Onboard Obsessions: From Chic Ship Libraries to Nordic Spas With Floor-to-Ceiling Windows
Cookie Moon
Cruises can take you to amazing places, including bucket-list destinations like the Galápagos or Greenland and tried-and-true favorites like the Caribbean and the Med. But so much of the fun comes from being on the ship itself. Here, we’ve expanded on our long-running column Onboard Obsessions, spotlighting all the little things we’ve loved while cruising lately. From an unexpected plein-air performance and chic libraries to possibly the most unique New Year’s party of all time, these are the kinds of moments, big and small, that turn mere passengers into cruisers for life.
The infinite joy of the wind in your sails
We’d get on deck early. If the hoist happened at 9 a.m., I was sure to have breakfast beforehand. If it was later in the day, I would watch from the top deck of Sea Cloud Cruises’ Sea Cloud Spirit, chatting with my fellow passengers while we waited. Then it would happen: The crew members would get the sign and erupt into activity. There were 18 of them, and they moved fast, nimbly climbing the rigging, then scurrying across onto the yardarms, where, centuries ago, deckhands would be flung off in gusty weather, never to be seen again! They looked like tightrope walkers, harnessed in, moving in unison, and leaning forward from dizzying heights. A thrill to watch. Sea Cloud Spirit is one of only a few commercial ships still powered by hand, and many passengers book it for this spectacle alone. As the sails drop, the vessel starts to look like a ghost ship. Then they are up in their entirety, billowing and beautiful. When they finally caught the wind and I could feel the whole ship jump forward, my heart would skip a beat. The grand finale: Yes! Now we are sailing! —Belinda Luksic
Find a nook, read a book
I found a collectible copy of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile, its title in an Art Deco font, as we sailed the famous waterway. Viking partners with the London bookshop Heywood Hill on curating its on-ship libraries with destination-specific literature. How could I resist the chance to read such a classic as its namesake river lapped outside the window? —Megan Spurrell
Wooden bookshelves create small semi-private reading nooks in this hidden library, which was my favorite respite after clocking 10,000 steps in ports like Copenhagen. It was warm and inviting—exactly what I needed to bust through a reading list that hadn’t existed until I found the library in the first place. —Meaghan Kenny
The library atop this ship doubles as an observation deck, complete with expansive windows to gaze out on wherever we approached as we sailed from Argentina to South Africa. I may not have read many books, but the room became my happy place where I played board games with other passengers and lost myself watching for seabirds over the blue yonder. —Stefanie Waldek
Soaking in a badestamp, watching icebergs go by
Until I plunged into 28-degree water in Antarctica on my first trip south, I didn't understand the allure of thermal circuits in spas. Why would one want to subject themselves to intense temperature swings? But the surge of adrenaline as I hauled myself out of the iceberg-strewn sea and dashed madly to the sauna was intoxicating. I at last understood—and perhaps became instantly addicted to—the grand Nordic tradition.
Drawn to Antarctica again, I chose Viking Polaris as my home base in the Southern Ocean. And while the ship might not offer passengers a true polar plunge, it has the next best thing: a traditional Nordic spa with floor-to-ceiling windows, connecting you with the vast landscapes of the White Continent while you luxuriate. Bliss.
I found myself there regularly, cycling through the sauna, ice-cold bucket shower, steam room, and snow grotto—with a little relaxation in the warming cave or the hydrotherapy pool for good measure. But it was the badestamp that stole my heart, lingering in my mind long after I returned home. Tucked into a corner, the Nordic wood-sided hot tub sits in front of an open window, allowing you to breathe in the frosty air as it cools your rosy cheeks, steam swirling around you as it rises off the water. In the distance, you hear the calls of penguins, or the cannon-like boom of icebergs calving off glaciers, or, on occasion, pure silence. In the badestamp, I was balanced: hot and cold, yin and yang, separate from, yet connected to, Antarctica's raw nature. —Stefanie Waldek
The crew makes the cruise
On a particularly languid morning, as a cyclone pushed us off course in French Polynesia and the captain steered us to the sunnier climes of the remote Marquesas, I made my way up to the bridge of Windstar’s Star Breeze. This was a first for me; Windstar is one of the few lines that allow passengers access to the command deck. The innumerable controls made me think of Star Trek. I was mindful not to disturb the officers up there working, but then one spotted dolphins on the horizon and shared his binoculars so I could see them. That broke the ice. We spent the next 20 minutes chatting about the officers’ jobs, being away from home, and more. I have been on dozens of sailings and know that it can sometimes feel as if there is a wall between guests and crew. The open-bridge policy creates a great connection point; it is deeply humanizing. —Sarah Kuta
The finest art at sea
I’d seen a Picasso before, but never while I was in the middle of the ocean. The master’s Toros y Toreros and two others adorn the nailhead leather walls of the steakhouse aboard the RSSC Grandeur. There are other masterworks too: I admired Walter Goldfarb’s 40-foot woven tapestry The Enchanted Tree on elevator rides to breakfast and one of the world’s 55 Fabergé eggs, which rotates in a vitrine on the fifth deck, while wearing a bathing suit and flip-flops on my way back from the pool. All of the ship’s multimillion-dollar 1,600-piece art collection, curated over two years by Regent art director Sarah Hall Smith, is displayed in this incidental way—you discover it as you go about your business. Perhaps the only thing I don’t love about museums is the dutiful traipsing through uncharted rooms. Here, Regent lets the art find you, imbuing those mundane in-between moments with a little magic. —Christie Galeano-DeMott
Day for night
Aboard the floating Oz that is Royal Caribbean International’s Icon of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship, I occasionally found myself overwhelmed by all the stimulation. But one afternoon on my way to the Overlook, a lounging station with two-story windows at the very front of deck 14, I discovered an unexpected respite. In the Aqua Dome above, music—Kenny Loggins’s Danger Zone—was starting and stopping over and over and over again, the same bit each time. Intrigued, I slipped upstairs to the Aqua Theater, where the night prior I’d watched from the window of the next-door seafood restaurant while a man suspended around 20 feet in the air pounded a timpani and divers hit their aquatic choreography with uncanny precision. The latter group was back but bore considerably less resemblance to Gina Gershon in Showgirls. Taking a seat on the wooden benches (populated mostly by older couples nursing afternoon cocktails), I watched a dozen or so men and women in Speedos run a five-second stretch of the piece, reset, run it again, reset, and run it again. As they rehearsed I found myself transfixed by the perfection of these athletes: not just their bodies, which were amazing, but also the immaculate cascades in which they dove into the water, one after the other, and their knack for keeping time and snapping out of it once each segment had been completed to the choreographer’s liking. It was like watching the Olympics. I couldn’t believe that they were just doing this for all to see and that I got to watch. —Charlie Hobbs
Drifting off to sleep
My first words to my husband as I snuggled under the covers of my king-sized bed on the new Avalon Alegria was that I was never getting out of it. Beds have one job: to provide a good night’s sleep. Finding the right one when you’re traveling can be hit-or-miss. And a bad one can ruin your entire vacation. So, I was giddy to find out that I could customize Avalon’s Comfort Collection mattresses, with toppers that can be added or removed to offer very soft, soft, firm, or very firm foundations. Don’t like the feel of yours on the first night? Staff will cheerfully swap it as many times as you like until it’s perfect. A pillow menu (with three size and firmness options), and beds positioned to face floor-to-ceiling windows (never a wall) complete the suite’s dreamy feng shui. Goldilocks never had it this good. —Heather Greenwood Davis
This article appeared in the July/August 2024 issue of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine here
Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler
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