Cruise Ship Technology This is the spanking-new "Island Princess" on her christening sail from Vancouver.  What happened to the funnels?  Gone.  Replaced by modified jet engines no longer hid in the bowels of the ship, but up high against the sky. The largest economic benefit?  The engine room has been converted into a massive refrigeration operation. When moored in Buenos Airies they fill up with steaks and filet mignon at the world's lowest prices.   An extremely  profitable reorganization.

Cruise Ship Technology The MV Crystal Symphony, the world's only six-star hotel..  Frank Ogden was lecturing on this, the world's most luxurious commercial cruise ship.  The Engine room floor was as clean as the dining room.  No ship engineers carried a screwdriver, they all carried laptops. Moored here near the eastern end of the Panama Canal, the Crystal Symphony awaits dawn to enter the canal, now exclusively operated by Panamanians.

	The Rack! A Port of Call in Cartagena, Columbia.  For 200 years, Inquisition Headquarters for the Americas. Buildings and contents now a museum. Not for the faint of heart. Some original equipment is still on display.
	The New Shanghai Colorful and lively during the day or night, If you havn't been to Shanghai lately, you wouldn't recognize it..  This city has rebuilt, grown, and grown again.   Architecture that stuns the senses for most visitors is simply part of the constant growth that exists for Shanghai's 15 to 18 million residents. There is a mobile force of 100 million Chinese roaming their county every day. If they stop in Shanghai??
	The Great Wall (& Sandstorm) Frank was so pleased when he found himself caught in the worst sandstorm to hit China in 100 years. The fall-out lasted for 25 of the 34-day sailing aboard the "Crystal Symphony" on her 34-day cruise  known as "The Grand Asian Tour". Fine talcum-like sand dust from the Gobi desert storm is seen here in the air at the Great Wall of China, near Beijing. The Pacific Ocean didn't return to its normal blue/green color until he was 1,000 miles east of Tokyo en route to Hawai'i.

Pacific Blue You've all heard the song "The Danube is blue" ... Don't believe it -- anymore. But the Blue Pacific is still B L U E. Well, maybe not in Tokyo's harbour, or at the mouth of China's Pearl River Estuary but generally it still looks like the picture below a few miles offshore. The TV Show "Pacific Blue" didn't make it to it's sixth year but PACIFIC BLUE AIRLINES STILL FLIES TO VANUATU. YES, the Blue Pacific Ocean is still there. I JUST LOOKED! But why is it so B L U E ?