Best For People Who Want:
The exhilaration of being propelled by the elements; to call at lots
of relatively untouristed ports.
Should Be Avoided By People Who Prefer:
Great food; a casino; glitzy entertainment; formal dining; large
cabins; to bring their children
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Onboard Experience:
The largest square-rigged sailing ship in the world, Royal Clipper
offers a blend of older lines Windjammers' ultra-casual and Windstar's
more upscale onboard atmosphere, and is popular with international
passengers who find it exhilarating beyond their ability to describe the
sight of 42 sails unfurling consecutively to symphonic accompaniment.
Royal Clipper has no elevator and no cabins designed for the
handicapped. Except during trans-ocean crossings, there's no doctor
aboard, but only a nurse, who also waits tables.
Public Rooms:
The ship's ever-lively epicentre is the Tropical Bar on Main Deck,
presided over by a surly green parrot called Murphy. Evening
entertainment is presented here, right on the teak deck. Next door,
the Piano Bar, complete with a white baby grand, opens to the
three-deck-high atrium, a rarity for a sailing ship. Aft of the
Tropical Bar is the comfortable, air-conditioned library. There's also
a seldom-used Observation Lounge forward of the Deluxe balcony suites.
In the cool, quiet, under-used Captain Nemo Lounge, which shares space
with the gym and spa, you can observe marine life through thick
portholes while relaxing on a comfortable sofa. Despite the gym
equipment, the brass, wood, and leather give the lounge a nautical
flavor. There is no bar service.
Cuisine:
Fill up at breakfast, a lavish, usually delicious buffet. At dinner,
you may well find the food either a bit heavy, or inexpertly prepared,
or both. There are frequent on-deck barbecues at lunchtime.
Restaurants:
The Clipper Dining Room is the ship's most beautiful room. The central
ceiling, three decks overhead, is actually the glass bottom of one of
the dipping pools. Tables of assorted shapes and sizes seat two, four,
six or eight.
Breakfast and lunch are served buffet style, with an omelet station in
the morning and a fresh pasta or stir-fry for lunch. Dinners are a la
carte, with open seating; as there are commonly multiple nationalities
aboard, be certain to ask to be seated with English-speakers -
assuming, of course, that you're neither reclusive nor misanthropic.
The dishes on the menu are displayed each evening in the Piano Bar,
allowing you to see what you're getting yourself into. Room service is
offered only to guests in the two Owners and 14 Deluxe Suites.
Service:
Service is best described as friendly, as crewmembers often do double duty as
waiters, nurse, and whatever else may be required. Meals are the times when you get to talk to them the most as they wait on your table and visit at the same time. Very much a "family" kind of atmosphere.
Tipping:
The ship speaks not of dollars, but of euros. A tip of 8 Euros per
passenger per day is suggested -- 5 for the wait staff pool, 3 for
your cabin steward. Tips may be placed in a box at the purser's office
or added to your onboard account. A 12.5 percent tip is automatically
added to bar bills.
Entertainment:
Want traditional cruise line production numbers? Sail with someone
else. Here you'll make do with crab races, passenger talent shows, and
local guest performers in the Tropical or Piano Bar. Most passengers
agree that the best show onboard is sailaway.
Cabins:
The 114 cabins in eight categories attractively juxtapose wood
paneling, off-white walls, marine blue carpeting, bedspreads with
nautical flags, and brass fixtures, all of which combine to say:
nautical. A hair dryer, safe and standard toiletries are supplied in
all categories. Cabins are equipped with 220-volt outlets, plus a
110-volt shaver outlet. Bring a converter for use with U.S.
appliances.
Each of the two 320-square foot Owner's Suites has it own separate
sitting area and free minibar. The 14 Deluxe verandah suites, the
first on a sailing craft, measure 255 square feet. Two 175-square foot
cabins behind the library have no designated balcony space, but the
cabin doors do open onto the deck, and there's a whirlpool tub/shower
in the bathroom, as well as a minibar and bathrobes.
Shore Excursions:
Shore excursions are limited to two or three per port.
Fitness and Spa:
The spa, beauty salon and gym share the Captain Nemo Lounge's
underwater setting. The gym offers four treadmills, five exercycles
(three types) and six weight machines. Spa treatments include a
60-minute relaxation or Thai massage, for 62 Euros. Use of the sauna
is by appointment, and costs 3 Euros per day. The facilities are open
from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Some passengers apparently believe that walking
up and down stairs (there's no passenger elevator) a couple of times a
day is all the exercise they need.
Of the three fresh water pools on the teak Sun Deck, two are only
knee-deep, and the water's unheated. The third pool -- the
glass-bottom one above the dining room -- is about four feet deep and
just about big enough for a cooling dip.
On port days, a marina platform is sometimes lowered from the stern,
and passengers frolic on and with a sunfish, a banana boat, water
skis, windsurfs and kayaks. Snorkeling gear must be used at the beach,
as swimming off the platform is forbidden.
The ship's most unusual and exhilarating exercise is supervised
mast-climbing, which takes place several times a cruise unless the
weather's dreadful. Those who don't like heights can climb out in the
bow netting while the ship is under sail.
Kids:
There are no children's programs, counsellors, or kid's menus, and few
youngsters sail aboard Royal Clipper. Neither cribs nor formula is
available. Pregnant women in their third trimester are not allowed
aboard.
Fellow Passengers:
They're an active, energetic, physically fit and well-traveled lot,
many with a sailing background, many (50 - 60 percent) Clipper
recidivists.
Attire:
Shorts and T-shirts are banned from the dining room at night, when men
are encouraged to wear long-sleeved shirts for dinner, but most wear
polo shirts, while their better halves favor slacks or casual dresses.
At all other times, anyone seen in anything other than shorts and a
T-shirt is frowned at censoriously.
