I can’t remember the first time I was a guest on RMWorldTravel’s nationally syndicated radio program, but what’s fun about talking with Robert and Mary Carey is how you just never know where the conversation will go.
As is very common before a radio or television interview, particularly not limited to live programming, guests being interviewed have a pre-recording call with a producer to discuss what topics will be on the agenda.
As always, talking with RMWorldTravel’s producer Valerie Selig, we had a spirited conversation about some new trends we’re seeing in cruise, not just this year but also for 2023. Among them?
As so many of us experience summers that are hotter and more drought prone than before, cold water cruising is becoming more and more intriguing. Great summer spots for traveling to destinations whose weather generally is a bit more refreshing than our east coast hometown include around-Iceland, the Arctic Svalbard or Greenland (or a combination of both), and Nordic countries like Finland and Norway.
Travelers, particularly those on the smaller ship lines we have come to love, want to immerse themselves in the cultures and nature of the places they visit even more than pre-pandemic. Country-specific cruises are a way to definitely scratch below the surface of marquee cruise ports because they visit better known places and really out of the way spots. An around-Japan itinerary (with a few stops in Korea) is definitely right up at the top of our bucket list. In the past two years, we’ve cruised twice around Iceland (once on Viking, another time on Windstar); Isafjordur and Seydisfjordur, two darling villages where waterfalls and cliff hiking abound. We also have spent more time in favorite cities there, like Reykjavik and Akureyri, which both offer a great menu of natural — and cultural — distractions. French Polynesia is another fantastic example of a country immersive cruise (we sailed on Windstar, magic).
Cruising as a tapas menu method of exploring an utterly new region is a great way to get tastes of a place where the infrastructure may not hugely advanced or where they are logistical concerns. That’s why this year’s opening of Saudi Arabia, not to mention cruise expansion in the Middle East’s Emirates, are all on cruise line itinerary offerings. Visiting a number of ports to see which you’d like to return too, no matter what the destination, is another solid way of getting an overview of a region, such as the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia and Europe.
Funny enough, we got so enraptured in our 10-minuteconversation, Robert, Mary and I didn’t get to any of these. Take a listen to hear the segment and shoot me a note if you have any questions.