Take Your Cruise to the Next Level: The Luxury, All-Inclusive Experience (Part 1)

Every year, hundreds of cruise lines traverse the globe offering a relaxing vacation at sea. Some sail to the colorful Caribbean, to breathtaking Alaska, or to the beautiful Mediterranean.

Let’s not forget about relatively new cruise destinations such as the Galapagos Islands, the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia, and even cruises in Africa on the Zambezi River or in Peru on the legendary Amazon River. These have become quite popular with cruisers looking for new adventures and exotic destinations.

Among the different cruise experiences offered across the globe, one style blows them all out of the water — luxury, all-inclusive cruises. 

This post will unpack what a luxury, all-inclusive cruise entails, how it elevates your cruising experience and the best way to go about planning one.

In Part Two of my cruise series, I break down the four different styles of luxury cruising. This will help you figure out which cruise will be most suitable for you. Or you can simply take my cruise quiz here.

What is A Luxury, All-Inclusive Cruise?

To understand what a luxury, all-inclusive cruise is, we must first explain how standard cruises operate.

Generally, when you book a cruise, you’ll select and pay for your preferred stateroom type. Think you’re done, right? Not even close. 

Not included in the price you just paid are WIFI, dinners at specialty restaurants, gratuities for the onboard staff, a variety of drink packages (soft drinks; specialty waters, juices & smoothies; alcoholic beverages; and top-shelf liquors). The list goes on and on.

Not surprisingly, the cost of these additional cruise elements can add up until you’ve spent hundreds, if not thousands, more. And that doesn’t include the spa treatments and souvenirs you’ll purchase onboard and onshore.

I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve heard (or read about) people making comments like, “Wow, this cruise turned out to be way more expensive than I thought it would be. There’s got to be a better way.”

On the other hand, an all-inclusive cruise means that you pay one price upfront for your voyage, and that’s it! 

That price will include your cabin or suite, all meals (even in specialty restaurants), WIFI, gratuities, and all of your alcoholic (in some cases even top-shelf liquors) or non-alcoholic beverages. It also covers onboard entertainment and some shore excursions.

A luxury, all-inclusive cruise is a particular type of cruise that will impress and delight you. It combines all the best features of a luxury vacation (fantastic accommodations, excellent service, thoughtful details, etc.) with all the best parts of a cruise vacation (a lot of unique activities, a wide variety of high-quality food and drink options, and amazing service, etc.).

Expect the initial cost of a luxury, all-inclusive cruise to be higher than a standard cruise or even higher than an independent vacation. However, the benefits far outweigh any perceived negatives. After you factor in the cost of all the add-ons, sometimes this cost difference is negligible.

What makes this cruising category so unique?

How All-InclusivE Elevates Your CRUISE Experience

Size Matters

One thing that quickly sets a luxury cruise apart from a standard cruise is the size of the ship. A traditional cruise ship can range from megaships (over 6,000 passengers) to more reasonable lines carrying 2-3,000 passengers.

Such ships are geared toward the mass market and designed to accommodate as many people as possible. So expect more generalized itineraries and people jammed close together at popular spots like the pools and lounges.

Luxury and personalized service are really only possible when you have a smaller, midsize ship with less than 1,000 guests. Great examples of mid-sized luxury cruise ships are the Azamara Journey (700), Regent Seven Seas Explorer (700), and Regent Seven Seas Navigator (490). The generous passenger-to-crew ratio ensures that more attention and specialized service are given to cruisers.

Want an even higher level of service across the board and a more intimate travel experience? With 246 crew members and a capacity for up to 298 passengers in 149 suites, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection offers one of the industry’s highest staff to guest service ratios.

Then there’s Windstar Cruise’s motorized sailing yacht which maxes out at 112 guests in 56 staterooms, making it perfect for those who enjoy traveling with a very small group of people. These smaller ships and yachts are more nimble and can travel to more remote areas, shallow channels, and smaller marinas. 

This grants travelers access to more exotic locales and exclusive destinations. There’s nothing more grown and sexy than your yacht pulling into the marina in Saint Tropez!

Cabins, Staterooms & Suites

Imagine relaxing in your own private whirlpool with a glass of champagne on a secluded terrace overlooking Nice, France. This is what you’ll find on the new all-suites Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection.  

The days of cramming yourself into a tiny stateroom with no balcony or even a porthole are a thing of the past. Luxury cruise ships have far larger cabins than you’d find on a mainstream cruise ship. As a matter of fact, cruise lines like Seabourn and Azamara offer suites that rival bedrooms in 5-star resorts.

These top-of-the-line suites come with very spacious bedrooms, walk-in closets, luxurious bathrooms with soaking tubs, upscale brand-name toiletries, and high thread-count linens. If that wasn’t enough, you also get a separate, tastefully decorated living area, a private step-on balcony, and many more lavish amenities that elevate your overall experience.

Best of all? Each suite includes a personal attendant to keep your home away from home spotless, restock your mini-bar and take care of anything else needed to ensure you have a perfect stay on the ship. If you ask nicely, your butler will even draw you a scented bath.

Now’s a great time to discover which cruise style is best for you!

Meals

Old-school cruise cuisine excelled on two fronts: offering a wide variety of options and vast quantities of food.

But for the modern, well-traveled cruiser, that’s not desirable. The first major difference is that you won’t find an all-you-can-eat buffet. While buffets on mainstream cruise lines have been largely done away with due to COVID-19 health protocols, on luxury ships and yachts, this was never the focus, to begin with.

The emphasis is on creating the ultimate dining experience, something you simply can’t find anywhere else.

Luxury, all-inclusive cruises accomplish this feat through strategic culinary partnerships with celebrity chefs like Thomas Keller, iconic food magazines such as Food & Wine, and globally revered cooking schools like Le Cordon Bleu.

Onboard luxury cruise lines, you’ll find:

• Intimate dining experiences. On Silverseas and the Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection, you’ll indulge in a specially-designed 4- to 8-course private dinner hosted by a celebrity chef along with a sommelier to help you pair the perfect wines with your meal.
• Michelin-star chef-inspired menus. Partnerships with Michelin-starred chefs to design new menus are becoming the norm on luxury cruise ships. Onboard any Seabourn ship, you’ll enjoy an array of iconic dishes by the one and only Thomas Keller.
• Cook alongside the chef. Onboard Uniworld Boutique Cruise’s 128-passenger Joie de Vivre cruisers can participate in La Cave du Vin. During this 7-course instructional dinner, they join the chef in preparing foie gras, lamb de Provence, Tarte Tatin, and other regional French delicacies. You’ll also find a similarly delightful experience on any AmaWaterways river cruise. Though you have to make a reservation for their signature Chef’s Table, the cost is included in your cruise fare.
• Dinner at Michelin-starred restaurants. Even if there’s currently no Michelin-starred restaurant on any cruise ship, there’s still a way to enjoy a Michelin dinner. Belmond Cruises takes things to the next level with their all-inclusive cruise, The Epicurean Burgundy. On the intimate 12-passenger Belmond Napoléon barge, cruisers traverse famous French wine regions with daily stops at Michelin-starred restaurants.
• No-fee room service. Most standard cruises will charge a fee for room service. With luxury, all-inclusive cruises, you can enjoy any of your meals served course by course in your suite at no extra cost. Better still, you can order food from the main dining room as well as from most of the specialty restaurants.
• Culinary schools. Several cruise lines offer cooking classes in dedicated modern culinary facilities onboard the ship. For example, Regent Seven Seas cruisers can sharpen their culinary skills with hands-on training on recipes from Cuba, France, Greece, and many other gastronomic hotspots. Worried you might have to pay more? Don’t! Any class you participate in are included in the cruise fare.

Drinks

Do you feel like ordering a Cuba Libre? On a standard cruise, you’ll probably need to upgrade at least two different drink packages for that. That’s the last thing you want to hear when ordering a cocktail, a glass of wine, or your favorite craft beer. The reality is that many of the drink packages on mainstream cruises can get complicated and pricey pretty fast.

But that’s not something you ever have to worry about on luxury, all-inclusive cruise lines such as AmaWaterways, Seabourn, Sea Dream, and Belmond. All the different drink types are included in the upfront cost. And I mean everything. You can freely enjoy an unlimited amount of top-shelf liquors, liqueurs, champagne, and fine wines at any time of the day at no extra cost.

Indeed, It’s quite customary to receive a complimentary chilled bottle of champagne upon arrival. Specialty waters, teas, fruit juices, and smoothies, which have become quite popular, are also included. Your in-suite bar will be restocked several times a day with your preferences, free of charge.

Did you know that your favorite drink is a great indicator of your personal cruise style? Take my cruise quiz and find out for yourself!

WIFI

In the past, cruises provided a unique opportunity for people to unplug. Well, those days are far behind us. If you find yourself on a cruise with crappy internet, I’m pretty certain you’ll find that very inconvenient. In the Facebook- and Instagram-focused world we live in now, it’s unthinkable to even consider going without the Internet for even a day.

As a result, fast, reliable internet has become the norm on all cruises, though on standard lines you’re expected to pay for that privilege. All-inclusive cruises offer complimentary standard W-Fi for all passengers. This will support basic tasks like chatting on social media, browsing online, or checking your email but doesn’t support streaming or video calls, which requires much more data.

If you want something a little more robust or want to use multiple devices per guest, you might have to upgrade to a premium package that can range anywhere from $20 to $50, depending on the cruise line.

Entertainment

From large, splashy, Vegas-style shows to intimate cabarets and lounges, onboard entertainment has also evolved.

On most cruises, you’ll find all sorts of entertainment options such as deck games, active sports, video games, theater shows, live music performances, stand-up comedy, themed parties, and more!

More than that, luxury cruises step it up a notch with very unique entertainment offerings.

• SeaDream’s Signature Balinese Dream Beds delight the senses with the magical experience of gazing up at the stars as the calm ocean waves soothe you to sleep.
• Silversea regularly hosts opera-themed shows with music composed by world-leading composers exclusively for the cruise line.

Shore Excursions

One of the very best ways to experience local culture is by signing up for a shore excursion. This can vary from history walks and food tours to exciting outdoor adventures and water sports. Most of these are not included in your standard cruise cost, and you have to pay for them separately.

Nonetheless, most all-inclusive lines will include at least one or two shore excursions per port. Belmond Cruises and AmaWaterways are wonderful river cruise lines that include all shore excursions in their cabin rates.

Another example is Seabourn’s popular signature “Caviar in the Surf” beach barbecue. Uniformed crew members plunge into the water and invite guests relaxing on the beach to wade in for iced champagne and caviar served on a longboard bar.

Regent Seven Seas offer free port town highlights tours and kayaking excursions.

Both Seabourn and Windstar have a unique excursion called “shopping with the chef” that invites you to tag along with the chef as they shop for produce at the local food markets and talk about the regional specialties with you. Talk about the perfect onshore excursion for culinary enthusiasts!

Azamara takes a slightly different approach by hosting special events that change from one cruise to the next. Oftentimes, these are musical performances or cultural showcases that are unique to the port of call.

Tipping

Much like restaurant servers, crew members rely on tips from cruise passengers to supplement their incomes. As a result, gratuities, which are usually pre-set and specified in cruise policies, are an expense the cruise lines pass on to passengers.

On luxury, all-inclusive, gratuities are included in the cruise fare, and additional tipping is not expected. However, gratuities for spa services are not included, and a surcharge will often be added to the bill.

Cruisers who wish to reward exceptional service can make a special request to tip individual crew members directly. Alternatively, you can make a donation to the Crew Welfare Fund.

Extras That Are Not TYPICALLY Included 

Spa SERVICES

I’ve yet to come across any cruise line, luxury, all-inclusive or otherwise, that includes spa treatments in the cruise fare. On all ships, spa experiences are at your leisure and expense.

If you want to indulge in refined luxury and immerse yourself in the most lavish indulgence a cruise ship has to offer, head over to the spa. 

Here you’ll find blissful spa treatments and wellness programs originating from all over the world.

Spas on luxury ships are larger than normal, often taking up sizable sections of the ship and designed with their own sun decks, saunas, pools, and, of course, floor-to-ceiling views of the expansive waterways.

From facials using gold leaf to seaweed body wraps and coconut poultice massages, the range of treatments you’ll find on a luxury cruise ship is quite astounding.

 In fact, it’s not surprising to find a cruise ship offering a spa menu with over 50 different and unique treatments that go beyond massages to cater to a diverse range of clients.

For example, on Regent Seven Seas, you can enjoy their signature Around The World treatment which combines some of their most popular massage treatments into one. In one session you’ll be pampered with 5 different massages which include a Brazilian Bamboo back massage, Basalt hot stone massage,  and even a scalp massage!

On Seabourn, you can indulge in the Kneipp Walk, a soothing water therapy system with alternating baths of cold and warm water. This will relieve all your stress and leave you feeling revitalized.

Let’s Talk About Cruise Ship Vessels

Think all cruise ships are alike? Think again!

When talking about cruise ships, one often envisions large ocean-faring vessels boasting 10-12 decks and spanning the length of 3 football fields. But did you know there are different types of ships that sail in Antarctica and along narrow rivers? 

Cruise ships come in all shapes and sizes, and the cruise style and destination determine the type of vessel used.

Expedition Ships

Expedition cruises tend to focus on very isolated scenery or wildlife up-close and personal. These cruises are perfect for travelers who have a passion for adventure, discovery, and conservation.

For a long time, traditional expedition ships emphasized function over form, where the adventure-loving travelers didn’t care too much about comfort as long as they had access to rarely-explored nature and remote locations.

Today’s expedition cruise ships are quite different in form and function. First, they’re built to navigate the very rough seas in the Arctic and Antarctica. The engineering on these ships includes special stabilizers that can withstand the infamous Drake Passage, where the Atlantic, Pacific, and Southern Oceans converge, and they prevent passengers from feeling queasy.

Secondly, form now includes comfortable luxury upgrades such as larger staterooms and suites, spacious ready rooms, more buoyant zodiacs, plus indulgent saunas and full-service spas.

On Quark Expeditions’ newest ship, Ultramarine, guests are in for a real treat! Viewing polar landscapes from the comfort of your zodiac is amazing in and of itself, but imagine viewing it from the air in a twin-engine helicopter stationed right there on the ship!

River Barges

River Barges are a little different from the river cruise ships you see in and around major European cities.

These small, flat-bottomed, snail-slow vessels that used to transport cargo through European canals have now become the new standard for luxury canal cruising. And a barge normally cruises within a particular region of one country.

Barges typically have a maximum capacity of 15 guests and can be privately chartered for multigenerational family getaways or special interest groups. This means you’ll get to enjoy an extremely high level of personal service as you build a warm rapport with the conscientious crew.

Sophisticated travelers who adore the Belmond brand of posh hotels, will love its fleet of seven elegant barges called Belmond Afloat in France. These sail different routes through Champagne, Burgundy, and Provence and are a relaxing way to explore the rivers and canals of France.

Aqua Expeditions’ luxury cruise ships sail on the wildlife-rich Amazon River in Peru and the exotic Mekong River in Southeast Asia. If you’re looking for a uniquely African experience, look no further than AmaWaterways’ Zambezi Queen on the Chobe River. I’m certain you’ll see wildlife regulars such as hippos, crocodiles, and elephants, to name a few, from the comfort of your river barge.

Specialty Ships

Specialty ships are especially attractive to travelers looking for a sophisticated, intimate small-ship experience. Some of these vessels include yachts, catamarans, superyachts, and traditional sailing vessels (ships with sails).

Windstar Cruises’ Wind Spirit is the perfect example of gracious luxury with just 148 pampered guests in 74 staterooms aboard a vessel with billowing tall sails. On this smaller ship, you’ll spend your day snorkeling and kayaking, or on guided shore excursions, and your nights socializing with other guests in an intimate setting over extravagant dinners.

Yacht Charters: In the current travel climate, travelers looking for more social distancing and privacy are opting to charter yachts and catamarans to host their families and friends. The Caribbean and Mediterranean are popular destinations for these types of specialty vessels.

While this way of cruising offers many obvious advantages, very few people have the contacts to make it happen. In order to charter a boat, you must work with a broker and this can be very complicated with a lot of hidden fees.

That’s why I highly recommend working with an experienced travel advisor who can help you navigate this process. Advisors have strong relationships with yacht brokers and can negotiate favorable terms and conditions on your behalf.

Bonuses and Amenities

One of the best incentives for working with a travel advisor is the bonuses and amenities we bring with our services. Some all-inclusive cruise lines throw in extra signing bonuses that add tremendous value to your cruise. For example, Regent Seven Seas and AmaWaterways will include Business Class flights with your cruise booking.

And then there are all the extra amenities you receive when you work with a travel advisor. These are perks that have been negotiated between the advisor and the cruise line to enhance your cruise experience. Examples include shipboard credits, welcome cocktail receptions, and additional shore excursions.

THE STATE OF THE CRUISE INDUSTRY

It’s probably been a while since you’ve been on a cruise. Indeed, the cruise industry really took a hit during the pandemic. But I’m happy to report that cruising is back! Cruise lines used the downtime wisely. They renovated and launched new ships, re-imagined the guest experience, and implemented a host of new health and safety protocols designed to keep cruisers safe and ensure a pleasant journey.

Have you cruised in the recent past? What was your experience like?

Or maybe you haven’t been on a cruise in a long while and are unfamiliar with all the new cruising elements post-COVID.

Or perhaps you’ve never cruised before but are interested in learning more about them.

Hopefully, this blog has been helpful in opening your eyes to the luxury, all-inclusive cruise experience. To find your perfect fit, take my cruise quiz here.