Cruises. Crowds of silver-headed vacationers sipping on Manhattans, routine excursions at tourist-thronged ports and bad food right?
Sort of. The cruise industry is working hard to change its image. The New York Times has the low-down on hot (and cold) destinations, a politically-charged cruise to Alaska and how to island-hop without leaving New York City. Post-click, our take on all the cruise news fit to print.
"The Love Boat for Policy Wonks," the issue's front page story, at first doesn't quite feel like it belongs in the Travel section. Writer Henry Alford tagged along on a cruise from Seattle to the Alaskan coast with a cast of politicians, readers and journalists for a maritime conference organized by The Nation. But underneath the talk about Ralph Nader and the in-crowd musings about writers like Calvin Trillin and Daniel Ellsberg is a pretty insightful travelogue. Alford makes a little jab at the pretentious dinner menus offered on the Holland America cruise, is awed by a calving iceberg and comes away from the trip a changed man.
The Times wonders whether there's "Too Much of a Good Thing?" in a piece about long-haul cruises--but, disappointingly, it never bothers to answer the question. A 165-day cruise around the world offered by Hapag-Lloyd Cruises might sound great, but with a price tag of more than $86,000, who can go? And would you really want to spend more than half a year on the same boat when you could hit all the destinations with a mix of sea, land and air for much cheaper?
In "Who Knew There Was Water There?" we see a more exciting trend of cruisers taking jaunts farther inland. Now travelers can hike around the isolated kingdom of Bhutan, sit on the steps of Cambodia's Angkor Wat and even visit Korea's Demilitarized Zone in their journeys off the ship. It's still hard to imagine having a unique travel experience while being led around with a literal boatload of tourists, but it's a step.
The fact that more people are heading towards the poles is, well, pretty cool. On the other hand, the idea of cruises becoming hot-spots for foodies is harder to swallow. Put a Nobu Matsuhisa restaurant on a Crystal Cruises ship if you will, but travelers seeking a more authentic food experience will stick to dry land.
And the Cruise Issue favorite? "Island Hopping Without Leaving the City," a weekend in New York around what the Times dubs an "urban archipelago."
Related Stories:
· The Cruise Issue [NYT]
· Cruises coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: quaelin]
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