Wine and Biking with Backroads and AmaWaterways
Colleen McDaniel, Editor in Chief: "When you cruise for a living, it's usually tough to pick just one experience that stands out. This year, though, the moment that still makes me smile months later is one I had on a vacation with AmaWaterways and Backroads.
My husband and I took a trip on AmaDolce through the Bordeaux French wine region. Near the end of the cruise, after our team of 16 biked 39 miles from Cadillac to Bordeaux, we arrived to the meeting point before the ship did.
By the time AmaDolce showed up, we were dancing and singing our hearts out, wringing all the joy we could from this fantastic wine and biking voyage, that had us pedal a total of 202 miles over the course of a week."
Family Cruise to Tahiti with Paul Gauguin
Chris Gray Faust, Executive Editor, U.S.: "There’s nothing like a cruise to bring a family together. But how about if you barely know them? That’s the situation I found myself in onboard Paul Gauguin, when four of my adult cousins joined my husband and I on a 10-day work trip through French Polynesia. Before the cruise, I stressed a bit. After all, I had only seen these cousins at a handful of weddings and funerals over the years. Were they fun?
Over the course of the trip, I uncovered fun similarities – a dark sense of humor with one, a sense of adventure with another, a penchant for long hugs with a third.
A cruise proved the perfect opportunity for us to reconnect; a move made particularly poignant as we all had lost our parents in recent years. I came away from the cruise not only having explored a fantastic destination, but discovering family I didn’t know I had."
Taking My Daughter on Queen Mary 2
Aaron Saunders, Senior News & Features Editor: "One of the great joys of this year was getting to take my daughter aboard Cunard Line's Queen Mary 2 on a cruise from New York to Canada and New England.
Not only did we discover that Cunard's Queen Mary 2 is remarkably kid-friendly, but we also learned our daughter loved it, too -- from dancing along with the folk duo in the Golden Lion pub to sinking into the plush couches in the Chart Room and relaxing, our daughter embraced the ship as much as her dad did.
Of course, when she's older, a transatlantic crossing will have to be in her future. Until then, I'll relish the seven days we had aboard Queen Mary 2 with our youngest little Cunarder."
(River) Travels with My Father
Jorge Oliver, Editor: "Looking back, I can’t help but pick out the trip I took in April with my father on Emerald Cruises, exploring the Dutch and Belgian waterways.
The week-long voyage aboard Emerald Luna was not only the first time either of us had been on a river cruise; it was the first time we had been on a voyage together, just the two of us.
The journey brought countless joyful moments of discovery – from marveling at the seemingly endless colors, shapes and sizes of tulips at Keukenhof Garden to getting lost in the genius of Peter Paul Rubens’ Baroque masterpieces.
But the biggest discovery was witnessing my dad’s incandescent passion for all things travel and realizing the enormous influence he’s had on me and my career."
For more of Cruise Critic’s editors’ favorite cruises of the year, visit https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/cruise-critic-editors-pick-their-favorite-cruise-moments-of-2023
