She had a picture in her head, and it involved crowded buffets, brightly colored drinks and possibly a limbo contest. A seasoned travel writer who had covered the world by plane, train and car, she had avoided cruise ships on purpose. They seemed at odds with how she liked to travel: explore a place, take in its culture, feel she had really been somewhere, not stepped off a ship for a few hours.
Then she spent nine nights aboard Crystal Serenity, sailing through Northern Europe from Southampton, England, to Copenhagen, Denmark, with stops that included Bruges, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Oslo. She went with her husband. In a first-person account, she says it was a game changer from day one.
A first cruise with the deck stacked
She is quick to admit this was no average introduction. Crystal is a luxury line, and she stayed in a Sapphire Veranda Suite that felt closer to the upscale hotel suites she reviews on land than to any stateroom she had imagined. There was a veranda, a proper walk-in closet, a roomy bathroom with a rainfall shower and butler service. The ship itself felt sophisticated and grown-up, with elevated restaurants, live entertainment, a spa, a casino, art classes and lectures from experts, including celebrated university professors.
She calls herself a restless traveler, the sort who crams too many destinations into one trip and then spends her time packing, unpacking and hauling bags through train stations. On the ship she unpacked once. Clothes went in the walk-in closet, the empty suitcase slid under the bed, and that was that for nine nights, even as she woke up in different places around Europe.
She slept so well she began setting an alarm for 10 AM to catch the late-riser breakfast, which ran from 10 to 11. She did not want to sleep the day away. There was too much she wanted to do.
Painting, lectures and a blackjack tournament
Her biggest misconception was that a ship would leave her trapped with nothing to do. The options turned out to include art and jewelry-making classes, live shows, a movie theater, pools and lectures on history and other subjects. She went to lectures where she was among the youngest in the room, and loved them.
At Le Casino de Monte Carlo she turned slot-machine winnings into the $100 entry fee for a blackjack tournament and finished third. On days aboard she walked the promenade, took high tea and borrowed books from the library. Her husband wanted to try pickleball. They never got around to it.
The food was not what she had expected either. Dishes were elevated and beautifully presented, and no dish in the main dining room was repeated. Umi Uma, the Japanese restaurant created by chef Nobu Matsuhisa, stood out. So did Osteria d’Ovidio, the Italian restaurant, whose menu was created with Michelin-starred chefs the Alajmo brothers; Massimiliano Alajmo became the youngest ever to receive three Michelin stars. A non-meat-eater, she doubted Beefbar would offer much, then had a kale and avocado salad there that she says just about changed her life.
The excursion she skipped
The moment she knew she had been converted came in Rotterdam. She and her husband had booked an excursion to Amsterdam that would have kept them off the ship for most of the day. They canceled it. They had spent several days in Amsterdam the previous summer, but the writer who once rejected cruising partly because she wanted to be out exploring gave up a day of exploring to stay aboard. She has no regrets.
She does not plan to give up wandering neighborhoods and taking trains between cities, and she stresses that one luxury sailing says nothing about every ship or budget. Still, after nine nights she was wondering which ship she might board next.
