Knocking off a boatload of bucket-list items
The end of summer approaches, and Labor Day weekend is as good a time as any to dream, with the meadow grass in New England turned brown, and boat docks dotting Cape Ann, Bar Harbor, and beyond weathered by another summer’s sun.
In fewer than 90 days, the Majestic, a luxury ship operated by Victoria Cruises, is scheduled to sail out of Fort Lauderdale for a three-year world tour. My dream is to be on it, start to finish, the world delivered to my cabin doorstep like a daily newspaper, all my days and nights and weekends free to explore sports in every nook and cranny in the 125 countries on the itinerary.
That bullfight in Spain or Portugal or Peru is about to get crossed off the bucket list. The sport is cruel, but also fascinating, and sure to disappear one day, like greyhound racing in the US. There are only two dog tracks left in America, both in West Virginia. Happy I made it to Wonderland once, but it was enough.
I’ll have to dart over to Dublin to see Gaelic football, seated among the 82,000-plus inside legendary Croke Park. Question No. 1: Will I see more Red Sox or Patriots caps in the crowd? Question No. 2: Can I finally stop my compulsion to count them, along with Yankee caps, wherever I go?
There’s cricket I want to see in England or India (maybe both, if my busy schedule allows). It will have to be a two- or three-day port stop. Maybe the kitchen crew will pack me something to go, along with an umbrella, be it for rain or shine, or maybe just a nap under a tree aside the pitch.
Egypt’s treasured national futbol team is known as the Pharaohs. I hope they’re in training when we stop in Alexandria. If not, anyone know if there’s any local architecture worth exploring?
The possibilities are endless, really. In all, the Majestic will be 37 months at sea and will make more than 200 ports o’ call. It is not a cruise ship in the traditional sense, but rather a residence at sea, akin to a floating condominium or time-share property.
Cost is always important, of course. The “get in” price for those who reserve a lower-deck inside cabin (no window) for the full three years is less than $2,500 per month based on double occupancy. That’s not so bad from a Boston cost-of-living perspective. It’s less than $5,000 per month for two in a room, or slightly more than the tab for daily commuters to park two cars in a downtown garage. If only I were joking. Add in gas and tolls and it’s close to a push.
Majestic passengers/occupants must lease the cabin for a minimum of six months. But I figure I’m in it for the duration. When dreaming, dream big, as Ray Kinsella said.
Oh, and all meals — breakfast, lunch, and dinner — are included in the tab, along with off-hours room service. No sportswriter worth his chiseled, self-reported 6-3/215 could ever say no to a 3 a.m. slice of warm pecan pie blanketed by rich, fresh Devon cream.
Each cabin is allowed up to two guests for a one-week visit every six months. No charge for guests, with all food and services included. After a week with four of us jammed into that lower-deck inside cabin, the joint will be mustier than a bag of hockey gear left to marinate in a garage over the summer. But you know, free.
“This is a new life form . . . really a different story,” Gabor Nagy-Ferenc, Victoria’s sales manager, explained in a recent phone conversation. “It’s a residential community, like a retirement home. Many of our customers are 60plus age, and the oldest is a lady, age 92.”
Nagy-Ferenc did not say the boat’s rec list included shuffleboard, and it’s not evident on the website, but we’ll assume the demographic demands it. We hold certain cruise ship sports rights to be self-evident.
The Majestic, according to NagyFerenc, is fitted for tennis, basketball, swimming (in the pool, not the open waters), soccer, running . . . and hold it, this just in, pickleball!
“We’ve just added it,” Nagy-Ferenc confirmed.
Man, it’s getting hard to remember the world prior to pickleball. I’ve read that it’s now the No. 1 sport in the US for sending injured weekend warriors, often age 55-plus, to ERs and orthopedists. The Majestic has doctors and dentists on board, all services included in the price, though Nagy-Ferenc said passengers (minimum age 18, by the way) are required to have health insurance.
Just a hunch here that the ship’s infirmary is adjacent to the pickleball court. I’d get off the boat just to be away from pickleball.
The Majestic is set to sail Dec. 1 out of Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades), provided, noted Nagy-Ferenc, 80 percent of the cabins have been booked. Headed into Labor Day weekend, the number stood at 67 percent.
Prices increase in lockstep with level of deck and cabin size. Top end, total for two in a 600-square-foot cabin on the navigation deck: $45,000 per month for a three-year booking. Espresso machine and fresh flowers included.
My lower-level inside cabin, the equivalent of the bleachers, initially turned me off because it lacks a window. Three hours, never mind three years, in a room without a view would be excruciating for me. But according to Nagy-Ferenc, every room is equipped with a TV screen connected to a camera to the great outside. Phew.
There’s also full internet access, so on a good day at sea, or at port in Casablanca, Phuket, Vancouver, or Sydney, I’ll be able to see whatever I want, whenever I want. The Sox, Celts, Bruins, Pats, and Liverpool FC will be there, like I never left home.
Anyone else with the urge for going? Dream on and sail away, I say, and ready that pecan pie.