Our Third Annual : Tours for the Thinking Person : 10 Top Cruise Programs

One of the sometimes-overlooked benefits of taking cruises is how much you can learn from guest lecturers and specialized programs offered aboard some ships, both from the scheduled seminars and those one-on-one conversations that happen so easily on deck.

Over the past dozen years, we’ve accumulated information from Roger Ebert about films, Jean-Michel Cousteau about threats to marine environments, Sotheby auction house president John Marion about buying jewelry and George McGovern about how it feels to run for President and lose.

This year some fascinating sailings are coming up with noted experts covering subjects that range from art to astronomy, pagodas to giraffes, the polar ice cap to the temple of Angkor Wat.

Sacred cities of Southeast Asia: Neil Sheehan, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “The Bright and Shining Lie: Lt. John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam,” will lecture aboard the 140-passenger Bali Dancer, the former Illiria. The 23-day Abercrombie & Kent sailing, departing Feb. 4, includes stopovers in Bali and Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and visits to Java’s Borobudur Temple; Borneo’s Pontianak and Kuching; and Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Hanoi. Fares of $8,095 to $11,245 per person, plus air fare.

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North Pole voyage: Headed by T.C. Swartz, founder and longtime president of Society Expeditions, this is a 19-day voyage aboard the Russian icebreaker Yamal July 20. TCS Expeditions lecturers include Frank S. Todd, Arctic and Antarctic bird-life expert; Robert Keith Headland, curator of Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University; Karen Petrone, a Russian language and history expert; and geologist Ernest H. Muller of Syracuse University.

After a flight from Oslo, passengers board the Yamal in Murmansk, Russia. Ice conditions permitting, the vessel is expected to reach the North Pole July 29. Rates range from $19,800 to $32,800 per person, including round-trip air fare from Newark, N.J. Book before March 21.

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African wildlife lectures: Micato Safaris combines an Indian Ocean cruise with an African overland journey on a series of programs aboard the new, very elegant 296-passenger Silver Wind from Silversea Cruises. Departing Jan. 19 and Oct. 22, guest lecturers include Cornelius Mollel, Ph.D., of Oxford University, one of the world’s leading experts on Tanzania’s wildlife, and Daphne Sheldrick, a wildlife behavior expert.

The 16- to 20-day safari/cruises range from $5,945 to $10,795 per person, double occupancy, including tips and round-trip air fare from selected cities. Aboard the ship, all beverages, port charges, special excursions and lectures are included. Ports of call on the Mahe Island-to-Mombasa, Kenya, sailings are Zanzibar, the Comoros and Seychelles islands, and Madagascar.

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Historic cities of the Mediterranean: In May, Classical Cruises, known for its unique cruises designed for museum and alumni associations, is offering this 12-day voyage with Rosamond Bernier, art expert and author of “Matisse, Picasso, Miro--As I Knew Them” published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1991. Also lecturing will be Roberto Gonzalez-Echeyarria, chairman of Spanish and Portuguese studies at Yale, and Derek A. R. Moore of Columbia University’s graduate school in architecture, planning and preservation.

Program participants leave the United States May 18 and sail from Genoa aboard the new Italian-flag Italia Prima. Ports of call include Livorno for Florence, Pisa and Lucca; Sorrento for Pompeii or Paestum; Catania for Taormina or Syracuse; Valletta, Malta; Porto Empedocle, Sicily, for Agrigento and its Valley of the Temples; Tunis for Carthage; Barcelona, Spain, and Marseille, France. Fares range from $2,995 to $5,795 per person, double occupancy, plus air fare and optional shore excursions.

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Malaysia total eclipsetour: October’s total eclipse can be seen across the rail of Orient Lines’ 800-passenger Marco Polo as it cruises the South China Sea near the coast of Kota Kinabula, Malaysia, one of the optimum spots for viewing. Guest lecturers include Ronald A. Parise, one of the first astronomers to use a telescope in space; Edwin C. Krupp, director of Los Angeles’ Griffith Observatory; and Patrick Moore, star of British television’s long-running “The Sky at Night.”

Passengers aboard the 17-day land/sea program will visit Bangkok, Thailand; Singapore; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Kota Kinabula. Prices for the cruise range from $3,495 to $8,995 plus air fare.

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Culture and history of Myanmar river cruise: Orient-Express is a name we associate with luxury train travel in Europe and Asia, but in the fall, the company will introduce its Mandalay Express, a luxury river cruise vessel sailing between Pagan and Mandalay in Myanmar. Two cruises a week will be scheduled in a package that also includes over land visits to Yangon (Rangoon) and Bangkok. Nearer to the boat’s debut, bookings can be made through A&K; or a travel agent.

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Botany tour to Alaska: Travelers sailing on World Explorer Cruises’ will help collect and photograph plant specimens for the herbarium on board the SS Universe. Guest botanists from research institutes around the country will lead hikes into Alaskan meadows, forests and bogs in search of plant samples. Lectures are given daily. Stops include Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, Hubbard Glacier, Sitka and Ketchikan. Two cruises, slated for summer, range from $2,495 to $4,194, plus air fare.

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Birds and wildlife in Borneo and the Ring of Fire: Lawrence Blair, PBS’ “Ring of Fire” producer and book author, will lecture aboard two sailings to Southeast Asia March 24 and April 6 with Pearl Cruises. Ornithologist Peter Alden, author of several Audubon Field Guides, will also lead wildlife shore excursions to Mt. Kinabalu in Borneo, home of the carnivorous pitcher plants and the Rafflesia, the world’s largest flower. Other excursions will be made to the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary, the Tangkoko Reserve and Palopo in Sulawesi, Bali and Ternate’s Gamalama Volcano. Two nights are spent in Singapore and three in a Nusa Dua resort in Bali. The 21-day tour starts at $3,450 advance purchase, plus air.

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Transatlantic crossing with financial experts: Learn how to make and manage your money while you spend it on a five-day cruise from New York to Southhampton, England, aboard Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2. Experts include Worth magazine founder W. Randall Jones, whose topic is How to Make a Million Before You’re Too Old to Enjoy It; Union Bank of Switzerland’s Tony Guernsey will discuss international investments, and Eve Guernsey of J.P. Morgan covers mutual funds. The cruise leaves July 10. Cost: $1,870 to $8,885, plus air fare.

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Seas of silk and spice: Lecturers cover Southeast Asia’s history, politics, economics and geography on a Cunard Royal Viking Sun cruise from Singapore to Hong Kong March 11 for 16 days. Geographer and ABC-TV correspondent Harm de Blij and National Geographic Society photographer Steven Raymer will lecture about each port visited, including Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia; Bangkok; Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Halong Bay, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. Prices start at $8,225 including air fare from Los Angeles.

To get more information, call the lines at these numbers: Abercrombie & Kent, (800) 323-7308; Classical Cruises, (800) 252-7745; Micato Safaris, (800) 264-2861; Orient Express, (800) 524-2420; Orient Lines, (800) 333-7300; Silversea Cruises, (800) 722-9055; TCS Expeditions, (800) 727-7477.World Explorer Cruises, (800) 854-3835; Pearl Cruises, (800) 556-8850; Cunard (800) 221-4770.