Cruises + Boating Sea Cloud

One of, in not the, most luxurious sailing vessels in the entire world is the "Sea Cloud." A four-masted barque, the Sea Cloud was commissioned by the legendary Wall Street financier E.F. Hutton as an engagement gift for his bride-to-be, Marjorie Merriweather Post, designed by the acclaimed American yachting firm of Gibbs & Cox and built in Kiel, Germany in 1931. The ship was originally named the "Hussar" and, after going through enough international adventures and changes of owners to make a Hollywood movie, it now sails under the "Sea Cloud" name.

To sail on the Sea Cloud is to catapult yourself back in time to an era of old-fashioned elegance and luxury that only can be captured on a sailing ship, out on the open sea, far from land and far from the high-technology world we live in today. Donna Elena and I were lucky enough to take such a magical journey on the Sea Cloud in September, 2008, embarking from a small town near Rome and, then, sailing to Corsica, Sardinia and Elba, and eventually finishing our trip in Genoa.

(continued below)

A spacious, private bathroom is directly connected to the main room, with its own bath and shower and a sink with hand-made faucets made of gold. The bathroom itself is actually larger than the size of many of the other cabins on the ship.

Butler service is there at the touch of a button, and complimentary champagne, drinks, chocolates and pastries are provided on a continuing basis. The staff is friendly, charming and efficient. Words cannot fully describe the experience. It seems that you're sailing in the nineteenth century, not the twenty-first!

(continued below)

Here are some photos of the Sea Cloud under sail, as taken from the deck.

In describing the Sea Cloud, I should also mention that the ship is relatively small. There are only 34 cabins. So, since the crew numbers about 60 strong, very frequently, the members of the ship's crew outnumber the number of its passenger/guests!

Here are some more photographs from when we sailed on the Sea Cloud.....

Cibo and Trabzon - believe it or not, I agree with both of you. First of all, I never criticized Disney cruises. (I've never been on one and probably never will, so I'm not going to comment on something I've never experienced.) Next, as Trabzon says, you really can't compare the two cruise lines - I believe they are addressing two completely different markets. Also, clearly, it is quite possible that some of the less expensive cabins on the Sea Cloud are not as spacious or as comfortable as some of the more expensive cabins that one would find on a Disney cruise. But, that's just one of the many categories that make up the overall rating system that Condé Nast's Gold List uses. At the end of the day, if you combine the results for all the categories, there is no doubt that Sea Cloud Cruises sits alone at the top of Condé Nast's 2010 Gold List.

Let me try to answer your questions about the smaller cabins and whether or not we would still sail on the Sea Cloud for a week, if we couldn't book one of the owner's cabins. First of all, let me point out that we have sailed on the Sea Cloud II only once and, when we did, we did not stay in an "owner's cabin." We would do it again. (Actually, I don't even know if the Sea Cloud II has so-called "owner's cabins.") Turning to when we sailed on the Sea Cloud itself, we have done this on a number of different occasions and have always occupied Cabin # 1 (Marjorie Merriweather Post's cabin). Besides Cabin # 2 (E.F. Hutton's cabin) there are also six (6) other cabins that I believe were specifically designed to accommodate the couple's personal guests on the lengthy excursions that they would take. We've seen these six other cabins and, if we couldn't get Cabin #1 or Cabin #2, yes, we would stay in any of those other six cabins. However, we would not consider sailing on the Sea Cloud in any of the smaller cabins.