You lean back in the long chair, the sun’s warmth smoothly seeping into your skin. You close your eyes, and hear the splashing of people in the pool, the laughing of children. The sounds of the ocean waves lapping beneath you reaches your ears, and brings a smile to your face. A gentle breeze catches you, gently kisses your skin, before twisting back up into the warm air. Where are you? Some heavenly, utopian paradise? Well, yes. You’re on a cruise ship, lying in the sun on the deck.
Cruises have been around for a while, now, every since the first cruise ship, the Prinzessin Victoria Luise was completed in 1900. Originally, cruising took its form from transatlantic boat crossings, in which different lines would compete to hold the most number of passengers and cross the Atlantic most swiftly, but also to offer passengers the most number of amenities and luxuries. After all, sometimes it was worth it to cross the Atlantic more slowly if it meant that you got spend your time in the lap of luxury on the cruise ship. The first cruises to the south, where cruise ships could take advantage of the warm weather to avoid nasty northern conditions, and to offer yet one more attractive feature to passengers, were in the late 19th century.
Now, of course, there are much better means of pure travel in jets. Jets are tremendously faster, and with airports being available all throughout the world, there is practically nowhere a cruise could take you that a jet wouldn’t be able to reach. As a result, the traveling element of cruises became defunct, except as a secondary characteristic. Instead, the luxury aspect became the primary attraction, as cruise ships began to offer an enjoyable escape from life in and of themselves, regardless of where they were going. These cruising journey, in which the object of the trip was to enjoy one’s self, became more and more popular as transatlantic liners were phased out bit by bit.
Even so, until about 1980, most cruise ships only offered a few amenities. Shuffleboard, deck chairs, some nice drinks, and maybe a few other things. At the time, it was enough to attract some passengers, but ever since 1980 the number and quality of amenities has been increasing, leading now to the behemoth ships seen today, offering everything from on-deck pools to lounges and dance clubs to ballrooms and theatres. Let’s take a look at some of the best cruises that are around nowadays, and what they have to offer.
Silversea Cruises, with the Silver Spirit
Silversea Cruises took home the prize from Howard Hillman, worldwide travel expert, for best luxury small ship. The Silver Spirit, its newest ship, is Silversea Cruises’ largest ship. It includes 270 ocean-view suites, which is the most for any Silversea ship. It also has six different restaurants, a spa, and a club with live music. Right now, Silver Spirit is touring South America, the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean, in a cruise path of pleasure. Howard Hillman says of Silversea Cruises in general that it “attracts the older, more affluent and better traveled passenger. Activities, shore excursions, and entertainment are sophisticated. Most evenings are formal, but in a relaxed, elegant manner. Silversea food and service are admirable.”
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines’ Oasis of the Seas
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines took home Hillman’s award for Best Mid-Price Range cruise, but this particular line is special for another reason. This is one noteworthy cruise ship, for one reason among many: it is the largest passenger cruise vessel in the world today. Soon, it’s sister ship, Allure of the Seas, will match it, but until then, Oasis gets to dominate the waters. The cruise ship’s displacement is estimated at 100,000 tons, the same as a Nimiz-class aircraft carrier, and two times as much as the Titanic. But let’s get to the good stuff. The cruise ship offers full two-story loft suites, and luxury suites with a size of 1600 square feet, so that you can enjoy your cruise in spacious style. These suites also have balconies overlooking the sea, or the promenades. For other forms of entertainment, you can take your pick from a slew of cruise-coups, including a casino, a zip-line, a mini-golf course, night clubs, bars, lounges, a karaoke club, a comedy club, four swimming pools, and more. The ship itself bears a great deal of similarity to theme parks, in that it’s divided into 7 thematic areas, such as Central Park, which has boutiques, restaurants, and bars, as well as the first ever park on a cruise ship, with 12,000 plants and 56 trees.
Of course, for such a wonderful cruise, there’s a price tag to match. A trip on this cruise ship will set you back $1000 or more. It’s up to you to decide if it’s worth it, but it certainly sounds like a voyage onboard the Oasis will outmatch every other cruise ship out there…until they build the next model. Sounds like this is a cruise to beat.
Carnival Cruise Line, with the Carnival Dream
In Howard Hillman’s list of the best cruise lines, Carnival took home the awards for best Family Cruise and the best 20-something party cruise. Carnival puts a lot of its focus on being family friendly, making sure there are sources of entertainment for the entire family, along with plenty of space, too. For the under-30 crowd, Carnival is notable for having first popularized the “fun-in-the-sun” party ship image, making it the leading cruise line for young people looking for a good time. The Carnival Dream, as an example of Carnival’s ships, offers another swathe of amenities that will simply take your breath away. It features the Serenity Retreat, which is an adult only area where you can go to get a drink, or maybe enjoy the view in a hot tub, and just relax without the kids; the Cloud 9 Spa, where you can feel the stress drip away; an 18-hole mini golf course; and of course, plenty of restaurants, bars, and sources of entertainment. The ship even features the Fun Hub, which is a bank of computers that will give cruise-goers access to the Internet, as well as ways to check the news, weather, and schedules of activities.
Regent Seven Seas Cruises, with the Seven Seas Voyager
Regent Seven Seas Cruises took home Hillman’s award for Luxury Mid-Sized Ship and for Honeymoon cruise. Hillman says that one particular Regent Seven Seas ship is great for honeymooning: the Paul Gauguin. It has a very relaxed, pleasant, casual atmosphere, he says, and it tours through the Polynesian Islands, including Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora all very romantic spots. Of the Luxury Mid-Sized Ship award, Hillman says that in general, Regent attracts a customer base not dissimilar from Silversea Cruises’, but he also says that the atmosphere on most Regent ships is like the atmosphere on the Paul Gauguin: relaxed, at least compared to Silversea Cruises. Regent’s star cruise ship, the Seven Seas Voyager, features room for over 700 guests, with a 447 person crew. It has open-seating dining, unlike many other cruise ships on which you have to dine at specified times, and you have to fit the specified dress code. It also features four different restaurants for you to choose from including Prime 7, “a contemporary interpretation of a classic American steakhouse.” Furthermore, it has its own spa and fitness center, by Canyon ranch SpaClub.
Asides from which cruise line you want to take, it’s worth also thinking about exactly what destination you’re interested in. Though the cruise is still tremendously important, and you can almost certainly spend a vast majority of your time simply enjoying the cruise ship’s amenities, cruises still retain an element of their initial passenger liner nature, in that they do carry you to new places. If you take advantage of the cruise ships’ destinations, you’ll transform your cruise from something fantastic into something heavenly. Hillman ranks the top ten cruise destinations as Antarctica, Galapagos, the South Pacific, the Mediterranean, Alaska, the Fjords of Norway, the Baltic Sea, the Caribbean, Hawaii, and Mexico. You may find yourself asking, why in the world would I want to take a cruise to someplace cold, like Antarctica, or the Fjords of Norway? The answer is simple. Yes, it’ll be cold, but the scenery and experience of going to some of these places can be utterly unbeatable. A cruise to Antarctica will let you see penguins in their natural habitats, along with towering glaciers, snow blowing off the tops in wispy wind, or icebergs, blue and white, floating in the water tranquilly. (And don’t worry about another Titanic; we’ve got much better ways of seeing icebergs nowadays than just some guy in a crow’s nest!)
Regardless, you’re practically guaranteed that any cruise you choose to partake in is going to be wonderful and unique. It’s going to be an experience you will never forget, a way for you to see new places, to experience the lap of luxury, to let all your stress and worries leave you while you lie under the sun.