In a classic example of cross-advertising, Canadian Pacific used this menu on a Toronto-Montreal pool train to promote its around-the-world cruises. CP’s ships in Atlantic service couldn’t operate between Montreal and Europe in the winter due to ice, so they used them for cruises to the Mediterranean, the West Indies, and one round-the-world tour each winter. The menu is undated but based on lamb chop prices it was used in 1936.
Click image to download a 1.3-MB PDF of this menu.
“Each winter season Canadian Pacific sends its great ships speeding away from New York on cruises to sunshine seas and ports of the Old and New Worlds,” says the back of the menu. According to other menus we’ve seen, the round-the-world cruise on the Empress of Australia lasted 137 days and cost $2,000 (around US$25,000 in today’s money).
As described in this 1937 booklet from the Chung collection, Canadian Pacific customers could go around the world at other times of the year by first taking a train to Vancouver, then a Canadian Pacific steamship to Hong Kong, changing to a Peninsular and Oriental line ship from there to London, then a Canadian Pacific ship to Montreal, and the train back to wherever they started from. This cost a little more than $1,000 not including train fares in Canada or many off-ship activities covered by the Empress of Australia‘s $2,000 fare.