I think f it now, my arm fills with goosebumps.

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Wow! What memories! My DH and I sailed out of NY on the Oceanic on October 11, 1970. It was our first cruise and Honeymoon. We had a suite on, I believe, the Belvedere Deck. We had two twin beds that could not be moved, but we managed ;) There was a lovely large window, too.

 

We had a blast at our Bon Voyage in our cabin with over 30 friends and family spilling out into the hallway before setting sail. We vowed then and there that we would cruise as a group together. We did, but it took 10 years before 24 of us celebrated our 10th Anniversary on the Oceanic. It only took 3 years after that to get a group of 18 on the Atlantic to Bermuda in 1983.

 

Loved the ships, loved the crew. Many very good memories.

 

Cheers,

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I was mezmerized by your story. I can't imagine you were allowed to cruise solo at age 14! That is so incredible! The fact that your parents allowed it and the cruise line too, is really something that would be unheard of today. I think that you have to be at least 21 to book a cabin in today's world. Having sailed on Home Lines ships (Atlantic '82,'83 and Homeric '87), I could just imagine that you were very well looked after by the crew, especially knowing that you were travelling on your own. I remember how they would show a lot of attention to younger kids on cruises, and as I mentioned on another thread here, I thought that was probably because they missed their own children back home in Italy. What a dream to eventually work on a cruise ship. I was in nursing school, when I took my first cruise and loved cruising so much, thought that after I graduated, I would work in a hospital for a year and get some experience then try to get a job as a nurse on one of the Home Lines ships. Unfortunately, life had other plans for me, and I was never able to realize that dream. I am however, so glad that I did get to sail on the Home Lines as those cruises experiences are etched into my heart forever, and I know can never be duplicated again. I still love cruising, but that special Home Lines magic is certainly a thing of the past.

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I sailed on the Homeric in 1959 from Montreal to Southampton. It was my first sea voyage and I was 18. That started a long love affair with the sea and sea travel. I know I have pictures of that voyage packed away somewhere in the garage. I'll have to try and see if I can drag some of the boxes out and scan some of them. I also know that "somewhere" I have menus etc. from that trip.

 

Unfortunately I don't remember names but I can remember an Italian group that use to perform on the ship. I had one of their small albumns (45's) for the longest time, but subsequently it was lost in one of my moves. I can also remember meeting the ship's doctor in the lounge for drinks on quite a few evenings. Boy did I feel sophisticated !!!

 

Happy memories !!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

My wife and I recently took a transatlantic cruise on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas. We boarded in Barcelona, Spain on Nov 10, 2008.

 

Moored immediately ahead of us was Pullmantur's S/S Oceanic!

 

I remember Oceanic being a huge ship (39,000 tons) but compared to Navigator (138,000 tons) she seemed the size of a lifeboat!

 

None the less, no Royal Caribbean cruise will ever compare to a Home Lines cruise!

 

oceanic.jpg

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"None the less, no Royal Caribbean cruise will ever compare to a Home Lines cruise!"

 

You've got that right. I don't know of any other cruise line today that can compare to the Home Lines.

Edited by SueseaQ
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"Things that will never change about Oceanic is the scent embossed in my mind, the echoes under the Magrodome, the memory of the winding stairwells with bronzed artwork, the slight wagger of her stern at speed, the sea breezes through the verandah promenade, and the view off the tip of her long and graceful prow".

 

Tampa Mike, no one has said it better than you...and I'm a writer by trade w/a few publications here and there, which doesn't mean much other than that I'm a tough critic of other people's writing. You write beautifully about my favorite ship and era. I grew up on Home Lines, and couldn't have imagined receiving a better education. I am everything I will ever be due to my adventures aboard Home Lines ships, beginning with the Oceanic in '75, i.e. "Cruisin since'75", and ending with the Homeric in the late 80s.

 

As well, I remember the scent of that wonderful lady Oceanic. When I would arrive home and open my suitcase the scent would be released one more time, until the next voyage, and I would stick my nose into the middle of my packed clothes take short, hearty breathes so as to pick up as much of the scent as possible. It was the "ship scent". And only Home Lines had it.

 

Don't ever get even a whiff of it on any ship today. Probably never will again. I wish I could have captured it in a bottle forever and ever to open when I needed that peaceful, warming aroma to brighten my world.

 

Thanks for bringing a bit of the grand lady Oceanic back to my mind for a wondrous moment. ;)

Edited by cruisin'since'75
typo
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I thought I was the only crazy one out here who still remembers that unique scent as soon as you entered the ship on the enclosed verandahon Riviera Deck. I also like to recall that vibration you felt from the propellers at the aft. part of the enclosed verandah. To someone who never cruised on the Oceanic, you just cannot explain the "soul" that the ship had. Nothing else can even come close! Ciao.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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