The Golden Age of Cruising

The world of ocean travel has never been more buoyant. Here’s how to pick the perfect trip, and experience the romance of the seas in authentic luxury.

By Lee Tulloch 21/03/2024

The exhausted cliché is that cruises are full of nauseating honeymooners taking selfies against a never-changing sea, and silver-haired couples with cashmere sweaters casually tied around their shoulders smugly clinking champagne glasses against a dazzling sunset. 

According to the international Cruise Lines Industry Association, an estimated 36 million passengers will embark on cruises in 2024—and, of course, not all of them fit the time-worn stereotype. Some people love it so much they go multiple times; 85 percent of passengers who have cruised would do so again. 

The industry will tell you there’s a cruise for every kind of person. And to a large degree, that’s true, unless you’re phobic about water or hate dining with strangers. Cruises can effectively be divided into four camps: mass-market, luxury, ultra-luxury, and meh. A voyage might be a family adventure on Royal Caribbean’s newly launched Icon of the Seas, which carries 7,600 passengers and looks like someone has sawn off a funfair from land and set it free on the ocean. Or it might be a week-long sail on Satori, a hand-crafted solid-mahogany-and-teak schooner with private chef and spa therapist on board that you’ve chartered with nine friends on a jaunt down the coast of Tuscany. 

Somewhere in between there are over 300 ships and thousands of itineraries to choose from each year, sailing to every corner of the globe, with expedition cruises to the extremities—the North Pole and Antarctica—being the hot ticket right now.

You can cruise through the fjords of Norway and view the northern lights from Hurtigruten’s MS Roald Amundsen, watching the ice melt and crumble, knowing there most certainly won’t be the same amount next time you meander by. Or you can hop around  the Mediterranean or down the Adriatic on Silversea’s Silver Ray, never without a finely crafted, locally inspired cocktail swooshing in your hand. 

Exploring Baltic Norway aboard Oceania Vista renowned for its gourmet cuisine among other things.

Then there are the river ships, which offer a slower kind of cruise, usually with fewer passengers. If you’re thinking of embarking on one of those this year, beware that many itineraries are elastic with the use of the word “luxury”. 

Important stuff to know… 

Small is beautiful. Ships carrying less than 1,000 or so passengers tread more lightly on destinations, not disgorging so many people onto the streets at once. There’s an emphasis on small-group land tours and travelling individually. Expedition ships have even fewer passengers and a higher price point. Cunard is the exception, as its 2,000-plus passenger ships have an upper class, the Princess or Queen’s Grills, with larger suites, dedicated butler service and exclusive use of facilities, isolating  you from the guests downstairs. 

Lunch beside Alaskan glaciers on Le Soléal.

Listen to the experts. On the superior cruises, expect talks and enrichment lectures from a range of interesting sorts (famous writers, respected journalists, esteemed historians etc), and performances by accomplished musicians. Silversea is particularly good at this. On its Silver Shadow vessel many years ago, I bonded with a group of Hollywood actors and writers who had been invited on board to give lectures —we ignored the shore excursions and hit the South American bars together. 

Upskill while you chill.  Perhaps you’d like to learn Italian or  the finer points of wine appreciation?
Even the smallest cruise ships have a daily program of activities, the best of them stimulating, inventive and unforgettable. The smaller the ship, the more intimate and tailored the experience. Who knew that Estonia had a champion salmon-smoker who looked like a jolly gnome? I do now —I met him last year on a culinary excursion with the chef from Regent’s Seven Seas Splendor. And his smoky smoked salmon was the best I’d ever tasted. 

Menus are stellar. The world’s top chefs oversee some very fine restaurants, such as The Grill by Michelin-starred chef  Thomas Keller on Seabourn, or Umi Uma by Nobu Matsuhisa on Crystal Cruises’ Serenity and Symphony. And there’s no six-week wait for a table, as on land. Elsewhere, foodies praise Oceania Cruises for its cuisine, so you might think about a voyage on Oceania Vista, which has 12 dining options and a cooking school. 

Everyone’s going wild. Most cruise lines do expedition sailings now, but some are just more immersed in the destination. For polar regions and other remote destinations, Aurora Expeditions, Lindblad Expeditions and 130-year-old Hurtigruten Expeditions have been doing this for a very long time—great if you like science-based and environmentally sensitive voyages. That said, for ultra- luxury it’s hard to beat Ponant’s PC2 Polar Class Le Commandant Charcot, built with new technology that allows it to go deeper into the polar regions. Done out in swank polar white, it features an Alain Ducasse restaurant and thermal baths.

Enjoying the view form the EOS ORBIT sauna courtesy of French cruise line Ponant.

It’s not all smooth sailing. Cruising under sail can be thrilling and there are some beautiful yachts at sea now. Ponant’s original vessel, Le Ponant, is a 32-passenger schooner interior-designed in nautical French chic—the first sailing ship to be granted the Relais & Châteaux label—that can be hailed in the Caribbean or Mediterranean. Last year, I sailed on it through the Kimberley with 10 passengers and 34 friendly sailors—what could be bad about that? Also try Windstar’s four- masted, recently refreshed sailing yachts, Wind Surf, Wind Star and Wind Spirit.

Style matters. Most ships look the same, give or take a chandelier, marble staircase or artwork or two. That is, except for Silversea’s new Nova-class ships, Silver Nova and Silver Ray, which have redesigned the classic layout to have the swimming pool along one side. Each ship is so chic, it feels like the Amalfi Coast on rudders. If you like sleek Scandi design, you might feel at home on Viking Vela, which comes with a Nordic spa and snow grotto. 

There are floating hotels, literally. Not content with giving five- star service on land, luxury hotel chains are getting in on the act. Four Seasons is planning invitation-only cruises on a fleet of gorgeous new 95-suite motor yachts, first launching in 2025. In the meantime, Four Seasons Explorer, an exclusive- use catamaran, takes keen divers to the Micronesian island of Palau. By 2025, the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection will have three superyachts at sea, the newest being Luminara, with five restaurants, six bars and a wine vault for 452 guests. 

Owner’s suites reign supreme. There exists a celestial level above mere suites and residences—owner’s suites and grand suites. Owner’s suites are often reserved for just that, the cruise lines’ owners or top executives, but are made available to guests when free. Expect enormous terraces, private whirlpools or plunge pools, dining rooms, saunas and treatment rooms, expensive beds, even a grand piano in some. A word to the wise—the top suites are always reserved first, sometimes years ahead, so don’t dally.

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Greek Epic
Immerse yourself in local tradition around the heavenly Cyclades Isles here.

Into the Deep

Above and below water, Scenic’s Antarctic adventure is visceral and unreal in equal measure, continue the journey here

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SpaceX’s Starship Could Launch Its Next Test Flight in Two Weeks

Elon Musk’s company is moving swiftly after a successful launch about a month ago.

By Tori Latham 12/11/2024

SpaceX is moving ahead quickly with its Starship rocket.

Elon Musk’s space-exploration company announced on Wednesday that the next Starship test flight could take place as soon as two weeks from now, Wired reported. That’s just about a month after the previous test flight, in which SpaceX successfully caught the Starship booster on its launchpad.

The sixth test flight could happen as early as November 18, and it’ll include a few changes from the most recent Starship flight, the publication noted. While the trajectory will be mostly the same, the SpaceX team is including updates to the hardware and the software in response to what they learned from the prior flight. There will be extra redundancy added to the booster propulsion systems, better structural strength at key areas, and a shorter timeline for offloading propellants from the booster following its catch, among other improvements.

Notably, the next test will include the relighting of one engine during the flight, Wired wrote. This is integral to Starship’s development, and it will eventually allow the rocket to make a controlled reentry into Earth’s atmosphere after orbital missions. Moving forward, it will also let Starship carry out commercial missions and could help with the pathway toward launches of Starlink, SpaceX satellites that will provide internet capability.

Another key change for the sixth test flight is that SpaceX is aiming for a late-afternoon launch. All previous flights have taken off around dawn from Texas, but changing the timing means that Starship could reenter into the Indian Ocean during daylight hours. Once the sixth flight takes off, it’ll be the last launch of the initial version of the vehicle, Wired added, before the next generation Starship takes its place.

SpaceX has been carrying out test flights of the Starship rocket since April 2023—with varied results. In that first launch, the rocket exploded just minutes after taking off, although Musk deemed it a success, with the SpaceX team learning from those initial difficulties. Over the past year and half, they’ve made a number of changes that resulted in the breakthrough that occurred just last month.

Now it seems like Starship development is really ramping up, and we may get even more launches in quick succession if this next flight goes well. Eventually, we could be seeing quite a bit of the Starship rocket.

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The St. Regis Just Opened a Luxe New Property in Shanghai. Here’s a Look Inside

The new 192-key hotel is the brand’s 60th location.

By Tori Latham 08/11/2024

The St. Regis is celebrating a massive milestone halfway around the world from where the hotel brand first began.

The company just recently debuted its 60th property—the St. Regis on the Bund, Shanghai. The 192-key hotel is the St. Regis’s second opening in the city, and it combines the brand’s New York glamour with touches that honor Shanghai’s history.

Designed by Norman Foster and Heatherwick Studio, the property features a sleek exterior and an Art Deco–inspired interior, reminiscent of Shanghai in the 1920s. The latter is replete with magnolia motifs, Su embroidery, and more than 70 original artworks. The guest rooms, meanwhile, include 13 suites with residential-style layouts and views of the Huangpu River and the surrounding Bund area. St. Regis’s iconic butler service is, of course, included as well.

As far as amenities go, the hotel emphasises its culinary delights. The St. Regis Brasserie is an all-day affair serving up both Chinese and Western cuisine, while Celestial Court is a high-end Chinese restaurant designed for celebrations and large gatherings. The St. Regis Bar pays homage to the chain’s New York roots, serving up the brand’s signature Bloody Mary, as well as drinks like the Bund Snapper, with Shanghai’s five spices, zaolu rice wine vinegar, and osmanthus. And by the end of the year, the property will add the Drawing Room, meant for light meals and refreshments like afternoon tea or an evening Champagne sabrage.

If you’re coming to Shanghai to relax, you need not look much further than the St. Regis Spa, with three private spaces and treatments that blend modern skin care with ancient practices. Or you can fit in a workout whenever you like at the 24-hour fitness centre.

“The opening of the St. Regis on the Bund, Shanghai marks a pivotal moment in the brand’s expansion, as we celebrate the debut of our 60th property globally,” Jenni Benzaquen, the senior vice president and global brand leader of the Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, and Bulgari Hotels & Resorts, said in a statement. “With this milestone, we continue to offer our discerning guests unparalleled experiences on the Bund, blending the rich cultural heritage of Shanghai with the signature rituals and bespoke service that define St. Regis.”

Given the central location, the well-appointed rooms, and the numerous amenities, it sounds like it may be worth exploring Shanghai—and the St. Regis—for your next trip abroad.

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From Striped Hawaiian Shirts to Colorful Ceramics: 4 Luxe Items You Can Buy at Italian Hotels

A handful of Italy’s most beloved family-owned hotels are morphing into luxury brands of their own. Here, four in-house items worth traveling for. 

By Naomi Rougeau 04/11/2024

Hotel Passalacqua, Lake Como 

These days, it takes more than the finest linens and a Michelin-starred restaurant to take the No. 1 spot on a list of the world’s 50 best hotels, which Hotel Passalacqua did in 2023. The spa is stellar, to be sure, as is the pool house, which was decorated in collaboration with J. J. Martin of La Double J. But to fully embrace the villeggiatura and sense of place, even the tiniest details matter. Case in point: the hotel’s signature brass-fish bottle opener (there are also key chains), which will mentally transport you back to Lake Como every time you reach for a cold one. 

Le Sirenuse, Positano 

The red cliff-top hotel with sweeping views needs little introduction. Its owners, the Sersale family, were early to embrace the branding potential of the beloved property by launching an on-site boutique, Emporio Sirenuse, in 1993. These days, you can find Le Sirenuse’s clothing and swimwear everywhere from Net-a-Porter to Harrod’s, but nothing matches shopping the collection in person. If there’s only room in the suitcase for one thing, snag the brand’s riff on
the Hawaiian shirt in vacation-ready stripes. 

Borgo Santo Pietro, Palazzetto 

At Borgo Santo Pietro in Tuscany, the focus is on the serene landscape. (The spot was once a healing rest stop for medieval pilgrims.) Naturally, there’s an emphasis on farm-to-table cuisine, but more interesting might be the farm-to-spa treatments. Made in-house, the renowned Seed to Skin range draws on local remedies dating back to at least 1129; expect natural ingredients such as butterfat, thermal water, and raw honey. Grab the award-winning Eye Rescue Duo, a secret weapon for maintaining your post-vacation glow. 

Palazzo Avino, Ravello 

A once-private villa built in the 12th century, Palazzo Avino is one of the Amalfi Coast’s most celebrated hotels. When a former art gallery adjacent to Ravello’s beloved “pink palace” came up for sale, hotelier Mariella Avino and her sister Attilia made an offer. Mariella envisioned the new space, now dubbed the Pink Closet, as a spot to promote homegrown talent, partnering with the Camera Nazionale della Moda in order to provide a platform for emerging designers. We like the colorful, locally made ceramics—perfect for alfresco entertaining.

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Electric Air Taxis Are One Step Closer to Hitting the Skies

Electric aircraft are the darlings at this week’s annual NBAA business aviation conference in Las Vegas. Yesterday, the FAA signed a milestone rule that allows eVTOLs to move into aviation’s mainstream.

By Daniel Cote 08/11/2024

Just consider the increasing velocity of technological innovation and change and how it has shaped our lives in the last 20 years, says noted astrophysicist, futurist, and author Neil deGrasse Tyson in kicking off the 2024 NBAABusiness Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) in Las Vegas.

Organizers expect about 19,000 attendees this year visiting 8,000 exhibitors between the Las Vegas Convention Center and Henderson airport, the static display with business aircraft on display.

It was an auspicious start for the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) sector, comprised of the new generation of electric air-taxi makers such as Joby Aviation, Archer, and Lilium. These firms have had limited displays at past NBAA shows, but yesterday was more like a formal coming-of-age party for the fledgling sector.

During the keynote, Bonnie Simi—pilot, former Olympic athlete, and Joby Aviation’s president of operations—interviewed Tyson about the pace of technology as well as the future of the Advanced Air Mobility movement (AAM), which includes electric air taxis.

Tyson told the packed hall that history reminds us that innovations come from places you don’t often expect. Take the iPhone, he said. Apple didn’t invent GPS, music, or cellular communications, but the company assembled the technologies to create one of the most transformative devices in the history of inventions, the astrophysicist explained.

Aviation is entering a similar innovative period with advanced air mobility, efficiency, and sustainability, added NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen, who also addressed the audience during the keynote. Bolen discussed the pace of aviation advancement with FAA’s administrator Michael Whitaker, who was on hand to sign a Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) establishing the final rule for a regulatory framework for the new category of eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft.

“It is an extraordinary moment in history,” Whitaker said, noting that AAM represents an entirely new aircraft category, typically involving a combination of rotor and fixed-wing aircraft.

The FAA also recognizes that you can’t certify an aircraft and do not have a way to operate it as intended, Whitaker added. This final rule creates the blueprint for integrating this technology and modeling an ecosystem for operations. “I don’t know the last time we went from an idea to a final rule in 16 months,” said Whitaker, who has had a long history working with both the FAA and aviation, including a stint at eVTOL maker Supernal. “That is light speed for rulemaking.”

The final rule, he explained, creates a flexible climate for companies to train pilots, operate these aircraft, and safely integrate new technology.

AAM represents a “seminal moment” in aviation to help achieve net zero by 2050, Bolen says. “Over the last 40 years, the industry has been able to shrink its environmental footprint by 40 percent,” he added. “Every aircraft is 25 to 30 percent more efficient than its replacement aircraft. The industry has invested significantly in developing sustainable aviation fuels and advancements with electric, hydrogen, and hybrid propulsion systems.

One of the regulatory challenges, Whitaker added, is that the FAA doesn’t yet know how the business model will evolve. “Will this require departures every three minutes to the airport or primarily serve rural communities?” he asked, citing two possible futures for electric aircraft. “We need the regulatory flexibility to allow AAM businesses to succeed and do so safely.”

The topic was explored during a seminar on how advanced air mobility infrastructure will develop yesterday. Beta CEO Kyle Clarke, which makes eVTOLs, said his firm had built charging stations in airports across different states, with the goal of creating 150 charging facilities across the country.

Signature Aviation CEO Tony Lefebvre envisions significantly more infrastructure will be needed, so “we have the proper infrastructure to be able to support 600, 700, 800 locations—or coming up with alternatives, so that the [aircraft] can continue to fly out of one location and then reposition for charging,” he said, adding that development could happen at “an accelerated pace.”

From the future, NBAA looked to the past, recognizing Laurent and Pierre Beaudoin, the father-and-son team who have led Bombardier for more than 60 years with NBAA’s Meritorious Service to Aviation Award.

Since its beginnings in rural Quebec making snowmobiles, Bombardier has grown into an $8 billion global leader in business aviation. In 1966, Laurent became company president and took the the brand public in 1969. He diversified beyond snowmobiles by purchasing a train manufacturer in 1970, and purchased Canadair in 1986, which was the leading manufacturer of Challenger wide-body business jets, to become part of the aviation industry.

“Canadair was a big entrée into aviation, but we were fortunate to have the engineering staff in place,” Laurent told Robb Report. “The only thing they lacked was an entrepreneurial spirit and we were able to introduce that into the company.” Through his career, he also focused heavily on product design. “That’s always been important to me,” Laurent says. “Beyond it functioning, why shouldn’t it look attractive? Our aircraft look fast, even when they are sitting on a runway, they look like they want to go.”

In 2020, Bombardier sold off its railway business, becoming solely a business jet manufacturer, with multiple aircraft types across different categories, including its new flagship aircraft, the ultra-long-range Global 8000. “We still see a lot of upside for our company in this industry,” said Pierre. “The service business is one—there are a lot of aging aircraft out there, and we are also moving into military applications with our business jets. We see a very bright future there.”

The company remains focused on future aircraft. It has developed a blended-wing EcoJet Research Project to study and improve aerodynamics and propulsion efficiencies to reduce business jet emissions by up to 50 percent. “There are a lot of things being said about sustainability that are not always fact based,” said Laurent. “The EcoJet Project is an example of how we are going to study the things we can do to make a huge impact to reach that goal.”

NBAA-BACE offers dozens of seminars and workshops on all aspects of business aviation. It will run through October 24.

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How Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and More Tech Billionaires Have Transformed Gigayacht Design

Bezos’s Koru is the world’s largest sailboat, Zuckerberg’s Launchpad is a 387-foot behemoth, and Bill Gates’s for-sale, 389-foot Project 821 is powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

By Julia Zaltsman 08/11/2024

Paul Allen and Larry Ellison were the Cain and Abel of the silicon set. They had a storied rivalry that sailed past the boardroom and into yachting. The Microsoft and Oracle Corporation cofounders’ race to build boats—Allen’s Lürssen-built Octopus in 2003 and Ellison’s Bannenberg-designed Rising Sun in 2004—kicked off a crazy billionaire boys club that saw other tech titans, such as Apple’s Steve Jobs and Google’s Sergey Brin (whose Dragonfly was for sale at the Monaco Yacht Show in September) also build custom yachts.

But the latest generation of tech billionaires, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates, have upped the ownership ante by creating new style parameters and technologies that have pushed superyacht design forward. Bezos and Zuckerberg also have two of the coolest shadow vessels on the water.

Of course, superyacht ownership might not be all it’s cracked up to be for some of these owners. Besides being spotted everywhere they go, there could be safety concerns. Last weekend, a Florida man jumped on board the tender for Zuckerberg’s support vessel, Wingman, at a marina in San Diego. It’s not clear what his intent was, but he may have been headed for Wingman, or even Zuckerberg’s main vessel, Launchpad, before he was arrested at gunpoint.

In terms of owning a shadow vessel, video mogul Gabe Newell was one of the first to see the benefits, referring to it as an “external hard drive” of the main yacht to house extra staff, crew and a wonderland of toys.

Newell sold his 220-foot Damen support yacht, Dapple, last year to none other than Zuckerberg in preparation for his next big delivery, Project Y722. Newell’s Oceanco new build will go a long way to furthering his investment into ocean exploration. His 2022 purchase of the deep-sea Hadal Exploration System included a Triton 36000/2—the world’s first and only manned-submersible certified for dives to 36,000 feet.

Project Y722 will be Oceanco’s third-largest yacht to date following Jeff Bezos’s $7.5 million sailing yacht Koru. The 417-foot vessel is both the largest and tallest sailing yacht in the world (Sailing Yacht A is only sail-assisted). Bezos took delivery of his behemoth in April 2023, though it turns out a three-masted schooner is the one thing Amazon can’t deliver without a hitch.

Bezos came under fire for plans to partially demolish the famous De Hef bridge in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to allow the yacht’s three 230-foot-tall masts to pass underneath. Crisis and controversy were averted when the yacht was instead shipped out of Oceanco’s Alblasserdam facilities in two pieces, before final assembly. Taking delivery of the largest Dutch-built yacht in the world whet Bezos’s appetite, and he twinned the purchase with Abeona, the largest support vessel built by Damen that same year.

Abeona’s $112 million build cost and 246-foot length are nothing compared to Koru, yet it’s still a serious asset. It sleeps 45 guests and 20 crew, including medical personnel. The large aft deck has a helipad and hangar for a D14 value helicopter, as well as marine gear, tenders, and toys.

Zuckerberg’s Wingman is also packed with amenities, though it’s not the only secondhand yacht that came from his 2023 shopping spree. The centi-billionaire scooped up the 387-foot Launchpad (formerly Project 1010), an Espen Øino–designed Feadship originally commissioned by (now sanctioned) Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin. Zuckerberg is estimated to have paid a whopping $496 million for both yachts combined.

But that’s just over half of the $900 million that Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates is thought to have spent on his custom Feadship Project 821—the world’s first hydrogen-powered superyacht, which began tests recently. It’s no surprise that Gates, whose Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund has put more than $3 billion into companies that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, should be the one to break ground on hydrogen-fuel-cell technology within yachting.

Project 821 can’t perform entire crossings on hydrogen, but it can cruise at 10 knots or run hotel functions at anchor for a full week on hydrogen. It also has a nifty sensor-packed smart A/C system and advanced heat recovery system, alongside more luxurious features, such as multiple pools, a wellness area, and a hospital.

What is surprising is the fact that Gates listed the yacht for sale prior to its delivery this year. He also sold his smaller 224-foot Incat Crowther-designed Shadowcat called Wayfinder in February, which after three years of private use recently entered the charter market. It’s characterized by a blue certified helipad that doubles as a pickleball court.

With most tech moguls already sorted on the yachting front, only Elon Musk remains in the market to take a custom hydrogen gigayacht off Gates’s hands. Judging by his vocal condemnation of the renewable fuel, referring to hydrogen as “the stupidest way” he could imagine for energy storage, it’s an unlikely match. Instead, the world awaits the arrival of the Tesla boss’s $1 billion self-sustaining electric concept Model Y yacht, which he unveiled in 2021.

Despite being an avid charterer (Musk was spotted aboard a yacht in Mykonos in 2022), his comments on X—that he “prefers to work” than have fun on yachts—suggest it could be a very long wait.

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