Sea Goddesses Looking Lovely These Days

It’s hard to believe that 13 years have elapsed since the debut of the 100-passenger Sea Goddess I, one of the first yacht-like luxury ships. Since then, of course, other ultra-deluxe small ships have entered the cruise market from companies such as Seabourn, Silversea and Radisson Seven Seas, most of them, interestingly, designed by the same Norwegian team of Petter Yran and Bjorn Storbraaten.

While the designers have improved each subsequent ship with added niceties from marble bathrooms to private verandas, Cunard Line’s Sea Goddess ships still maintain their distinct brand of comfort and elegance, despite standard-issue hotel bathrooms and smallish closet storage.

The little ships offer a unique warmth and friendliness. The daily activities sheet is a single page of meal times and venues, ship arrival and departure times and a schedule of spa activities and shipboard services. There’s no bingo, no grandmother’s bragging contests, no singles get-together, and virtually no on-board shopping or shore excursions. These ships are for people who can entertain themselves.

All beverages except special-order items and all gratuities are included in the upfront fare, so once on board, the traveler doesn’t have to dole out extra cash.

There is a traditional caviar-and-champagne pool party, where uniformed stewards bob about in the pool (or offshore on a private Caribbean beach) serving swimmers and sun loungers alike.

Standard suite-cabins on the ships are about 200 square feet, with the bed by a picture window and the sitting area with sofa, chair, table and built-in cabinets adjacent to the doorway.

A stocked bar with a full set of glassware, a safe, mini-refrigerator and desk dresser are near the sofa, and the bathroom has a combination tub/shower with complimentary toiletries.

The cabin bar is stocked with a free supply of the passenger’s favorite brands of drinks, specified ahead of time, and personalized stationery, a mesh laundry bag, and terry-cloth robes and slippers.

If you want to dine in your cabin while watching a film, you simply telephone room service to order from that evening’s dinner menu, and then select a video from the ship’s library.

Travelers seeking to upgrade beyond the line’s standard suite-like cabins can opt for a suite with a bedroom, separate living room and two full bathrooms at an additional $400 a day per person, double occupancy.

Entertainment aboard, strange as it may seem to habitues of big, glitzy ships with gigantic showrooms, consists of board games and low-key dancing before or after dinner to a musical trio, with a pianist playing during tea time, dinner and at late night in the small piano bar. A casino with a blackjack table and a couple of slot machines gets very little use.

The food aboard is cooked to order and served in small portions. Breakfast and lunch are served both in the dining room and on the top deck at umbrella-shaded tables. Dinner is leisurely, and you arrive when you wish and sit where and with whom you please. In addition to three soups and appetizers, a sorbet, four main dishes, two salads and five or six desserts, the menu always offers a full spa meal with published calorie count. If the wines being served that evening are not to your taste, the wine steward will find other choices that are complimentary or proffer a list of rare and expensive vintages if you prefer to buy.

Some interesting upcoming land and sea packages offered in cooperation with Abercrombie & Kent include an Aug. 26 departure for a seven-night Nice-to-Venice cruise, followed by a five-day holiday in Venice that includes the annual regatta (decorated gondolas filled with costumed historical figures) and an overnight on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express train from Venice to Paris. This 17-day holiday costs $13,475 per person, double occupancy, plus $190 port and handling charges. To get a free copy of the Connoisseurs’ Collection catalog from A&K;, call (800) 323-7308.

To sail on the seven-day Venetian Regatta cruise aboard Sea Goddess I, departing Sept. 5, the fare is $6,500 per person, double occupancy, plus $215 in port and handling charges. Ports of call include Corfu, Greece; Porto Cervo, Sardinia; and Portofino, Italy. Passengers disembark in Monte Carlo Sept. 12.

The Sea Goddess II offers a similar eight-day Regatta program, cruising between Venice and Istanbul, transiting the Corinth Canal and the Dardanelles and calling in Hvar and Dubrovnik (Croatia), and Corfu, Itea and Mykonos, Greece. Fares are $7,400 per person, double occupancy, plus port and handling charges of $190.

For Cunard brochures, including all the Sea Goddess sailings, call (800) 5-CUNARD.

Slater and Basch travel as guests of the cruise lines. Cruise Views appears the first and third week of every month.