Departures United Kingdom Autumn 2018

42 DEPARTURES TRAVEL

42 DEPARTURES TRAVEL CRUISE 2.0 New Horizons There is a wealth of fascinating new routes around the globe. CRUISING AT ITS BEST is an enthralling jaunt of discovery, and nowhere is this more fitting than when viewed from the Sunset Bar of Crystal Esprit (crystalcruises. com). This bijou, all-suite expedition superyacht will set the compass towards the Arabian Gulf and the Seychelles for the 2019/20 winter season. Life on board is a fusion of indolence, adrenaline-infused activities and incomparable cuisine. Indulgence of a similar style can be found on the highest-rated luxe cruise ship in the South Pacific, Full Steam Ahead Sailing with paths unknown and familiar, a clutch of boundarybreaking vessels to look forward to. S uperlatives crowded each other off the page when Seven Seas Explorer appeared in 2016. With the bar set so high, Regent’s much-anticipated Seven Seas Splendor (rssc.com), slated to appear in February 2020, will become the surefire darling of cruising’s cognoscenti. The debt to pleasure will undoubtedly be deferred in sublime style aboard the first of three floating boutique hotels from the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection (ritzcarlton.com) when this achingly cool new mega-yacht arrives in 2020. Set to debut the same year, Crystal Endeavor (crystalcruises.com) will be the mother lode of expedition cruising. A cardinal among curates in the high church of hospitality, it will chart a course not just off the beaten track, but to the edges of the beaten map. Also energising the expedition-cruising firmament, Hapag-Lloyd’s HANSEATIC inspiration (hl-cruises.com), which launches in October 2019, will venture deep into Polar waters as well as the South Seas and Amazon. Encapsulating a seismic shift into the domain of globetrotting that’s predicated on pleasure, Silversea Cruises’ Silver Moon (silversea. com) arrives in 2020, followed by Silver Dawn a year later. Looking out into the sunset on SeaDream Yacht Club cruise Paul Gauguin (pgcruises.com), which now offers a seven-night voyage to the Society Islands and Tahiti Iti – where the nature sanctuary is one of the best preserved in this South Seas idyll. More easily accessible and yet for so long the forbidden fruit of the Caribbean, Cuba now has a host of cruise companies clamouring to drop anchor. Regent Seven Seas Cruises (rssc.com) and SeaDream Yacht Club (seadream.com), among others, are now including calls at the Spanish colonial gem of Havana for the first time in more than 50 years. NOVEL CONCEPTS There may be no more rapidly changing corner of the travel world than cruise ships, as warpspeed food trends and new approaches are created apace. An epicurean torchbearer, Oceania Cruises (oceaniacruises. com) has added new menus each evening that showcase bolder and more adventurous ethnic dishes for travellers with a spirit for spice. Seabourn (seabourn.com), meanwhile, has enhanced its trademark experiential quotient on the pre- and post-cruise Seabourn Journeys with offerings now in Peru, India’s Golden Triangle and Antarctica. Curating a yet more extensive experience, Seven Seas Mariner (rssc.com) will depart San Francisco on a lavish 131-night Navigate the World cruise in January 2020, visiting 30 countries on six continents with tours to 36 Unesco World Heritage sites among the 66 ports, 13 of which are overnight stays. Exploring the icy fjords of Iceland with Hapag-Lloyd Cruises FROM TOP: © SEADREAM YACHT CLUB, © HAPAG-LLOYD CRUISES

FROM TOP: ERIC LAIGNEL, © UNIWORLD RIVER CRUISES Looking out into the ocean from a Wintergarden Suite on the new Seabourn Ovation The Next Wave Epic accommodations, standout dining and routes of incredible natural beauty – the industry’s hottest launches have got it all. Several cruise lines and their designers have embarked on a quest to create brazenly stylish vessels the likes of which have rarely graced Caribbean or Mediterranean havens, let alone the enigmatic coastlines of the Arctic and Antarctica. For chic design and yacht-like curves, SEABOURN OVATION (seabourn.com) hits all the right notes. Christened in Malta’s sandstone-hewn Grand Harbour in May, this scion of Seabourn Encore maintains the company’s ethos of floating halcyons that purr rather than shriek opulence. Putting the focus on functionality, but not forgetting touches of style, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC VENTURE (expeditions.com) is the newest addition to the National Geographic-Lindblad fleet, designed to navigate wildliferich refuges inaccessible to larger ships. Equally far from the usual cruising haunts, the unusual purlieu of Reykjavik recently hosted the inauguration of LE LAPÉROUSE (ponant.com), the first of six explorer ships from Ponant, the French line that has carved a niche in the realm of opulent expeditions – the standout feature here is the multisensory underwater Blue Eye lounge. The quest for the ne plus ultra of a discovery yacht continues, with SCENIC ECLIPSE (scenic.co.uk) set to fire the latest volley with its stealth-wealth superstructure this coming January. Sister-ship Scenic Eclipse II will join the expedition roster in 2020. There is a refined aura to AZAMARA PURSUIT (azamaraclubcruises.com) that goes beyond the recent nips and tucks this comely ship has undergone in the hands of accomplished interior-design surgeons to imbue the third ship in the fleet with a genteel verve. Viking Ocean Cruises looked to the stars for the name of VIKING ORION (vikingcruises.com) whose interior palette also skirts the decorative clichés normally associated with ships, while a melodious concoction of decadence and whimsy will make NIEUW STATENDAM (hollandamerica. com) a worthy addition to the Holland America Line fleet when she arrives in December. Undoubtedly the most anticipated ship of the year will take a bow in November with the reveal of CELEBRITY EDGE (celebritycruises.com) – the smokinghot behemoth will attest that maritime architectural zeal knows no bounds. Going with the Flow Rousing developments in river cruising. R edefining the top end of European river cruising, Crystal River Cruises (crystalcruises.com) offers the continent’s only all-suite, all-butler vessels. The company recently launched Crystal Ravel and Crystal Debussy, both of which will be deployed on the Rhine. On the Danube, the aristocratic SS Beatrice, the fifth Super Ship from Uniworld Boutique River Cruises (uniworld.com), boasts interiors of opulent exuberance and two new 29sq m Grand Suites plus a second Owner’s Royal Suite. In 2019 the entire Avalon Waterways (avalonwaterways. com) fleet will be made up of Suite Ships, all featuring openair balconies and beds with sweeping river views. Going back in time, Scenic’s new Treasures of Egypt tour (scenic. co.uk) combines a cruise aboard Sanctuary Sun Boat III with a hotair balloon ride above the Valley of the Queens, plus a stay at the Sofitel Legend Old Cataract. To the east, Sanctuary Retreats (sanctuaryretreats.com) is introducing a new four-night Monywa itinerary cruise between Mandalay and Bagan in Myanmar, while in India, the RV Orient Pandaw (pandaw. com) will cruise the Lower Ganges – locally known as the Hooghly – between Kolkata and Farraka, calling at towns in West Bengal which overflow with temples and palaces. Uniworld’s Danube-cruising SS Beatrice approaches Budapest 43 DEPARTURES BY GARY BUCHANAN AND TOM AUSTIN