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Off-the-beaten-path Caribbean ... You know it is going to be different the minute you step aboard. Officers and staff are there to greet you with a warm welcome and you are handed a cool washcloth to refresh your sweaty face and hands, then a glass of champagne to soothe your travel-frazzled soul. And amazingly your suitcase is in your stateroom by the time you are escorted there. Welcome to the world of small ships. Welcome to SeaDream Yachts. There are two SeaDream Yachts, straightforwardly named SeaDream 1 and SeaDream 2. We were boarding SeaDream 1 in San Juan for a 9-day cruise of Caribbean islands, many of which are seldom-visited except by private yachts.
SeaDream Yachts holds just 110 passengers. They have a crew and staff of 95. You can bet we received really good service. Cabins were made up by the time we returned from breakfast, someone was always opening a door or carrying a food or drink to your chair, caviar and champagne were available, as well as a hot cup of herbal tea if you wanted it, and there were always refreshing cool cloths on your return from shore excursions. Waiters offered a cool drink within seconds of your settling in some secluded lounge spot or around the pool, and they came around every afternoon to passengers offering some creative afternoon snack, my favorite being a hollowed out half orange frozen and filled with chocolate ice cream. Or how about Goran, the Chief Bartender, who smiled his way around the pool deck offering to clean people's sunglasses!
Every night there was a surprise gift -- personal engraved stationery, Sea Dream pajamas with your name embroidered, two red roses, a chocolate treat from the chef -- and the cabin steward frequently surprised us with a funny towel animal, like the monkey we found hanging from the entertainment center one night and baby towel-birds in a straw-hat nest.
A typical cabin has either twin beds or queen-sized bed, a sitting area with sofa and chairs, and either a large window or porthole. Each cabin had a flat-screen TV, DVD, CD player, a refrigerator stocked with complimentary water and soft drinks, a safe, bathrobes and slippers, and a private bath and shower with hair dryer and other amenities. There were two hanging lockers and an abundance of drawers for storage. Several side-by-side cabins could be converted into a large suite. One cabin is wheelchair-accessible. An Owners suite of 450 sq. ft. has a lounge and dining area, separate bedroom, full bath, separate shower, guest washroom. Where the current boutique is will also be turned into a suite. There is a library with two internet work stations and a dataport in each stateroom. DVDs and CDs are available to take back and play in your cabin. A small casino has two gaming tables and six slot machines. There is a spa with fitness room, steam room, sauna, tai chi and yoga lessons, hairdresser, massage and other spa treatments. Next to the spa is a room with a golf simulator -- you can play virtual golf on any one of 50 famous golf courses in the world. Just dial them up. There are stairs between decks, but no elevator. You have to use stairs to access the top deck and to go up and down the gangplank to board tenders.
There are many nooks utilized for lounge chairs way from others if you wish quiet and solitude, a built-in booth for two on deck 5, a place for four lounge chairs in the shade aft on deck 4, and a captains chair tucked in each corner port and starboard on another deck with a tiny table and binoculars handy in a drawer for gazing out at sea or shore.
On the second day I discovered an outside stairway leading to some secluded lounge chairs in a shady area. I sat down and gazed out at the brilliant turquoise water and watched a schooner and a catamaran sail slowly toward the horizon, the horizon stretching so far you can see the curve of the earth. Clusters of white clouds were over the mills of nearby islands, the landmark early navigators used to locate land. A catamaran sailed alongside us and waved hello. And here comes the waiter to see if I would like a cold drink. So this is what they mean by "yachting"! I could get used to this.
Many of the stops were to islands not often visited by cruise ships. They included Puerto Rico's Vieques, formerly used for military maneuvers by the US Navy, the tiny British island of Anegada that you probably never heard of, Nevis that is seldom if ever visited by the big ships, Saba with its clusters of red-roofed cottages which is only visited by dive boats and private yachts, and stops in the British Virgin islands such as Virgin Gorda with its famous rock formations at the Baths, Soper's Hole in Tortola, Peter Island, Norman Island and Jost Van Dyke. Two more recognizable ports were St. Barts and St. Martin on the French side. Most SeaDream itineraries are designed so that guests can book two voyages back-to-back with most ports being new (and getting 10% off the second voyage). On our voyage, the ship anchored out at port stops, and tenders or zodiacs ferried passengers into port.
New to almost everyone was the Bioluminescent Bay Encounter on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. Tiny organisms in the water called dinoflagellates create a luminescent blue-green light when disturbed. After a bumpy careening bus ride down a muddy potholed road through the bush we boarded a raft powered by an electric engine that went quietly into the night. Many swam from the raft and played in the water, looking like they were shimmering with fairy dust. Even fish splashing caused the water to light up.
On St. Martin the most popular tour was the America's Cup 12-meter race. .SeaDream passengers were able to crew aboard one of the several former America's Cup 12-meter contending boats. It was wet and exhilarating ,and the famous Stars and Stripes racer was the winner again.
On Nevis many passengers went on a rainforest hike up the (not active) volcano mountain that soars above the Nevis landscape. Others went fishing, diving, horseback riding, kayaking, or took an arts and crafts tour to visit local artisans and see their works. We took this tour, and also visited the Botanical Garden and Montpelier Plantation Inn, a former sugar plantation where
Food was excellent on SeaDream and always available. Drinks and snacks, wine with dinner, water toys, gratuities are all included -- no one swipes your card for every little thing. Breakfast and lunch were served on the top deck with breezes and sea view. At the end of each day passengers gathered for cocktails and appetizers in the lounge or around the pool. Dinner was either on the top deck or in the dining room. Open seating always. Room service at any time. And no one will ever forget the barbecue on the beach when the maitre d, waiters and bartenders were all in the sea waist-deep, serving caviar from a surf board and champagne in fluted glasses to all who waded out to be served. Decadence at sea, indeed.
Entertainment in the evenings was more
sedate and included movies in the lounge, a keyboard player on deck 4 next to
the small casino alcove, and a dinner-time guitar player playing soft jazz and
Latin classics. however he was anything but sedate when after dinner passengers
and crew went ashore to dance to some local music and he brought standing
ovations with his screaming good rocking blues! New president at SeaDream is Bob Lepisto who has been with the company since it was founded in 2001. The focus at Sea Dream, he says, has always been to provide a smaller more intimate "yachting" experience and that will be continued. "Yachting,, not cruising," he says. This year he says there will be emphasis on group bookings, with a complimentary berth for leaders of even small groups, and special offers for several voyages in the Mediterranean in the summer and several voyages in the Caribbean in the fall. Mediterranean cruises are scheduled to ports in Spain, Greece, Turkey, Croatia an the French and Italian Rivieras. There will also be continued emphasis on whole-boat charters. By Shirley Linde, editor,
SmallShipCruises.com For more SeaDream cruise photos www.seadream.com
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Others got their exercise shopping or
walking about at the port stops. At every island the yacht anchored out and there was tender service from the
ship to the port or to a local beach, and many passengers spent the
week sampling beach after beach, reveling in the uncrowded expanses of sand and
the clear turquoise waters. Another typical option was a tour by bus or van
around an island or you could rent a jeep and explore alone. Mountain bikes and
snorkeling equipment is available.
