Elite Traveler Fall 2024

EXPLORE TOPSUITES

You’ve heard them. Scores of travelers argue that it isn’t necessary to snag the best stateroom on a cruise ship. They’ll expound proudly that they don’t need a peerless room because all they do is sleep in it. I beg to disagree. First of all, sleep matters, as does the hedonism that comes from lounging in lavish digs. But more to the point, mishaps occur on vacation — like the time I tumbled down the Lalique staircase at the launch party for Oceania’s glamorous Marina , even before the mighty vessel left port. That meant that I ended up spending an inordinate amount of time in my suite for the rest of the cruise, nursing a hugely swollen sprained ankle. Adding insult to injury, for the rest of the cruise I didn’t get to wear the four-inch heels that contributed to the fall. Instead, I exchanged them for slippers in thecon fi nes of my airy suite — but at least it was an airy suite. Without further ado, we bring you the kind of stateroom you wouldn’t mind being stuck in if you, too, plunged down the staircase.

Top Cruise Suites

by Becca Hensley

Clockwise Uniworld River Cruises’s SS Victoria ; the Royal Suite; Vistabar