Hitting the High Seas
It was big. I mean it was really big. The ship that sailed out of Venice with me on board on a warm summer day weighed one hundred and twenty-two thousand tonnes. It had fifteen decks and carried over three thousand passengers, served by a motley crew of fifteen hundred. We had at our disposal thirteen restaurants and an equal number of bars. There was a theatre with over a thousand seats. It could match anything on Broadway or West End in grandeur if not the quality of the productions. Celebrity Silhouette cruised for seven days at a steady thirty miles an hour in perfectly calm, blue waters of the Mediterranean. We were on our way to Greece and its islands.
You paid a small surcharge if you ate in one of the more intimate restaurants. Otherwise the meals were included in your fare and it was fine dining all the way with full table service. If your preference was for eating more casually, there was a round-the-clock buffet on one of the upper decks where the lunch special changed daily—Chinese, Mexican, Indian. What surprised me was the quality. The food was prepared by top chefs and was as good as anything you find in our five-star hotels, if not better. Cruising is probably not meant for you if you are on a diet. Just about everything on board was included in the price except for the booze and the land tours. I had a ball. Even the on-board casino was good to me.
Finding my Sea Legs
All cruise ships make stops. A seven-day cruise will take in four ports, a 12-day one will do twice as many. But sightseeing is an option, not a requirement. You will find passengers who don’t get off the ship till it is time to leave. They are there to take in the sun on the open decks, to swim in the pools, use the spa facilities and dance away the night.
Not me. I like Greece and the people. This was my third trip to the country. Last time I spent a week in Mykonos, the playground of Europe’s jet set. At one time, Aristotle and Jackie Onassis gambolled on the island before their relationship turned sour. Our ship touched Santorini, an island famous for its dramatic cliffs, legacy of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history. That was all of 3,600 years ago. Some of the passengers headed for the beach while others took the cable car to wander about the island’s main city, Fira, and take in the stunning view from there.
Too Much Bus-tle
I am not here to give geography or history lessons. So very briefly, we made three other stops in places with splendid pasts. In Athens, we huffed and puffed all the way up to the Acropolis, the ancient citadel above the city. It truly is one of the wonders of the world, a leftover from Greece’s golden age. Katakolon was the jumping off point for a trip to Olympia where the original Olympic games were played over two thousand years ago.
We anchored off Kotor, a port in Montenegro, one of the newer countries that was carved out of former Yugoslavia. I can’t tell you much about the town or the country. We ended up spending almost all our time on shore inside a bus that found it almost impossible to navigate the narrow, winding roads of a very mountainous country. The tour operator should have known better. The local citizens must have been pissed off with us. Their cars got stuck behind our bus.
Dough a Dear
All things considered, cruises are good value for money. You pay about a thousand dollars per person for seven days on board in luxurious cabins, double occupancy. Most of them have balconies facing the sea. Celebrity Silhouette is upscale but you can find something cheaper through a good travel agent. Keep in mind that once you are on board you really don’t have to spend much. The crew is well-trained, they will remember your name and pamper you a lot. You can make friends easily but don’t count on romance on the high seas. Most of the passengers come as couples. It works out cheaper that way. They charge you by the cabin. If you travel alone you end up paying twice as much.
I found the experience so relaxing that three weeks later I asked my younger daughter living in Tennessee to join me on another cruise. This time we sailed out of Vancouver on a sister ship and for seven days explored the coast of Alaska, sometimes on land at stopovers and at other times we took the view from the deck of the majestic whales and the melting glaciers.
If you have a low tolerance of children shouting and screaming, boys in particular, I suggest you avoid cruises that sail out of Asian ports. They are notoriously overrun by Chinese and Indian brats. Children in the West, to that extent, are much better behaved.
Last week...
The vegetarian lady from Ahmedabad recommended the chhole and naan at the lunch buffet but I stuck to roast beef!
Delhi-based Bhaichand Patel is the author of Mothers, Lovers & Other Strangers; E-mail your diarist: bhaichandp [AT] gmail [DOT] com
