The Avid Cruiser - Fall 2007 - (Page 7)

Cruising, Back-to-Back One way to fight that sinking feeling when it’s time to disembark your cruise: Stay on board. T his past summer, I cruised for five weeks back-toback on four ships. I know what you’re thinking: Four ships in five weeks is a bit indulgent. Perhaps so, but I met passengers who were on ships much longer than me. Lorraine Artz had cruised 4,084 days on Princess Cruises when I met her in May. And as godmother of Royal Princess, Lorraine is still going strong. And Lorraine pales in comparison to Dehlis Lewis, who has cruised more than 4,700 days, all on Holland America Line. Dehlis has nearly two years of sea days on Lorraine. When I met Dehlis this past summer, she was planning yet another around-the-world cruise. You can catch conversations with both ladies at www.avidcruisertv.com. What you won’t catch, nor will I, is either of them. Can you imagine cruising for what amounts to more than 12 years of sea days? My “marathon month” on ships began in Rome on May 4, on Princess Cruises’ brand new Emerald Princess. I then hopped from SeaDream II to Regent Seven Seas Voyager to Crystal Symphony, before disembarking for good in Dover. On the pages that follow, you will read more about my experiences on those four ships. Back-to-back cruises allow for a relaxing seaborne sojourn. Let’s face it: Seven days is scarcely sufficient. Your journey is only half over when you begin receiving instructions about the dreaded disembarkation procedure. You’re just beginning to relax when you have to start thinking about packing. It makes a seven-day vacation seem like a five-day vacation. To the rescue, cruise lines are designing itineraries that can be merged — repeating no ports of call. Some of the best back-to-back cruises are in the Mediterranean, but you can do back-to-backs almost anywhere that ships sail. And you don’t have to stay on the same ship (although there are sometimes savings for doing so). It takes some coordinating, but you can literally hop off one ship and get on another, just as I did. Back-to-backs range from 14 days on up to a few dozen days. One novel twist: Board a repositioning cruise bound for Europe. Count on 10 or so supremely relaxing days crossing the Atlantic. Then hop on a Mediterranean or Northern Europe cruise, before returning to Southampton, England, or Hamburg, Germany, to board the Queen Mary 2 back to New York. You could do all of this in fewer than four weeks — and come home with a lifetime of memories — and none of the airport tedium. Back-to-back cruisers benefit in other ways too. On Holland America Line’s Veendam this past spring, a hundred or so passengers, mostly Americans, stayed on board each time the ship turned in Venice. “Not a bad idea if you are in Europe anyway,” says Albert Schoonderbeek, the ship’s captain. “You may as well make the most of your flight across the Atlantic.” — Ralph Grizzle FALL 2007 Photo by Ralph Grizzle Avid Cruiser 7 http://www.avidcruisertv.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Avid Cruiser - Fall 2007

The Avid Cruiser - Fall 2007 Contents The Poop Deck Cruising, Back to Back At The Piazza SeaDream Yacht Club Regent’s Seven Seas Voyager The ‘New’ Crystal Symphony Bay of FUNdy Long Weekend Getaway Silversea Cruises: Silver Whisper Cruising Southeast Asia ‘Awesome’ Alaska Sacred Moments In South Georgia Two Years With A Princess Of Days Gone By

The Avid Cruiser - Fall 2007

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