The Chill Winds of Change
The 1963 Great World Cruise was when the “Green Goddess” made her 2nd and final Westward circumnavigation of the World, and the 3rd time when both the Panama and Suez canals would be traversed in the same cruise. Crossing the International Date Line in a Westward direction would also mean that Caronia would lose one of the many days she had previously gained by crossing on her Eastbound voyages.
By this time Caronia had not only settled into a regular pattern of cruises, but during 1963 she made only 3 transatlantic crossings to New York. All three were positioning crossings, rather than the originally planned relief for the 2 Cunard Queens. Times were changing at a pace! In 1959, the number of people crossing the Atlantic by air had matched those travelling by sea.
By 1963, the era of only crossing the Atlantic by ocean liner had entered its final phase. Elsewhere in the Cunard fleet came 2 sisters to wear the cruising green livery. The RMS Franconia and RMS Carmania had been transferred from the Canadian run, refitted and placed into cruising, mostly to develop the Caribbean trade, out of New York and Fort Lauderdale.
Caronia herself was now being traded upon her reputation and fame, rather than any more pretence at being unique. Well, what a reputation that was, so it was a still a fairly good marketing ploy. In reality, the writing was on the wall! The 1960s was to become the decade when anything to do with tradition or austerity was put to the torch. The plastic age was beginning.
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Great World 
