Guest Bloggers Adam McCulloch and Emma Sloley are married travel writers based in New York. Originally from Australia, they moved to the U.S. in 2004. They have traveled to over 60 countries and written for a wide range of publications, including Travel + Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, New York magazine, Gotham, Gourmet Traveller, Coastal Living, Reader’s Digest and Outside.  Adam and Emma are sending us stories and pictures daily from their 14-day voyage aboard Seabourn Odyssey between Rome and Venice. Come by and read their blogs often.

Today we swapped the Odyssey (population: 452) for a slightly smaller vessel, Jake (capacity: 22) after arriving just post-dawn in Valletta, Malta, a stunning port lined with steep sandstone cliffs. Jake the power boat took us on a high-speed, slightly bumpy journey past the high-rise shores of Malta and across to a neighboring island called Gozo, a small but flamboyantly beautiful speck in the ocean full of stately sandstone houses and churches, with a classic Mediterranean backdrop of terraced hillsides dotted with prickly pear cacti, olives and fig trees.

While Gozo and Comino (another comely part of the archipelago, whose claim to fame is a channel of psychedelically blue water called The Blue Lagoon) seem dwarfed by the hulking bulk of the main island, in reality Malta only covers around 122 square miles, making it one of the world’s smallest states.

Malta might be diminutive but it’s not the smallest – in fact, it doesn’t even make it in the top ten of the world’s smallest countries. Among that illustrious, if teensy, company are the Maldives, Monaco, Nauru, Liechtenstein and everyone’s favorite country-within-a-city, Vatican City. (All roads on this blog really do seem to lead to Rome.)

We were going to bang on for another few paragraphs about the beauty of small places, but in keeping with the theme, let’s keep it short and sweet.

Overheard: “On a small island you have to be faithful to your wife. Otherwise she’ll find out by the time you get home.”

Cocktail Corner: A waiter bearing poolside refreshments is one of the world’s most perfect sights, but we were a little skeptical about the combination of kiwi sorbet and champagne ours was proffering this afternoon. Until we tried it and realized that the French and the New Zealanders should have got together earlier. Consider us converted.

What the Heck is That? Just when you thought it was safe to go back out on the pool deck, we found another oddity there: this pint-sized pelagic predator sits atop the umbrellas. Is it meant to scare off cheeky seagulls or does it serve a more prosaic function?

Guest Bloggers Adam McCulloch and Emma Sloley are married travel writers based in New York. Originally from Australia, they moved to the U.S. in 2004. They have traveled to over 60 countries and written for a wide range of publications, including Travel + Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, New York magazine, Gotham, Gourmet Traveller, Coastal Living, Reader’s Digest and Outside.  Adam and Emma are sending us stories and pictures daily from their 14-day voyage aboard Seabourn Odyssey between Rome and Venice. Come by and read their blogs often.  

Day 3 — April 29, Sorrento to Tunisia: You Don’t Have to be Crazy to be a Conqueror, but it Helps

Today was a day at sea, so we had plenty of time to work on our sun tans, try out the spa and ponder the nature of megalomania. Here’s a remarkable fact: we’ve spent the last two days and nights sailing away from Rome in one of the fastest and most modern of cruise ships, by tomorrow morning we’ll be in Africa, and yet we still won’t have traveled beyond the reach of the Roman Empire.

All at sea

How did Caesar and his cohorts conquer so widely? Well, just as absolute power corrupts absolutely, emperors, tzars and dictators have long demonstrated that a crazy amount of power makes you stark raving mad. The Roman Empire wrote the book on crazy. Take Caligula, for example. His name is synonymous with the kinds of depraved acts we can’t mention on this G-rated blog (there is, after all, one child on board). On his most rational of days Caligula was merely content to proclaim himself God. He even built a pontoon bridge across the Bay of Naples and pretended to walk on water. But on his irrational days? Oh boy. One day when he ran out of criminals in Rome’s Circus Maximus he ordered guards to drag the first five rows of spectators into the arena to do battle with the lions.

Caligula stands out in history because…well, we’re not entirely sure. Other emperors have been equally diabolical, and not just the ancient ones. Enver Hoxha, for instance, ruled Albania in 1944. When we say ruled, his official title (of his own invention) was Comrade-Chairman-Prime Minister-Foreign-Minister-Minister of War-Commander-in-Chief of the People’s Army Enver Hoxha. He was rather paranoid – and probably with some justification — of being assassinated, so he kidnapped a dentist who bore him some resemblance and forced the poor man to undergo plastic surgery to strengthen the likeness. Now if that’s not crazy, we don’t know what is.

Shipshape: Talking of transforming faces, the treatment we had at The Spa at Seabourn this morning was pretty sublime. (And that’s how you do a segue, folks.) While the Seabourn 24 Karat Gold Facial sounded like something Caligula might have gone for, we opted for a humbler experience in the Elemis Oxydermy Facial. The treatment involved oxygen therapy and microdermabrasion: if you’re unfamiliar with these terms, imagine the world’s tiniest vacuum cleaner being swept over your face, followed by the world’s tiniest floor polisher. Finally, a facial massage and the application of a hydrating mask and voila! We suddenly felt all the travel fatigue swept away like the wake of a ship.

As the wise Scrabble board says, we had a fabulous ayda at sea… 

Game time

Stairway to buffet.

What the heck is that? As we wander the ship, we’re occasionally struck by items that are, at least to us, inexplicable. (Hey, we never claimed to be sailors.) So it was when we saw this little blue creature stranded in the hot tub. At first it looked like a broken bottle, which didn’t seem right. On closer inspection, it seems to be a plastic dolphin in sunglasses on a popsicle stick. Seabourn staff or fellow passengers, feel free to school us in the comment section!

Day 4 – May 1, Tunisia: Souks Appeal

You can tell a lot about a society by its markets. We always like to head to a market when we visit a new place for a hit of full-sensory cultural immersion.

So wandering through the souks of Kairouan on our shore excursion in Tunisia today gave us a snapshot of life in this small north African country. There were the usual stoic donkeys tethered to makeshift carts, along with homicidal scooter drivers weaving and honking through the pedestrian traffic. There were vendors selling brightly colored ceramic tagines, freshly baked round loaves of bread, piles of saffron and henna and pastry shops galore.

Talking to Declan, a lovely English fellow from Guest Services over lunch at The Kasbah, we learned that Seabourn Odyssey’s chef often disembarks at ports like this and shops the local markets for produce to serve onboard – unusual fruits, the catch of the day, that kind of thing. We plan to grill chef before dinner as to what he’s grilling for dinner…we’ll report back.

Does This Mosaic Make Me Look Fat?

Some art forms are suited to portraiture and some are not. Today, on our day trip to El Jem we visited the mosaic museum that featured some of the finest mosaics on the planet. They depicted gods and goddesses, myths and legends, but they also depicted ordinary people…in a kind of unflattering way. While sculptors and painters can trim off the extra pounds and make you appear taller or more noble, in mosaic we suspect even the most stunning family member ended up looking like they had been dropped you on your head. To wit:

Souvenir: The beautiful and carb-tastic “makroudh” cakes stuffed with dates we picked up at one of the sweet stores in the market.

What the Heck is That? What was it that made us two hours late getting away this afternoon? Was it:

1. Yours truly and 38 other passengers trapped in a rug store?
2. Our anchor snagging an old abandoned fishing net in the harbor?
3. Both.

Answer: C (Both)

Sisters Seabourn Odyssey and Seabourn Quest met up a few weeks ago when both ships were in Safaga, Egypt. Both ships were en route to the Mediterranean to begin their Europe summer season. Seabourn Quest Captain Geir-Arne Thue-Nilsen sent us this wonderful photo of the ships in port. Don’t they look like they’re speaking to each other? If ships could talk, what do you think they’re saying to each other?

Seabourn Odyssey and Seabourn Quest together again!

Guest Bloggers Adam McCulloch and Emma Sloley are married travel writers based in New York. Originally from Australia, they moved to the U.S. in 2004. They have traveled to over 60 countries and written for a wide range of publications, including Travel + Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, New York magazine, Gotham, Gourmet Traveller, Coastal Living, Reader’s Digest and Outside. Adam and Emma are sending us stories and pictures daily from their 14-day voyage aboard Seabourn Odyssey between Rome and Venice. Come by and read their blogs often.

Day 2 – April 29, 2013: Sorrento, Italy

So today we got ruined. No, not through a deleterious lack of sleep due to jet lag (although that certainly helped.) We visited the legendary ruins of Pompeii, and we walked away impressed: less by Pompeii itself than by the lack of it. Sure, we were amazed by how damn clever the Romans were. How could we not be? The seats in the music hall were made from porous volcanic stone to absorb the sound, and the nearby merchants stored food in heated terracotta pots, thereby inventing the world’s first bain-marie-style food warmer. We were impressed by how intact so much of the city was: the frescoes were still bright and the plumbing was in better order than our apartment in New York. And we were slightly appalled by how disgusting the Romans were: washing clothes in human urine? Phallic symbols engraved into the sidewalk? We almost blushed.

All of this was impressive, but nothing was more extraordinary than the fact that Pompeii managed to vanished completely and remain forgotten for 1500 years. Picture this: you grew up in Pompeii and spent your years perfecting the art of creating phallic oil lamps (which were found in abundance during the excavation). You took your craft seriously, envisaging a whole range of phallic objets d’art: lamps, boats, buildings…maybe even the red souvenirs we saw while we were waiting for the bus. You have bigger plans than Pompeii can satisfy, so one day you decide to take your skills to the known world and leave to seek your fortune. You’ve only been gone for a few weeks when you hear a big bang. Half of Mount Vesuvius just exploded.

What do you do? Do you simply assume that your family members are all okay and not check up on them? When orders for your phallic oil lamps drop precipitously do you simply assume that the style has gone out of fashion back in the big smoke? Surely, after a long dusty donkey ride back home, when you reached the smoldering ruin, you thought, “Hang on a minute…Pompeii used to be right here. Maybe this stone and ash dog isn’t a nifty sculpture after all.”

At some point history forgot each and every single person from the ruined city of Pompeii, from the slaves to the senators. Friends and family stopped talking about it. They forgot that they used to go there to drink, eat and view the wonderful pornographic mosaics which, even today, are locked away. They forgot (and perhaps this is entirely understandable) that they ever held a memberships to one of the worlds first gymnasiums – I expect that even now their descendants still receive promotional flyers.

Pompeii, the largest and most important city in the Bay of Naples, was entirely forgotten. That is the most amazing thing of all. A millennium and a half later, all it took was one guy with a shovel and an entire lost city was discovered. Maybe there’s hope for us finding Atlantis on this cruise after all…

Souvenir: The first time we tasted limoncello, we hadn’t even visited Italy. We were young and impressionable at the time and the distinctive flavor of this classic Italian lemon liqueur never left us: sweet and a little bit tart, it tastes like distilled sunshine. When in Rome, or in this case Sorrento, we figured we’d do as the Sorrentines do…pick up a bottle of limoncello to take home. You’ll find this classic all over the Sorrentine Peninsula and beyond, and it’s best served chilled or over ice.

If you didn’t manage to snag a bottle while on shore leave in Sorrento, never fear: we enlisted bartender Sasha at the Sky Bar to mix us up a mean lemondrop martini, made from shaken vodka, lemon juice and limoncello, and look how pretty it is!

Overheard: “See how big is this line? People are crazy to visit the brothel.”
Our guide Daniela at Pompeii, referring to the site of an ancient Roman house of ill repute.

Guest Bloggers Adam McCulloch and Emma Sloley are married travel writers based in New York. Originally from Australia, they moved to the US in 2004. They have traveled to over 60 countries and written for a wide range of publications, including Travel + Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, New York magazine, Gotham, Gourmet Traveller, Coastal Living, Reader’s Digest and Outside.  Adam and Emma are sending us stories and pictures daily from their 14-day voyage aboard Seabourn Odyssey between Rome and Venice. Come by and read their blogs often. 

Day 1 – April 28, 2013: Arrivederci, Roma
Ahoy, sailors! (We’ve always wanted to say that.)  We are Adam McCulloch and Emma Sloley, married travel writers based in New York who will be guest blogging on this voyage. We’ve had a lot of experience traveling but not a lot with cruising, so we’re super excited to embark on this cruise around the boot — which is how we like to think of our coming circumnavigation of Italy.

Much like Odysseus, after whom this ship is conveniently named, we’re about to embark on an epic and adventure-filled journey across the seas. (Although we kind of hope it doesn’t take us ten years to return home.) We’re going to be passing through some amazing places before we disembark for the last time in Venice – places crammed with history, skullduggery, romance and obscenely good pizza – and we’ll be sharing our thoughts, impressions and loosely researched fact-finding on each of the ports, as well as our time on board.

Our blog is called “If It’s Tuesday, This Must be Seabourn,” a riff on the famous aphorism about whirlwind travel that also happens to be a campy 1960s movie. (Just in case it comes up on trivia night: the film featured cameo appearances from John Cassavetes, Joan Collins, Anita Ekberg and the lady who happened to be Miss Belgium at the time.) If we overhear anything scintillating or scandalous, we’ll share it. If we pick up any amazing souvenirs, we’ll photograph them. If we discover anyone — alive, dead or otherwise — we feel deserves a shout-out, we’ll shout out. If anything on board strikes us as particularly praiseworthy, we’ll draw your attention to it.

So after boarding Seabourn Odyssey in Rome, the famed seat of the Holy Roman Empire, we got to thinking about Baroque. As you do. How did that whole craziness come about anyway? Well, way back in Medieval times, Catholicism was starting to look dreary: the swill had lost its taste, the Black Death had cast a pall over even the most spirited of orgies, and the pizzazz had all but vanished from the public executions. Then in 1545, the church leaders banded together in the Council of Trent and decided that if Catholicism was to survive it had to get seriously fabulous. Churches would resemble a slice of heaven right here on earth, complete with stucco cherubs and gilded everything. The completely OTT architectural style caught on, and its expressive spirit was embraced by writers, musicians, and artists of all kinds, whose opulent works survive to this day in many of the cities we’ll be visiting. You could even say they were Going for Baroque, which is the headline of every second travel story ever published on Europe (FACT).

“How do you know all this?” we hear you ask. The short answer: we make it up, or at least seriously freestyle. Please feel free to disagree, rant, rave or just share your own impressions of the voyage via the comment section of this blog: we’d love to hear from you. If you feel passionately enough about the Baroque or any other topic we tackle, feel free to corner us somewhere on the ship (as long as you’re buying drinks). As for spelling and grammar, we’ll leave the last word to Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, who said, “I am the King of Rome, and above grammar.”

Welcome aboard.

Writer Emma Sloley

Please meet Adam McCulloch and Emma Sloley, married travel writers based in New York and who are about to embark on Seabourn Odyssey’s April 28, 2013 voyage. During the 14-day cruise, they will write about their experience as they sail between Rome and Venice on the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas. They will send us stories and pictures daily from their cruise. Come by and read their stories often.

Originally from Australia, Adam and Emma moved to the U.S. in 2004. They have traveled to more than 60 countries and written about their experiences for a wide range of publications, including Travel + Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, New York magazine, Gotham, Gourmet Traveller, Coastal Living, Reader’s Digest and Outside. They have been chased by a grizzly bear and scared the living daylights out of a polar bear, swum with sharks in Tahiti and eaten rotten shark in Iceland, hiked across the world’s driest desert in Chile, and quenched their thirst with numerous umbrella drinks on numerous beaches around the world.

Adam and Emma are also currently at work on several other writing projects, including a novel, a globetrotting fantasy-adventure series and a guide to the world’s most romantic hotels.

You can also follow them on Twitter at: @adam_at_large and @sloleywandering.

Seabourn Odyssey in Venice

Seabourn Quest Hotel Director Vitor Alves sent along some ravishing pictures of their “Celebration of India” deck party during the World Cruise.

Welcome: Candice Kimmon De Villiers Swart and Kinga Fazekas were transformed into lovely Apsarases, enchanting Hindu temptresses inviting guests to enter a garden of earthly delights.

Currying favor: A sumptuous array of spicy sub-continental treats awaited guests in the Colonnade buffet.

The Far Pavilions: Meanwhile the Pool Patio became a Mughal encampment fit for a Maharajah.

A splendid show of Indian music and dance added a stirring climax to the evening’s festivities.

On April 1, 2013, Seabourn Legend visited St. John’s on the Caribbean island of Antigua. It may have been April Fools’ Day, but Seabourn Legend Safety and Environment Officer Krasimir Yanakiev and Executive Housekeeper Violeta Mackevic weren’t kidding around when they managed the donation of 108 comfy duvets to the Amazing Grace Foundation for Kids at St. John’s. Captain Andrew Pedder, his staff and crew can all sleep better knowing that so many Antiguan children will be cuddling up in a cozy Seabourn comforter at night.

Violeta and Krasimir made the foundation an offer they couldn’t “turn-down.”

Four New Suites aboard Seabourn Quest Feature Spa Access, Amenities, Concierge

Seabourn is enhancing its spacious, all-suite accommodations with the introduction of Penthouse Spa Suites on its award-winning new trio of intimate ships. Seabourn Quest will emerge from a scheduled drydock in May, 2013 boasting four new elegant Penthouse Spa Suites located directly above the industry leading Spa at Seabourn facility.  The Spa at Seabourn has twice been awarded the SpaFinder® Wellness Readers’ Choice Award as “Best Spa on a Cruise Ship.” Guests will access the suites by means of a spiral staircase in the lobby of the spa, and enjoy unlimited access to the spa’s Serene Area, as well as spa amenities in the suite itself and the services of a spa concierge during the voyage. The new suites will also be added to Seabourn Odyssey and Seabourn Sojourn during their next scheduled drydocks.

“A growing number of our guests choose Seabourn’s new ships specifically because of our beautiful on-board Spa at Seabourn facilities,” said Seabourn President Richard Meadows. “Some of these guests have expressed a desire to incorporate a more complete spa vacation experience into their cruises, and our Penthouse Spa Suites are designed to fulfill that wish.”

The spacious living room in the new Penthouse Spa Suite.

Seabourn commissioned the Norwegian architecture and design firm of Yran & Storbraaten — who designed Seabourn Odyssey, Seabourn Sojourn and Seabourn Quest — to come up with a plan to utilize the section of Deck 10 directly above the spa for the new accommodations.  The result is four spacious suites with 516 to 538 sq. ft. (48 – 50 sq. m.) of inside space, with expansive private verandas of 172 sq. ft. (16 sq. m.) with views over the ship’s stern and the sea.  The suites’ décor is coordinated with that of the Spa at Seabourn, and all feature a living and a dining area with seating for four, a separate bedroom, walk-in closet, glass door and floor-to-ceiling windows onto the veranda, a bathroom with a tub and special spa shower, and two flat-screen TVs.

The new suites will offer guests a variety of healthy amenities and spa specialties. Along with the guests’ personal beverage preferences, a second in-suite bar will also be fully stocked with flavored water and fruit juices, and a selection of mixed nuts, dried fruits and healthy snacks. Guests can choose a calming fragrance from a selection of four by L’Occitane, to be diffused throughout the suite during the evening turndown. Relaxing, soothing spa music will also be available as a background soundtrack in the suite. The bathrooms will feature a new menu of Molton Brown specialty spa products, such as exfoliating body wash and polish and thermal salts body soak, in addition to the company’s high end line of bath products that are currently available in every suite.  Upon arrival, guests will be invited to select from a menu of luxurious bath sponges, as well as designer soaps by Hermes, L’Occitane, Baudelaire and Salvatore Ferragamo.

The bedroom will feature floor-to-ceiling windows.

A Spa Concierge will assist guests booked in the Penthouse Spa Suites with reservations for their personalized treatment regimes throughout their stay on board. Guests will have daily access to the spa’s Serene Area, which features heated lounges, an aroma steam bath with salt inhalation, and a herbal bath. In the Serene Area aboard Seabourn Odyssey is a large hydro-pool, while Seabourn Quest and Seabourn Sojourn features a Kneipp Walk Pool, which provides holistic, water therapy treatment and healing remedies designed to enhance circulation.

The bathroom will have a tub and special spa shower.

The Spa at Seabourn offers a variety of unique, healthy spa experiences and luxurious pampering services and treatments, including Chinese reflexology, aromatherapy, and Thai massages. The fitness center features a range of high-tech exercise, cardio and strength equipment; a motion studio with the Kinesis System; and a variety of fitness classes, including yoga, Pilates and tai chi. Personal trainers are also available to develop customized workout routines for guests.

Guests sailing on Seabourn’s “Ultimate Antarctica & Patagonia” voyages aboard Seabourn Quest will be in excellent hands under the guidance and care of our very experienced expedition team. Take for example Jarda Versloot-West, one of the two assistant expedition leaders on these cruises. Jarda has traveled all over the world, including 40 visits to the White Continent, and she will ensure that our guests have the best Antarctic cruise experience.

For the past 10 years, Jarda has been working full-time on expedition ships. At 18, she bid farewell to her native Holland to explore Australia, where she discovered her passion for travel and her love for the ocean. After completing her bachelor’s degree in International Tourism Consultancy, Jarda began working on expedition cruise ships, which has taken her to the world’s most remote corners and all seven continents. She is a qualified PADI rescue diver, Zodiac driver and a remote first aid responder.

Jarda will be sailing on all four Antarctica & Patagonia cruises aboard Seabourn Quest. She will be part of a very skilled and knowledgeable expedition team, and they will plan and manage the cruise and coordinate special landings in Antarctica. Guests will visit one of the world’s most remote destinations and some of the best ports in Patagonia, including the Chilean fjords, Cape Horn, the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas and more. All the while, they will enjoy Seabourn’s highly rated ultra-luxury cruise experience. The hardworking staff aboard Seabourn Quest will take every care to ensure the complete comfort and well-being of our guests.

Each cruise will include the following exclusive amenities and activities designed to enhance every moment:

• Zodiac landings and expeditions to selected Antarctic locations
• Digital photography workshops
• Seabourn parka and backpack
• Opportunities for frequent wildlife sightings from the ship and on shore
• Inspiring enrichment program and special guest speakers

We hope to see you on board! To learn more about our “Ultimate Antarctica & Patagonia” voyages, please visit our website.