Page 26 - Explore Magazine Winter 2018

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SMALL IS

BEAUTIFUL

helloworld Mairangi Bay clients Stephanie and Richard Zajkowski are converts to the joys of small-ship cruising.
Cruising – apparently it’s on the up as more and America and the South Pacific. This was our small ship cruise people have a desire to meet
more of us choose to take to the oceans for our second “small-scale” cruise: a few years ago and chat with you, which is a bonus if you like
holiday adventures. With some cruise ships we experienced Southwest Alaska on board to make new friends while travelling. Plus, it’s
accommodating thousands of passengers, it UnCruise Adventure’s Safari Endeavour with a great way to broaden your own horizons.
can feel like sailing on a floating city. So you’ll be approximately 70 other passengers. So while you may be “giving up” some of the
happy to know that smaller cruise vessels are bells and whistles, discos, activities, cabarets,
voyaging in style to many corners of the planet. If you long to stand on multiple restaurants and kids’ programmes of
If you want to go where (almost) everybody deck and gaze out at the the larger ships, you’ll be gaining so much more.
knows your name and you know theirs, small open ocean without the It didn’t take us long to familiarise ourselves
vessel cruising could be for you. If you long to with the simple layout of the ship and where
stand on deck and gaze out at the open ocean thumping beat of the all- the cabins were in relation to the three eating
without the thumping beat of the all-night disco night disco shattering your locations and the bar. Wind Spirit’s cabins
shattering your peace, read on. As cruisecritic. are located on two deck levels and are all the
com states, “a burgeoning industry niche now peace, read on. same size. Handy to know when booking, as
revolves around small vessels – a wide-ranging Our 148-passenger ship, Wind Spirit, a beautiful prices do vary. We were on the lower level of
group that includes yachts, rugged expedition motor yacht with four imposing masts and cabins (Deck 1), which proved advantageous
ships, riverboats and classic sailing schooners six sails, was a step up again in passenger when sea swells rolled us around a little. As
– where passenger counts top out at closer to numbers. In the brochures, Wind Spirit looks like my husband pointed out, being closer to the
300, rather than 3,000 plus.” the epitome of a romantic tall ship. In reality, the waterline means less ship movement and the
ship doesn’t disappoint, looking very grand as ocean makes a delightful sloshing noise right
Courtesy of the top-notch experts at outside your two portholes. The cabins are
helloworld Mairangi Bay, we chose a seven- she waits portside in Papeete to welcome her really spacious and hold an ingenious amount
night cruise around the romantic islands excited guests. of hidden storage that may inspire many Tiny
of French Polynesia with Windstar Cruises, After a smooth embarkation it was straight Home aficionados. The bathrooms are small
an upscale line sailing to some 150 ports into drinks and mingling with fellow cruisers but are well stocked with L’Occitane toiletries
throughout Europe, the Caribbean, Central in the ship’s lounge. In my limited experience, and have great dual-head showers.

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