On September 19 I ended Part One of my cruise series with:
Our current state of mind is that, in the short time we have to travel (I'm getting old), might as well go for some luxury. So Part Two of this series will describe a stage of our 21-day Regent Seven Seas Explorer trip from Dubai to Singapore in November, and a 53-day Seabourn Odyssey journey from Sydney to Honolulu beginning in March of next year. We welcome you to join us.
To answer that question, my answer is no. I've been on several Crystal cruises, but the company went bankrupt earlier this year. All current signs show their ships being readied for service next year. We were very close to reserving a cabin on a 2022 Crystal European Christmas river cruise, but backed off because we instead found another option which I'll talk about. As far as I know, those who paid deposits have not yet been refunded, but Royal Caribbean said it will be acquiring Crystal Cruise and will protect the deposits of customers who had bookings.
The three so-called major boutique luxury cruise companies left are Regent Seven Seas, Silversea, and Seabourn. Carnival owns Seabourn, Norwegian operates Regent Seven Seas and Royal Caribbean now runs Silversea and Crystal. These typically cost $1000/day, so if you find an itinerary closer to $500/day, take it.
There comes a time when I need to decide what to do with rest of my life. I've sailed on Princess, Holland America, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, but only a few times on Crystal. Well, my time has come, and with the inspiration of my travel partner, we thought we'd do Regent and Seabourn next, as shown above. Here is a comparison, which indicates that the Regent Seven Seas Explorer is their newest and flagship, while the Seabourn Odyssey is their oldest. Regent is more expensive because their cruise includes all excursions and sometimes absorb airfares.
While we welcome you to join us, I should also indicate that these journeys are a bit extravagant. Worse, if you actually try to get reservations on those ships, your only option might be a wait list. The last time I checked though, Seabourn had ocean view rooms available.
To board the Regent Seven Seas Explorer, we need to fly from Honolulu to Dubai. Maybe one of the attractions for this itinerary is that I had a 111-day around the world cruise planned for January of this year, which was cancelled by the company. I did get reimbursed. I chose the Island Princess because one of its stops was Dubai to participate in the World Expo. While that event is over, organizers indicated that 89% of the infrastructure will transition into something called District 2020, a human-centric smart city, and a Sustainability Pavilion.
The trip in November will start with business class from Honolulu to Bangkok on Asiana Air. We plan to spend a few days there, as we did early in 2020, staying at the Sheraton Grand Sukhamvit, one of my very favorite hotels. Next, First Class on Emirates Air to Dubai. The fare includes limousine hotel pickup in Bangkok, and delivery to our Dubai hotel. Never hear of Emirates First? What about unlimited Dom Perignon and wild caviar? On September 14, United Airlines and Emirates announced an unexpected partnership. Also too, Regent absorbs a good part of our air fare from Honolulu to Dubai, plus Singapore back to Honolulu.
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I visited Dubai in October of 2015. It was swelteringly hot. I said:
Dubai is the shopping capital of the Middle East, with more than 70 shopping centers and the world's largest shopping center, Dubai Mall. However, the Mall of the World is in planning to be even bigger.
I remember having dinner at Zuma, you might say a Japanese restaurant featuring foie gras and caviar, then listed as the #88 of the 100 Best World Restaurants. To the right is a photo of what I ordered, with hot sake and Kirin beer. Today, it is the #2 Middle East/African restaurant, with 3 Fils, also in Dubai, being #1, where the prime influence is also Japanese.
Perhaps we'll seek to have dinner there. Here is a review by Zomato. That dish below from 3 Fils looks like a sushi topped with truffles.
One should arrange a whole week in Dubai, for the sights are aplenty. Begin with the Dubai Mall complex, which is the largest in the world in total area, and within are the tallest man-made structure, the Burj Khalifa, plus one of the largest aquariums.
While it was up to 97F in October when I was there, by mid-November it hopefully will not be scorching. Some outdoorsy attractions include Dubai Miracle Garden, Global Village and Buttterfly garden.
Part 3 will get to our Regent Seven Seas Explorer 21-day cruise from Dubai to Singapore.
There are two ocean storms of concern. Super Typhoon Noru was at 160 MPH on Saturday, but weakened when he rolled over the Philippines south of Manila today, and will still be at Category 1 intensity when he makes a second landfall over China on Tuesday or Wednesday, skirting south of Hainan Island.
The potential deadly one is Hurricane Ian, who will attain Category 4 strength Tuesday morning, crash into the west side of Cuba, and make landfall over the Florida panhandle at perhaps Category 3 strength very early Friday morning. This track is continuing to move westward, so New Orleans will need to be alert.
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