Caribbean-Style Luxury, by cruise industry veteran Art Sbarsky
The longtime practice of luxury cruises going to ports rarely visited by large ships is gaining ground, as reports multiply that the usual Caribbean ports are getting stale. Art Sbarsky, just back from the Seabourn Pride, reports.
This "Grenadines and Venezuela" cruise, seven nights roundtrip from Barbados, tells volumes about the advantages of sailing from this deeper Caribbean port as well as the virtues of a smaller ship. We visited Tobago, Margarita Island (Venezuela), Grenada, St. Lucia, and the Grenadines (both Mayreau and St. Vincent), docking in four ports and tendering twice. Tender operation was fast and efficient.
The range and rigor of the shore excursions are impressive--more than you might expect on a cruise traditionally attracting older passengers. Guests did zipline tours, snorkeling, horseback riding, kayaking, waterfall hikes, and so on. One guest even preplanned her own scuba activities for every port.
Certainly the most popular shoreside activity was the barbecue lunch presented on a beautiful beach in Mayreau. The staff preceeded guests ashore and set up an unbelievable array of food items, highlighted by outstanding, locally-caught lobster.
Of course, fine dining, whether on beaches or onboard, is a staple of luxury cruising, with the evolution of alternative cruise dining venues amongst the industry's best changes. Seabourn showed great creativity in utilizing existing space to provide guests with two extra dining choices. The line recently introduced "Tasting @ 2," transforming the daytime casual restaurant into an evening spot with romantic lighting and lovely table settings in order to attract 45-50 guests nightly. The menus are very different from the main restaurant offerings and well suited to a more casual location (jackets on formal nights only; no ties at all).
The six different tasting menus present five or so different selections each night with lots of eclectic mixtures of ingredients (such as roasted garlic soup with chive chantilly and a crunchy rosemary brioche).
A great place to have dinner is the new Sky Grill, available five nights during this seven-night cruise. They've taken the bar area and turned it into an al fresco, candlelit, white table cloth location with staff serving grilled steak and seafood dinners, along with a magnificent buffet set-up. Seabourn is known for its exceptional service--with 160 crew for 200 guests--but with about 20 guests a night, the ratio seemed even higher in the Sky Grill.
There was lots of discussion amongst the guests about the two new ships recently ordered by Seabourn. They expressed interest in how the high levels of personalized service will carry over to the new 450-pax vessels. Bruce Good at Seabourn responds: "The style and service on the new ships will be set to the same standards--we are maintaining the same ratio of hotel staff to guests. Public spaces are being designed to 'yacht-like' scale to maintain the sociable atmosphere that is so much of Seabourn's personality."
On a side note.if you are a corporate buyer who books hotels and events in Las Vegas, you may consider contacting a colleague of mine named Michael Gasta. His company is called America's Guest. They are an independent meeting/event planning company, assisting buyers with site selection, contracting, program planning and exhibitor services. They direct the buyer to the perfect destination services, hotel or venue based on expectation and budget. AG also offers a VIP concierge service thru Key2Travel for attendees who may need to plan for restaurants, shows, night clubs, spas, golf and tours outside of the group events. With 25 years in Las Vegas their experience, knowledge and contacts are unmatched. Go to www.americasguest.net for further information.
