Cruise Ships Now Depend on Parents Bringing the Kids Along

In the summer of 1951, a passenger aboard the RMS Queen Elizabeth had plenty of things to do. There was shuffleboard, deck tennis, books to borrow from the library. The Berlin Philharmonic performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in the ballroom; waiters served poached turbot with sauce Dugléré; and a fella could set down his highball just long enough for a spin around the dance floor with his wife. Cunard’s marketing office had just launched a new tagline: “Getting there is half the fun.”