Trans-Pacific?

[Scott]

Maybe I like imagining what it was like in the old Empress days too much, but I was wondering why there are no trans-Pacific passenger liners today? Couldn't someone make it worth while? It wouldn't even have to be from Vancouver... San Francisco would probably make more sense.

One reason this has popped up in my head is that I was reminded (at the Titanic exhibit) that there is still a trans-Atlantic crossing. I know the Pacific crossing would be at least twice as long, but it could stop at Hawaii half way across! The closest thing I could think of are those cruise ships that sort of do the "round the world" trips which cost a quarter of a million bucks to take. I guess that's the kind of money we'd be talking about with a trans-Pacific trip.

I guess we live in a world where taking two weeks off just to cross an ocean would be almost unthinkable. I'd be interested in hearing whether any one thinks it might be possible.

[Neil]

The luxury travel market is booming so much, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see such a thing come back. There already are a few trans-Pacific crossings, in the form of re-positioning cruises for the Alaska market. The days of high end, luxury rail travel have returned; maybe the two week ocean crossing isn't far behind.

[evergreenboatrider]

Now has anybody ever explored the idea of a car/passenger ferry between Hawaii and California? I know it would probably be expensive and never go into service, but has anybody ever considered it before?

[Barnacle]

Matson ran a passenger/freight service for years... they're just freight now. But they ran the Mariposa, Monterey, several Lurlines, Matsonia...

[evergreenboatrider]

With Aviation Fuel Prices going to probably go up, and Marine Fuel costs going up too, Hawaii, sadly, is going to be facing the cost of everything going up there even more. Although I wonder if there might be a Niche Market for the Matson Line on any of their new-build ships they may get in the future to have limited passenger acomondations? Plus, any potential passenger ship that would be more for essential transportation links and not as a luxury cruise would have to be a fast one, and there has been that fight over a fast inter-island ferry with the surfers and the environmentalists.