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Health & Fitness

THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY – A WORLD CRUISE

This is definitely on my bucket list, but my husband Roy doesn’t know if he wants to be afloat for 113 days, so I told him he could join me for a segment of it. He could then be home to water all my potted plants while I was gone. The world cruise goes to 52 ports, 5 continents, and 28 countries. He complained after our Northern Lights Alaska trip, said the weather was lousy, so I told him this would be a warm adventure. This is very good value when you consider you are getting luxury accommodation, all meals, beverages both alcoholic and non, you don’t have to pay to fly between the ports and all gratuities are paid. You also get $5,000 spending credit per double occupancy suite. The entire ship is all suites. You also get roundtrip business class air, or $2,000 air credit, plus all free laundry. What a smashing thought, no washing machine work for several weeks.

There are several great cruise companies who offer a world cruise but my No. 1 is Silversea Cruises. They were very clever, and asked a group of well traveled former guests on the sleek Italian vessels what were, in their opinion, the perfect itineraries and took their suggestion to break the 113 nights into two parts, a 53 or 60 night journey, as well as seven voyage segments ranging from between 9 to 23 days. If you opt for the full world cruise, you will have the fantastic once in a lifetime opportunity to dine at a Sultan’s Palace in Istanbul, watch the sun setting over Cambodia’s Angkor Wat during a private gathering, and attend an elegant evening event in Hong Kong. I read hundreds of brochures each week and their latest one is brilliant. They are definitely selling dreams.

I find that their on-board lectures on many subjects by esteemed experts are outstanding. Everyone has a personal butler, and he/she takes care of dinner reservations, spa treatments and many nights we enjoy dining in our cabin and watch a movie. We have one client who dines in his cabin every night - whatever makes you happy.

You can book any of these itineraries which make up the world cruise. Perhaps you have already done several of these segments before, as I have, and would join the ship while en route. Spend 20 nights going across the Pacific to New Zealand, stopping in Hawaii, Samoa, and Tonga, 10 nights New Zealand to Australia, 23 nights from Australia to Shanghai, visiting Papua New Guinea, Palau in Micronesia, Manila, and Hong Kong, 18 nights from China to Singapore, visiting the underground headquarters of the Japanese Navy in Okinawa, Taipei, Vietnam, and the temples along Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River, l7 nights from Singapore to Muscat, following the Spice Routes, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and learn about the ancient trading routes of India, to the world’s oldest market place in Oman, 16 nights from Muscat to Istanbul, with visits to Holy Land gateway cities, Ashdod, Haifa, Jerusalem, Nazareth and the UNESCO world heritage site of Petra, Jordan, or 9 nights Istanbul to Barcelona, Spain, with visits to the Greek islands, Athens, Delphi, the Amalfi coast, Messina, Sorrento, and Rome with Spain as the final destination.

Silversea Cruises is a small cruise ship company providing the ultimate in European luxury travel. They have six remarkable ships traveling to all seven continents. The ships carry from 125 to 540 guests. Staff to guest ratio is one to one. What I like is that the smaller ships are tying up right at the pier, while other ships must anchor offshore. The older I get the more I hate having to get into a tender to get to shore. There are no assigned times, nor an assigned table for dining. You have a choice of four restaurants to dine in, plus in your cabin where you can get the same menu as the regular guests do.

Even if you can’t afford to go on a world cruise, its fun to get the brochure and dream.

Maureen Jones is president of All Horizons Travel at 160 Main Street. Members of her staff are experts in business travel, cruises, and all types of leisure.

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