The wash from the cruise ship Crystal Serenity sends spray splashing up to the Hotel du Cap Eden Roc, where F. Scott Fitzgerald finished The Great Gatsby. That’s the sort of fact that passengers aboard this luxury ship appreciate. Guests on Crystal Serenity have opted to be ‘enriched’, meaning they have eschewed the kind of uncomprehending, mass experience they might get on bigger cruises. They want instead an atmosphere of erudition and culture. They are cruising not just to enjoy, but to learn.
Enrichment is not a matter of sophistication, nationality or class and certainly not one of wealth: one does not need to be rich to be enriched. Indeed the all-inclusive nature of cruising can offer remarkable holiday value. Once the passage fee has been paid, hardly a pound, dinar, rupee or dong needs to be spent. And with many enrichment cruises, the fee pays for onboard lecturers of real quality: people of the calibre of John Julius Norwich, for example, who have the ability to throw open the doors of antiquity.
The day before a ship offering enrichment docks at a site, an onboard specialist lecturer provides guests with a background briefing on the history and significance of the place they are about to visit. Before arriving at Kusadasi in Turkey, for example, an expert on the Roman Empire might describe the history of Ephesus, alerting passengers to the magnificently preserved library — and to the existence of the tunnel running from the library to a brothel. ‘Just popping down to read the latest scrolls, dear,’ was apparently the excuse. A specialist in the travels of St Paul might also illuminate the evangelist’s great struggle to convert the Ephesians.
In addition to these ‘destination experts’, authors and celebrities are invited to speak on anything from cannibalism to graphology; talks on wine and gastronomy by famous chefs are invariably popular. Some ‘enrichment’ programmes are not so predictable, however. On our cruise to Norway, we were softened up for the shore expeditions with a discourse on Norse mythology so graphic that it should have come with an X certificate. Our fellow passengers, a distinctly cosmopolitan group, were united by a high degree of literacy — that, and a taste for adventure, which was tested by expeditions to climb the waterfalls at the foot of the Trollveggen, the highest vertical face in Europe. As one might think, our group was younger and fitter than is often the case on a cruise ship.
Not every cruise lecturer is a success. After a century or more of experiment and passenger evaluation, even the cruise lines don’t always know exactly what makes a speaker ‘enriching’. Obscure academics have been found to succeed brilliantly, while other more celebrated and popular minds fail. It cannot be entirely attributed to mal de mer.
There can be little doubt, however, that the standard of onboard lecturing is getting much better. There are now perhaps 500 guest lecturers on the books of the agencies that supply the luxury cruise lines, experts in subjects as diverse as archaeology and espionage, Byzantium and the Vietnam War. Some are distinguished academics; others are former ambassadors sharing their insights into recent postings. Statesmen — and women — are also being cajoled aboard for cruises organised by university alumni or similar groups. On board Silver Wind, which sails from Istanbul this month, Mikhail Gorbachev and former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice will be among the speakers.
The roster of lecturers signed up for next season’s cruises looks to be the best yet, and you don’t have to be a member of any elite club to join them: virtually all of these educational expeditions are open to booking by anyone with a credit card.
Among the lecturers regularly invited back aboard these cruises is Glenmore Trenear-Harvey, formerly of Her Majesty’s Secret Service, an engaging purveyor of geographically relevant tales. ‘You would be surprised how many destinations have an intriguing spy connection, and not sites of battles,’ he says. Both war and esponiage will be subjects to the fore on this October’s Black Sea cruise by Hapag-Lloyd’s flagship, Europa, consistently the most highly rated ship in the ultra-luxury sector. Trenear-Harvey offers an insider’s tip: if the subject interests you, invite the lecturer to dine with you on board; he or she is bound to be even more forthcoming in person — and less discreet.
For F. Scott Fitzgerald, the sleek ocean liner was an embodiment of the Jazz Age expressed in the distinctive style of Art Deco. It is, perhaps, no accident that Art Deco motifs still pervade the interior designs of ultra-luxury ships. For in the best of them, experience is enriched by an evocation of past riches and history brought to life by the best-qualified lecturers in the world. l
Crystal Cruises www.crystalcruises.com
Silversea www.silversea.com
Hapag-Lloyd www.hl-cruises.com
White Star Cruises offers independent advice on cruising with all luxury lines 0845 643 1878 www.whitestarcrusises.com
Comments