ENRICHMENT AT SEA TODAY

Most of the modern cruise ships offer a variety of themed voyages, ranging from square dancing, country & western artist, big-band dancing, golf outings and many more.  Depending on your personal interest, you can easily find a ship and itinerary that may cater to your personal interests and travel as a single passenger and never feel out of place.  

It doesn't matter what you like, some ship somewhere will offer a theme cruise that will very likely match your interests.  One of the biggest themes will always be the onboard enrichment series.  Learning and discovering about a certain topic or location is one of the more popular themes that both the premium and upscale luxury cruise lines offer.

The cruise ships are always thinking of new and exciting places to sail and things to both see and do.  When you research cruising, ask your professional cruise agent what choices are available to you and see what is new and unique that some of the cruise lines may be offering this year or next. 

If you want to see celebrated chefs cook up some cuisine or listen to a guest lecture series from a famous news anchor, the odds are good you can find an upscale cruise that will offer these types of enrichment programs.

Crystal Cruises - Creative Learning Institute

The Creative Learning Institute is designed to "enhance the quality of life" in areas such as technology, finance, wellness, and food and wine. At the same time, its voyage-by-voyage Visions Enrichment Program brings aboard guest lecturers and artists with unique skills and perspectives.

For the former, there are courses in foreign languages, art, computer skills, cooking, music and dance on almost every cruise. The Visions program, however, uses experts in the field of astronomy, political science, food and wine, and a host of other specialties.

Princess Cruises - Scholarship@Sea

The Scholarship@Sea program on Princess cruises now sails across all of the line's ships and itineraries, and offers special hands-on classes not found elsewhere. Want to try your hand at "throwing" a pot? Pottery classes are part of the offerings, and the ships even have a unique sea-going kiln.

Other classes may include wine tasting, ice carving, painting, dance lessons, internet technology classes and much more.

Holland America Line - HAL Explorations

Holland America's Signature of Excellence initiative, a new Explorations Center has been introduced on many of their ships, such as Ryndam. The point of the program centers around the history and culture of Holland America's worldwide destinations, and includes cultural, historical, food and wine presentations plus more.

Celebrity Cruises - Celebrity Cruise Discoveries

Designed to harmonize each voyage, the Discovery Series focuses on the historical, cultural and geographical places of interest of the ports of call on any given cruise, but also covers such various topics as finance, wine schooling and astronomy. Two to five expert guest lecturers are onboard per cruise and may include a famous news correspondent, well known author, university professor or art historian.

Most programs on most ships are free of charge and you will usually find the room, lounge or show theatre to be full and overflowing when enrichment time comes around.