The first afternoon is spent finding the ship, and then finding the lounge and the theater, the two dining rooms (one buffet, one sit-down) and the library. Eventually and inevitably, we end up on stools at the Harbor Bar on the aft deck.
About the ship. The S.S. Universe Explorer was launched in 1957, is 617 feet, 6 inches long, 84 feet wide, 130 feet from water line to mast top and has a 27-foot, 3-inch draft. She carries more than 750 passengers and a crew of 350. She has a cruising speed of 17 knots and sails smartly in crisp, white paint with dark blue racing stripes.
She might be the only ship afloat that suffers from multiple-personality disorder. In one persona, she is a passenger liner carrying summer tourists up the Inside Passage and winter tourists through the Panama Canal. In her other persona, she serves as the floating classroom for the Institute for Shipboard Education, also known as Semester at Sea. The spring and fall semesters are spent in 100-day cruises around the world, which explains the full-service library instead of a casino forward of the Mid-Ocean Lounge.
Cautiously, I think that this might be my kind of cruise.
Chatter Brad Reynolds John Straley Mystery cruise Semester at Sea Sue Henry Universe Explorer