Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cruises
81
Crystal Food & Wine Festival
Living Large
Crystal Cruises
Cruise ship passengers are a captive audi-
ence—and when you have nowhere else to
go during long days at sea, meals become
the highlight of your day. Even if you're on
a big boat, like Crystal Cruises' 1,080-pas-
senger
Crystal Serenity
and the 940-pas-
senger
Crystal Symphony,
with their
endless stream of shore excursions, films,
lectures, and other activities, you'll proba-
bly find yourself awaiting the next meal
with an extraordinary level of interest.
Japanese-owned Crystal Cruises has
been an industry leader on this front,
offering food-themed cruises for more
than a decade. Even on its standard
cruises, Crystal puts a lot of emphasis on
its food and wine service and succeeds
remarkably well—especially considering
how many mouths their kitchens have to
feed. Besides the excellent dining room,
there are two specialty restaurants, Prego,
which serves a menu developed by Piero
Selvaggio of L.A.'s Valentino restaurants,
and the Silk Road/The Sushi Bar, which
serves Asian food conceived by Nobu
Matsuhisa. (Don't expect to see Nobu on
board greeting guests, but still.) As soon
as you embark, make reservations for
meals there at least 1 or 2 nights of your
cruise. Both ships also feature a private
dining room, The Vintage Room, where for
an extra fee about a dozen guests can
partake of a meal tailored to complement
certain premium wines (again, book as
soon as possible if you're interested).
Crystal prides itself on its wine profile, with
master sommeliers on board, its own wine
label, and well-stocked cellars with some
25,000 bottles. Service is attentive and
polished as well—there's no cattle-car
atmosphere whatsoever, which is amaz-
ing for ships this size.
But Crystal's annual food-themed
cruises, under the banner Food and Wine
Festival, raise the bar even further. Itiner-
aries include Mediterranean and Far East
options, a Panama Canal cruise, a New
England shore cruise from Montreal to
New York, and a Pacific cruise from Syd-
ney to Singapore. On-board programs
always feature a celebrity chef and a lead-
ing wine expert; guest chefs in the past
have included Michelle Bernstein of
Michy's, Henry Brosi of the Dorchester in
London, and the legendary Andre Soltner
of the late Lutece. Shore excursions may
include winery visits, gourmet lunches,
cooking lessons, or a lobster bake, as well
as the usual roster of sightseeing and out-
door adventures. Overnight stops center
on foodie-meccas such as Bordeaux and
Barcelona.
Booking a foodie cruise also guarantees
you'll meet some like-minded gourmands
among your fellow passengers. And who
knows what tasty shipboard friendships
you'll strike up?
Crystal Cruises, 2049 Century Park
East, Suite 1400, Los Angeles, CA 90067
(
&
888/722-0021;
www.crystalcruises.
com).
