The industrial Italian port of Fusina, with its vast Tetris-like assemblage of rows upon rows of cargo containers, is as non-descript as they come. But this tiny, dozy town is where not a few cruise ships use as their gateway to Venice. It’s here, after a 30-minute car transfer from Marco Polo Airport, where I meet the Crystal Symphony, a 781ft eight-decked moving palace on water.
Like on most other cruise ships, the first ‘official’ task every guest must do is adhere to the safety drill. When the sirens rang, our designated group of passengers found ourselves hanging out on the ship’s outer deck by the port, as silvery light faded on a fresh November day. No one thought to bring a jacket and, as the minutes went by, the wind chill increased; men (New Yorkers, by the sounds of their accent) started to drape their arms on their wives to keep warm. This gave me an indication of what to expect in the coming days—couples who were married for at least 50 years displaying affection on a cruise ship that recently underwent a multi-million-dollar refurbishment.
View more photos of the various areas of the ship
The luxury touches onboard are noticeable. My suite, composed of a living area with a three-seater sofa, a bedroom, and bathroom kitted with a washing machine and dryer, can match some of the best five-star hotels on land. Design schemes, courtesy of cruise ship design firm GEM, are all about subtle pastel shades in puce and leaf green, spiced with silver and jade. The result is a charming and coddling oasis in which to nurse one’s 5am jet-lag. To make the early mornings more bearable, my butler, Milind, who just after three minutes of meeting me, intuitively offers: “Please don’t think twice about ordering coffee—or champagne, for that matter—when you wake up. We will be happy to deliver it”. This more or less set the scene of my Crystal experience: 5am coffee, and daily pressings of suits and shirts delivered on the dot before 5pm each day.
Over the course of the next five days, I would meet more of the ‘crew’—80 per cent of the staff returned to work on the Crystal Symphony when luxury tour operators Abercrombie & Kent took ownership of Crystal. Milind, who hails from Mumbai, is as seasoned and personable as they come, as is the ship’s librarian, one of the ship’s longest-tenured staff. There is also Marco from Manila, who works at the mid-ship bar, whose iced coffees saved many an evening. With his expert brews, there wasn’t any need to stake out the coffee bars at the Crystal Symphony’s next port of call: Ravenna with its eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Complete Immersion
View more photos of the ship
As Italian towns go, Ravenna didn’t exactly wield the buzz or the worldliness of, say, Rome. But on the bus from the port to the city, I met LK, a spritely 80-year-old Hong Kong-based banker from Singapore. On holiday with his wife and their group of friends, LK and I chatted about what was familiar to both he and I—our favourite restaurants in Hong Kong; the pros and cons of Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific; and, invariably, Southeast Asian politics. In many ways, taking a cruise isn’t quite the same as other modes of travelling. On (and off) a ship, one learns patience while allowing the environment and the company to seep through, a complete immersion of place and time.
A couple of days later, after traversing the calm Adriatic Sea, the ship docked in Dubrovnik. The city seemed like it was in a Sunday slumber. The mountains skirting around flats and houses were seemingly hewed like the jaws of a Dalmatian giant contemplating a dip in the compellingly moon blue waters of Lapad Bay. Here, I meet Geoffrey Kent, CEO of Abercrombie & Kent, and we start talking shop about cruises.
“I’ve always been an adventure[-type of] guy. [It was always about] pioneer to pioneer cruising, always about adventures,” Kent shares. “This is the first time that I’ve spent a long time on a cruise ship. I was kind of a little concerned that I’d get really bored and everything, but I’ve been incredibly well surprised.”
Admittedly, Kent says that he has always approached cruise ships “from an objective point of view, rather than from a Geoffrey Kent point of view”. He adds: “The service is amazing. Every restaurant, every dish is very good, and I like good food a lot.”
Plenty To Eat, See and Do
View more photos of the food
On the Crystal Symphony, it wouldn’t be difficult to find “good food”. There is a lot on offer: from Chef Nobu’s Umi Uma (the lobster tempura is a legend onto itself) to the constantly replenished buffet spreads at Waterside, and the decadent gelato bar, Scoops, with flavours that run the gamut from pistachio to almond, and at least four different varieties of chocolate.
In the coming months, a new restaurant, Beefbar of Monte-Carlo by ‘Beefboy’ restaurateur Riccardo Giraudi, will have its big reveal on the Crystal Symphony. As its first restaurant on a ship, Beefbar is poised to be an on-sea hotspot to rival its sister establishments in Mykonos, Paris, Milan, St. Barth and Hong Kong. Post-dinner, an Elton John tribute show (it was a blast), setting the night on fire at Starlite, the Crystal Symphony’s night club, or even making moves at the White Party are all rather entertaining ship scene options.
“I think what we do at Crystal is that a ship can take somebody like me, who’s like the extreme right of travel, and you can take somebody on the extreme left of travel, who actually only wants to get out and have delicious food, read a book, go to the theatre, sit by the pool, swim if you want to or don’t if you don’t want to,” Kent says. “I’d love to take my wife on [a cruise]. I told her today, and we have kids. And she asked, ‘What about the kids?’ I think the kids would have a nice time. There’s enough to do because you’re stopping and looking.”
Adventure Is Out There
On one of the evenings, the conversation sparkled over a private dinner and wine selected by head sommelier Goran Sharlamanov at The Vintage Room. Our group, comprising journalists and authors from Mexico, the United Kingdom and Singapore—including the effervescent Kathy Lette, one of the progenitors of the ‘chick lit’ genre—took time in between sips of burgundy from Cote de Beaune and morsels of wagyu in a cabernet demi-glace to ruminate upon life’s various complexities and conundrums. The difference in ages between the people in our group offered refreshing life perspectives. For instance, there’s Fran, an American journalist, who met her husband David on the Crystal Symphony a couple of decades prior.
Our itineraries onboard the ship were pretty informal—our group met up for dinner most nights. This gave ample chances for us to individually explore the religious ruins of Split, the old ramparts of Kotor, or the winding and blustery coastlines of Dubrovnik, without having to stick to the clock. Perhaps it’s this flexibility that holidays aboard cruises can afford, making it an industry that generates more than US$25 billion annually.
“I think people should look far more into getting off the ship when they’re in harbour to look at Dubrovnik or, you know, all the different areas we’ve been in. So, that adds a different dimension,” Kent says. “Otherwise, you’re just in a moving hotel. You’ve got to somehow be enthused to do that. But I think it’s an amazing thing to do.”
