Arriving in Mexico City, arranged ground transportation took us to the Hotel Reforma. Travel arrangements for the New York, Washington, DC, and Mexico parts of our trip had been made by Valene’s travel agent business partner, Mr. Stadleman. A day exploring Mexico City took us to the Zócalo or Plaza de la Constitución. It is the main square of Mexico City and was the central point of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. The Cathedral and Palacio Nacional are located here. The Palacio Nacional dates to 1522 as the house of conquistador Hernán Cortés. Rebuilt several times, it is the home of the executive branch of the Mexcian government. The Gothic and Spanish Baroque Catedral Metropolitana (Metropolitan Cathedral) was built between 1573 and 1813 on top of former Aztec sacred buildings. I had heard about the floating ... read more

Monday was a day for a Gray Line motor coach tour north from New York City along the Hudson River valley. We stopped at West Point to see the United States Military Academy and at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park. A lunch stop was made in Poughkeepsie, NY.... read more

The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair was a major travel attraction in the mid-1960s. The fair's optimistic theme was "Peace Through Understanding" with a further dedication to Man's Achievements on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe." There were many international pavilions to visit, though the majority of exhibitors were US industrial corporations. The industrial exhibits all showed what consumer wonders were just around the corner. Accordingly, Westinghouse sponsored a Time Capsule II in parallel with its Time Capsule from 1939-1940. We took the New York Subway out to the Flushing Meadows fairgrounds in Queens. The subway ride was every bit as exciting as the fair! My mother had been to the previous New York World's Fair in 1940. The symbolic Unisphere, built by US Steel, stood in the same fountain as the prior fair's Trilon ... read more

There were six sea days on this cruise. The last were the two days sail between Panama and the Bahamas. It was generally calm sailing through the sunny Caribbean. But, there was excitement when a US Coast Guard helicopter buzzed the ship as we neared Cuba. Sea day activities on board Oriana were not very different from cruising today. Two pools (First and Tourist). Passengers laying out in the sun. Reading on a deck chair. Walking laps around the Promenade Deck. Games such as trivia and bingo. Afternoon Tea. Silly contests by the pool. I enjoyed the tour of the ship's Bridge. (Bridge and Engine Room tours are no longer offered on cruise ships due to security concerns.) But there was no Galley tour as is common now. There was an extra-cost Grill in ... read more

Oriana arrived at Pacific side of Panama in the evening after two days sailing down the west coast of Mexico and Central America. The ship stayed at Balboa overnight so that the Panama Canal transit could be made during daylight when passengers could view the operation. Balboa is at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal on the Gulf of Panama. (The canal administrative offices are located here in a building opened in 1914.) An eastward transit of the canal begins at Balboa harbor. The Panama Canal is 48 miles in length (77 km), built to link the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean and Atlantic Oceans so that ships would not have to sail around Cape Horn to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific. The Panama Canal opened to traffic in 1914 after 34 years of construction. ... read more