Travel Maven Blog ... posts from The Travel Mavens.com

Cruising on Oceania's Riviera, a premium eating experience

When you pay extra to cruise a bit upscale, you get roominess, unlimited lobster tails, sushi, lamb chops

Relaxing on Oceania's Riviera (Photos by David G. Molyneaux, TheTravelMavens.com)

Cruise ships have a reputation for encouraging a measure of gluttony.

On nearly every modern ship, you may start eating before the sun comes up and maintain a forkful until late into the night, when a call to room service will bring a snack to tide you over until dawn. A cruise can be a constant flow of French fries, sticky buns, and globs of multi-course meals with a never ending supply of desserts and between-meal enticements.

Eating full, of course, is not the same as eating well.

When an expert travel agent described Oceania Cruises’ newer vessels -- the upscale Marina and Riviera -- as the “eating ships,” he wasn’t talking about passengers stuffing themselves from plates piled high.

Instead, he was describing meals at sea that rival the quality of your favorite restaurants at home -- all included in the basic cruise rate.

This is a formula that is working well for Oceania Cruises.

Norwegian Breakaway rocks New York

Cruise lines normally shy away from mentioning “rocks” when talking about their ships and where they are sailing.

Five water slides on Norwegian Breakaway (Photos by David G. Molyneaux, TheTravelMavens.com)

But Norwegian, perhaps the most innovative of all the modern cruise companies, is not shy. And neither is the world’s newest cruise ship, the 4,028-passenger Norwegian Breakaway, which, says the company, now rocks New York City.

After a trip across the Atlantic Ocean, Norwegian Breakaway, built in Germany, arrived in America this week like so many other Europeans through the years, cruising past the Statue of Liberty on the way to Manhattan.

After two days aboard the Breakaway, I can tell you that this immigrant is ready for prime time.

Tips for Singapore visit include eating well, bringing chewing gum

“Our passions here are food and shopping,” said my Singapore guide, Naseem. “I could eat all the time. We eat, eat, eat,” usually about five small meals a day, she said. I agreed to try.

We began a morning with Ya Kun Kaya Toast, a traditional breakfast of grilled brown bread with a slab of butter and swab of jam made from coconut milk, sugar, eggs and a fragrant tropical plant called pandan. It is served with soft boiled eggs. The eating process is dip and slurp.

I liked that morning wakeup so well that I went back for seconds two mornings later, though I did slide a bit of the jam, more intense than I prefer, off to the side.

Touring Singapore, views from the 57th floor infinity pool

Cruise passengers will love Singapore as a home port for ships. It's a great location for getting over jetlag before your cruise.

Infinity pool on the 57th floor atop the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore (Photos by David G. Molyneaux, TheTravelMavens.com)

Singapore, which began as a British trading post, is one of the world’s most modern cities and one of the largest commercial ports, feeding a free-trade zone that seems to have spawned more shopping malls than northern New Jersey.

Singapore, comfy home cruise port for exploring Southeast Asia

Singapore

Good news for travelers: Singapore, a gateway to vacations in Southeast Asia, and one of my favorite home ports for boarding cruise ships, is anticipating an expanded fleet of big, modern vessels. They will be based at new and enhanced marinas, built here at a cost of half a billion dollars.

Cargo ships anchored off the harbor at Singapore

“No doubt about it, we’re going to have a cruising boom during the next four years,” said Bob Guy, Singapore’s managing director for Destination Asia (for for cruise-asia.com). He’s an experienced tour operator with a wealth of understanding about the cruise business, and he predicts 8-12 ships will be based in Singapore by 2016.