Crystal Cruises Vintage Room pairs some of the worlds best wines with specially prepared dishes. With a capacity for 12, the special dinners are served in a private dining room. Patrons, who pay on average $210 per person depending on the wines they have selected, are attended to by the ships head sommelier. Want to splurge even more? Keep an eye out for Crystals Ultimate Vintage Room Dinner. This past spring, the event, hosted by a celebrity chef and wine expert and costing $1,200 per person, sold out within a matter of hours.
A world cruise. At first, the idea seems viscerally decadent, conjuring images of bejeweled formal nights, exceedingly long sessions of bridge, day following day at sea, one gourmet meal blurring lazily into the other — and not to mention, super expensive for a luxurious journey of up to four months.
But as with so much about cruising, the image of world cruising is far removed from the reality.
For starters, world cruises are becoming much more affordable. For example: Book an inside cabin on Holland America Line’s 2009 world cruise for $24,508. Think of it: a full world cruise that circumnavigates the globe, visiting 39 ports on five continents, for less than $200 per day. You’d pay more than that for a stay at a resort — that doesn’t move.
Click here to read the summer issue of Avid Cruiser magazine in digital format.
The digital issue is GREEN, immediate, up-to-date, portable, features embedded video, spans 100 pages and has no international borders. Anyone, anywhere, can read it, print it, pass it along and archive it for future reference.
To get the most from your experience, just click on this link, flip through the magazine or use the “toolbar” at the top of the page to navigate the magazine or print articles you want to read at your leisure.
Archives: allows you to access past issues of Avid Cruiser digital edition.
Thumbs: displays small icons of each page in the digital issue so that you can quickly find the article you want to read. Just click on the thumbnail to get to that page.
Print: possibly the most useful feature, allowing you to print the pages you want so that you can curl up on your couch and read.
March 15, 2 p.m., Caribbean Sea — Clad in a purple swimsuit, broad-rimmed hat and polarized sunglasses, Raelyn Lucklow is enjoying yet another sunny day at sea. One of 700 passengers on Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ Mariner, the Dana Point, California, resident appears totally at ease. But something is amiss. Instead of reaching for sunscreen or a tropical cocktail, Lucklow reaches for her laptop. “If I knew the ship didn’t have internet, I wouldn’t go,” says the design consultant for Preserved Treescapes International. “I can only take time off if I can continue to work through my computer. There’s no one who can take my place. There’s no one who does what I do. So if I’m down for a week it’s basically horrible.”
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