![]() Take advantage of a wide variety of excursions in each port, with options offering unique glimpses into Alaska’s history, including Russian, American, and Native American aspects, and modern character. The route allows for optimally viewing Alaska’s breathtaking landscape, with several chances to observe fjords and glaciers from the ship. In the process, the luxury cruise line strays away from the typical activities and ports and, instead, opts for the seldom-explored destinations dotting the northern Pacific.Īfter leaving Asia, the ship sails toward Alaska to stop in Dutch Harbor, Kodiak, Seward, Ketchikan, and Vancouver. Pagodas & PuffinsĬrystal spends several days at sea traveling from Tokyo to Vancouver. On board the ship, get a full, immersive experience with enrichment activities, lecturers, or writers making a guest appearance. Itineraries feature stops in Dutch Harbor, Kodiak, Seward, Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan, and Vancouver. Once in Alaska, Crystal gives a comprehensive tour of this northern state, touching upon its unique, beautiful frigid landscape, Klondike Gold Rush history, Russian influence in the U.S., and Native American culture. The first part of the cruise spends time in various Japanese and Russian ports – a chance to explore Eastern culture, history, and the landscape before the ship sails across the northern Pacific. Travelers begin this trip in the buzzing, illuminated atmosphere of Tokyo and finish in San Francisco, after spending 23 days at sea. The Crystal Symphony, a ship introduced in 1995, holds 922 passengers and, as of 2009, went through both a makeover and a refitting. Two cruises take travelers to various ports in Alaska, with the Crystal Symphony taking both routes. Cruisers, in return, get a fuller picture of the northern Pacific region, one of major cities’ cosmopolitan qualities, of glaciers and other beautiful natural wonders, and the changing landscape and wildlife as the ship travels along the perimeter. Crystal Cruises, rather than start in the Pacific Northwest and then travel up the coast, begins in East Asia. ![]() The cruise calls at Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Francisco, Catalina Island and Ensenada (020 7838 5991 ).Get a new perspective on the wilderness. Tiny it may have been, but I had made a contribution.Ī nine-day ‘Golden Pacific Paragons’ cruise on Crystal Symphony departing San Diego on Jan 5, 2020, starts from £2,850pp, with the Luxury Cruise Company. I came away inwardly beaming with satisfaction: I had converted the sybaritism of the cruise into service on shore. The experience was enjoyable, and liberating. Apart from other food banks in Oregon and Canada, opportunities exist to learn about the conservation of penguins in New Zealand and dolphins in Spain, plant trees in Iceland and provide companionship for the elderly in Dubrovnik and Colombia. There are voluntourism trips all around the world. Conventional shore excursions are one of the few things Crystal passengers pay extra for, but these expeditions are free. Voluntourism is offered by Crystal on most cruises affording the chance to join a community project. And my conscience was as clear as the crisp white napery. Their mission: “to end hunger in San Francisco and Marin (County).”įor me that meant getting back to the ship in time for afternoon tea – cucumber sandwiches, scones with cream and strawberry jam, and the choice of a dozen infusions, all served by waiters in tailcoats to a violin accompaniment. It is one of two huge distribution centres for the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank. For just one morning, a small group of passengers were bussed from the lavish comforts of the ship to an industrial warehouse just off the Southern Embarcadero Freeway in the less-than-salubrious south of the city. I confess the environments could not have been more different. And the ship I was sailing on, Crystal Serenity, is one of those that seems to have put to sea entirely for its passengers’ benefit rather than Crystal Cruises’s. I suspect it was the cruise element, and the pampering that entails, that triggered any incipient guilt. If the fortunate can’t support the less fortunate, it’s not just society that is injured but humanity itself. Was my self-indulgence compatible with others’ indigence? ![]() ![]() And when I tell you this all sprang from being on a cruise ship which, as everyone knows, is an eatathon, you can see why I was uneasy. What made it more confusing was that the very people who were plying me with the food of the “haves” were the same ones about to land me among the provisions for the “have-nots”. Tonight I was deciding on a starter between lobster or octopus, with the roast rack of lamb or lavender-infused duck breast to follow: tomorrow a San Francisco food bank was my next port of call. It seemed that I was being set a moral conundrum.
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