The ocean liner rose as the 30-foot-high swell passed beneath the hull. After a slight pause, it surged forward, careening to the bottom of the wave trough with a bang and a deep shudder. It was the ...

Ill-fated love, terrorists, con men—like the grand hotels that were also once staples of cinema and stage, ocean liners are reliable backdrops for every cliché known to the machinery of melodrama.

I sailed in balcony rooms on Royal Caribbean's Utopia of the Seas and Virgin Voyages' Valiant Lady. My Virgin Voyages' balcony room had a nicer bathroom and these cabins tend to be a good value.