THE MANY FACES OF CRUISE VACATIONSA Review of Stern�s Guide to the Cruise Vacation: Descriptions of Every Major Cruise Ship and Port of Call Worldwide 2000 Edition by Steven B. Stern by Kerry Cohen
Years later, I am just beginning to imagine myself aboard a ship again. Much has changed in the cruising industry in the past decade. For one, the clientele has grown to include more young people, including singles. Also, much has been done to make the cruise experience accessible to kids�as of 1998, Disney even has its own cruise line. Some cruises, particularly those found Alaska or Europe, encourage jaunts off-the-beaten path. Some cruise lines even put their emphasis equally on land and sea, such as by combining bike tours with the cruise. These days, there are certainly cruises that will please vacationers like me�picky, cynical, and independent. Stern�s Guide to the Cruise Vacation by Steven B. Stern is probably the most comprehensive guide out there about what cruises exist, what each of them offers, and how to go about choosing a vacation on one. Stern is well-informed and very thorough in his examination of the many cruises out there, made clear in the weight and heft of his 640-page book. His chapters cover �Getting Ready for the Cruise,� �Cruising for Joggers,� ��Beaching It� When in Port,� and ��Evaluating the Airlines and Classes of Travel and Saving Big Bucks on Your Flight,� to name just a few. But the most detailed and useful chapter is �The Cruise Lines and Their Vessels.� Here, Stern investigates every cruise line out there (as of the time he wrote the book), looking at their histories, their physical makeups, their itineries, service, dining, and his opinion of their strongest points. He also rates them. Most include internal and external photographs of the ships, passengers, and crew, courtesy of the cruise lines themselves, and each has sample menus and itineraries found onboard. Stern reveals the movement toward variety in cruises, making clear that cruises are no longer just for an elite class. Prices can get as low as an average of $100 a day, and he is careful to rate all cruises according to their price category. Woven throughout each section on service, though, is the constant and nagging reference to the crews� ethnicity. Early on, in a section titled �Service,� Stern claims that European crews provide the best service, and that those ships with mixed service crews provide inferior service. He supports such a claim by suggesting that these crews are often inexperienced and that there are language barriers. But the racist undertones are real. Consider the following: �Those ships using mixed service crews from the Caribbean islands, South America, India, Asia, and Mexico do so as an economy factor. Unfortunately, these people do not have the training or �know-how� of most of the European crews.� The fact that Stern asserts such a blanket generalization is embarrassing, especially when he has managed to provide so much careful specification in all other areas of the guide. The comments about nationality are reminiscient of an aged, and, I would hope, expired attitude often associated with cruises�the upper class elitism of those aboard the Titanic, by example. If the cruise industry has worked to become inclusive of lower-income passengers and of more diverse travel interests, Stern only manages to demean such efforts with these remarks. To his credit, Stern has many other thoughtful ideas about cruising. �Cruising for Singles,� for example, includes suggestions toward meeting someone when alone on a cruise. He writes, �Upon boarding ship, go right to the dining room steward and sign up for the late dinner sitting at as large a table as possible. The late sitting gives you time to attend cocktail hour each night, and a large table affords you a greater opportunity to meet a variety of other passengers.� Such detailed recommendations are the rule in Cruise Vacation. In �Where to Cruise and How Long� readers will find information about the port of calls� cities and helpful advice about accomodations before and after the ships set sail. �Cruising with Children� discusses the pros and cons of family vacations onboard a ship, including the many facilities available for children of all ages. He includes consideration for those who envision spending lots of time with their children, and for those who can feel safe knowing their children are fine doing their own thing. In other words, he acknowledges that there are good and bad things about being at sea with ones� family, unable to escape. Had I been given the book ten years ago, I would have copied this section for each member of my own family. For more information, or to order, call the Pelican Publishing Company (800) 843-1724. Or visit http://www.pelicanpub.com |
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We all have our notion of cruises. For some, a cruise is a fantasy vacation, everything one could possibly want within eye�s distance, served by handsome men in uniform. For others, a cruise is a glorious, gluttonous experience of gourmet food and cocktails. And for still others, nothing sounds worse than being trapped on a boat with 500 other people, escaping only with tourist-oriented ports before rushing back onto the ship to eat more overly rich food. This was my one and only experience with a cruise. At nineteen, I was taken, with the rest of my mother�s extended family, on a Caribbean cruise for my grandfather�s 80th birthday. Maybe I should have been more grateful; maybe I should have been more appreciative of such a luxury. Maybe so, but I still have the picture of the 15 of us, wearing our lifejackets during the safety drill before the ship left port, my expression bored, annoyed, and clearly unhappy. I spent the next seven days unsuccessfully trying to hide from my family. At each port at which we stopped�Cozumel, Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman, and Haiti�there they were, every single person I had been on the cruise with, including my extended family. My one positive memory from that vacation is the image of one woman who came to the five-course dinners wearing, without fail, the same fuchsia prom dress every night. But that was my experience, and it was my experience as a self-absorbed, recalcitrant teenager.