After World War II, Canadian Pacific resumed its West Indies and Mediterranean cruises from New York but not its world or South America-Africa cruises. The earliest cruises documents in the Chung collection are from 1953, but it seems likely that West Indies cruises, at least, began before that.
Click image to view and download a 13.4-MB PDF of this booklet from the Chung collection.
In 1953, Canadian Pacific offered a 15-day New York-West Indies cruise beginning February 18 and two 17-day cruises beginning January 30 and March 7. All three cruises visited St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands; Puerto Cabello, Venezuela; Curacao; Panama (with a train ride to Balboa); Havana; and Kingston, Jamaica. The 17-day cruises also visited Trinidad. Fares ranged from $375 to $1,405 ($4,000 to $15,500 today) for the 15-day cruise and from $425 to $1,600 ($4,700 to $17,600 today) for the 17-day cruises.
The cruise used the aging Empress of Scotland, portrayed in this booklet with numerous color photographs that frankly make the cover pale in comparison. This ship had been built for trans-Pacific service in 1929 as the Empress of Japan but was renamed during the war and covered trans-Atlantic service for Canadian Pacific starting in May 1950. It seems likely that it would have done some West Indies cruises in 1951 and 1952.
Click image to view and download a 10.5-MB PDF of this booklet from the Chung collection.
Later in 1953, the Canadian Pacific offered this unusual South Atlantic cruise from England. The 35-day cruise left Liverpool on December 15 and Southampton on December 16, stopped in Casablanca and the Canary Islands, then went to Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian ports before returning to Southampton via Madeira and Lisbon, Spain on January 18. This cruise also used the Empress of Scotland, and if that ship were later used for 1954 West Indies cruises similar to those in 1953, it would have had to make a trip from Southampton to New York between the two.
Click image to view and download a 14.9-MB PDF of this brochure from the Chung collection. In addition to the cruise brochure, this file also includes a brochure about the Empress of Scotland in general.
The cover of this brochure advertises “West Indies-South America Cruises,” but the only stop in South America is La Guaira, a port in Venezuela. Previous cruises also stopped in Venezuela and some from the 1930s stopped in Columbia as well. CP offered three cruises in 1955; two were 20 days long and the third was 19. All three cruises visited San Juan, St. Thomas, La Guaira, Curacao, Panama, Kingston, and Havana. The 20-day cruises also visited Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Click image to view and download a 16.4-MB PDF of this booklet from the Chung collection.
By 1960, Canadian Pacific had replaced the Empress of Scotland with its twins, the Empress of Britain and Empress of England. This allowed it to offer eight different West Indies cruises ranging from 10 to 19 days long. For some reason, the England was used for 10- to 14-day cruises while the Britain was used for 14- to 19-day cruises.
The 10-day cruise just visited Puerto Rico, Haiti, and Cuba. The 12-day cruise dropped Haiti and added Curacao and Kingston. The three 14-day cruises all visited St. Thomas but otherwise had very different itineraries. The three 19-day cruises were pretty similar except that two went to Martinique and Barbados while the third went instead to Trinidad.
Fares for the 10-day cruises ranged from $250 to $965; for the 19-day cruises, they ranged from $475 to $1,900. Multiply by ten to get today’s dollars.
Click image to view and download a 698-KB PDF of this booklet from the Chung collection.
On a 1958 West Indies cruise, Canadian Pacific proudly put its latest ship, the Empress of England, on the cover of its menus. The painting is signed “Lendon,” which we’ve seen before, but no information is available about this artist. Inside, the menu is for a cold buffet luncheon, which seems meagre fare compared with earlier lunch menus, but may have been all that people desired on a warm, muggy day in the Caribbean.
Click image to view and download a 38.5-MB PDF of this booklet from the Chung collection.
In 1962, Canadian Pacific offered a 61-day tour of the Mediterranean aboard its newest ship, the Empress of Canada. The note on the cover that the shore excursions were “arranged by Thos. Cook” suggests that CP was phasing out of the excision business or at least letting another travel agency do much of the work.
Click image to view and download a 2.8-MB PDF of this poster from the Chung collection.
The Chung collection doesn’t have a booklet or brochure advertising this cruise, but it does have the poster shown above.
Click image to view and download a 1.4-MB PDF of this flyer from the Chung collection.
The cruise was a success: according to the flyer above, it carried a “full complement of passengers.” In cruise configuration, the Empress of Canada was limited to 570 passengers, though a “full complement” might be a few less if some passengers bought a double berth for a single person. The flyer also notes that shore excursions on the 1963 cruise would be arranged by American Express, a switch from Thomas Cook in 1962.
Click image to view and download a 15.1-MB PDF of this booklet from the Chung collection.
This 1963 booklet describes the Mediterranean cruise in detail, with plenty of color photos of the ship and some of the destinations the cruise would reach. A pocket in the back of the booklet has a fold-out brochure that shows the ship’s accommodations and rates, which ranged from $1,675 to $6,450 (again, multiply by 10 to get today’s dollars). The rate for one person in a room with two berths was 50 percent more than the per-person rate for two in that room.
There are few other records in the Chung collection about Canadian Pacific cruises after the war. However, Canadian Pacific continued to offer winter West Indies and Mediterranean cruises through the 1960s. The Empress of England made its last voyage for Canadian Pacific in November, 1969, so in the winters of 1970 and 1971 the Empress of Canada, CP’s last ocean liner, did West Indies cruises. The company had advertised cruises for the winter of 1972, but cancelled them in November 1971 when it abruptly decided that ocean liner and cruise ship services were no longer economically viable.