6 minute read
An Ocean State of Mind
from Range - Volume 6
by Ensemble
All it took to make this first-time cruiser a convert was the comfort, tranquility and private oceanfront terraces on board an Explora Journeys sailing.
By Caitlin Walsh Miller — Photos by Michael George
I’ve been on board EXPLORA I for about 15 minutes when I fall in love. In fact, I’m struck down midsentence by — and this might be the welcome bottle of champagne talking — one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen. It’s about 75 square feet, with brilliant surfaces sparkling in the midday Caribbean sun. It’s a terrace — I’m in love with a terrace. I step through my suite’s patio doors and feel the warmth of the smooth decking under my feet as I brush past a table and chairs to lean on the railing. Everything beyond is all shades of blue, from the deep, dark water directly below to the sparkling sea at the horizon to the cloudless sky above. I believe that, at this point, I let out a deep, deep sigh.
Eric Boakye Tuffuor, my suite’s butler, asks if everything is okay. I manage a “Yes,” explaining that this is my first cruise, and I can’t imagine a more perfect place than this terrace. Boakye Tuffuor laughs and tells me he gets it. It’s his first cruise, too. “Where do we go from here?” he asks with a smile.
Technically, we’re headed west, from Cartagena, Colombia, to Colón, Panama, then back east to Curaçao, Martinique and Barbados, but I get what he means. Explora Journeys is a new luxury travel brand whose mission is to connect travelers with the ocean. And all that — me falling in love with a terrace, the fact that Boakye Tuffuor and I are both newbie cruisers — is by design. The goal is to attract people who’ve never cruised, or even considered it. Roughly 60 percent of the team come from a luxury-hospitality background and are on their first contract at sea. Many of the guests are in the same boat, so to speak.
EXPLORA I is the brand’s first ship — a total of six are set to take to the seas by 2028 — and has been sailing for less than a year. She was built to be different from the keel up, something general manager Heike Berdos recognized the first time she saw EXPLORA I, still under construction. “She’s more like a superyacht,” says Berdos, a three-decade veteran of the cruise industry, as we chat in the soaring two-story lobby. “Or a boutique hotel.”
Even I can see it. Instead of a hulking white mass, EXPLORA I cuts a sharp figure in navy with gold trim. Infinity pools and whirlpools abound. There are 461 suites, all oceanfront with walk-in closets, Frette linens, floor-to-ceiling windows — hello, terrace — and heated marble floors. There’s no buffet or central dining room. Instead, guests choose among five relaxed, elegant restaurants, a mini gourmet food hall, and a bunch of intimate lounges and lively bars. There are no crowds, or cramped quarters, or frantic schedules. Just a feeling of calm and connectedness — an “ocean state of mind” the brand is trying to curate. Whatever it is, I start to feel it a little bit everywhere.
It’s there in the cooking class I take with chef Hugo, a.k.a. Hugues Le Bourlay, where we learn how to make tortellini by hand. I was expecting the flash-bang-sizzle, “Yes, chef!” of a kitchen environment. Instead, I get the lulling, meditative practice of rolling out delicate pasta dough, slowly, evenly, patiently, with zero hurry — just lots of semolina for structure, I find out — paired with a Langhe Nebbiolo red from Italy’s Piedmont region and the dazzling Caribbean Sea as a backdrop.
It’s there during my shoreside excursion, when the ship docks in Colón. I take a bus and a boat and an aerial tram into the Panama rainforest to see one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. Exploring the vast Lago Gatún, a man-made freshwater lake that powers the lock system of the famous canal, I spot caimans, toucans, basilisks and three of the seven types of monkeys that live in the area. The tamarins and capuchins hang back in the trees, but a baby howler hooks its prehensile tail around a vine and swings onto our boat, curious, hopping back to his mother just as quickly. On the Gamboa Rainforest Reserve aerial tram, we slice through impossibly tall royal palms aboard a six-seater open-air gondola car shaped like a little ship. “It’s like something out of Peter Pan,” says my seatmate, as we sail away through the sky.
And it’s there, of course, on my suite’s terrace, where I finish each day. At night, that pixie-dust feeling from the jungle gondola returns. The sky and the sea weave together as bits of white — waves, stars — break around us. Stretched out on the daybed, rocked by the ocean, warm wind flicking around my face, I feel unanchored and unmoored but cradled and safe. It’s overwhelming, the sensation of being adrift, in motion but not in control, the relentless churn and the power of the ship and sea beneath, and for once not at all concerned about where we go from here.
Four Ways to Slip Into an Ocean State of Mind
Take an experience shower at the spa
Whether you opt for the “cool breeze” or the “tropical rain,” you’ll be gently immersed in a soft mist that’s infused with a subtle scent, the sweetness of which lingers long after you dry off.
Build your own ceviche
Swordfish, octopus, mango, plantain strips, dried corn and more — at Emporium Marketplace, you can create your own fresh ceviche snack using everything you like and nothing you don’t, doused in a tomato-lime sauce and sprinkled with sea salt.
Dip into an infinity plunge pool
Deck 12’s plunge pools, practically overflowing into the ocean below, are long and deep enough for you to master the one-armed dog paddle with a glass of sparkling rosé in hand.
Sip a sunset drink with a view
Set on the ship’s highest point, Sky Bar on 14 is an outdoor lounge with a panoramic ocean backdrop. Savor a salt-rimmed margarita as the sun sets on another spectacular day at sea.
