Tastes coming to a bar on a cruise ship near you: cucumber, elderflower and ginger.
Those were some of the ingredients in drinks that made it to the finals of the ninth annual Bacardi Cruise Competition, a contest for bartenders on cruise lines and ferries.
Six finalists were chosen from among nearly 1,800 competitors, including three from Carnival Cruise Lines and two from Norwegian Cruise Line.
The winner, however, came from the lone ferry entry, Tallink Silja Line. Estonian native Liisi Kutt’s entry was the Summer Fairy, a blend of prosecco, several fruits and fruit-flavored liqueurs and geranium flowers.
The cocktail is both a wordplay on ferry and a light, ethereal drink meant to capture the evanescence of the Baltic summer. Judges for the competition liked Kutt’s inspiration for the drink and the overall mix of flavors.
Judge Julio Cabrera, winner of Bacardi USA’s Most Inspired Bartender 2013 and bartender at Regent Cocktail Club on Miami Beach, said that simplicity is also a quality he looks for.
“On cruise lines, they don’t have the range of ingredients we can find on land,” Cabrera said. Balance and creativity are two other criteria, he said.
Several cruise lines have jumped on the trend toward more creative cocktails. Celebrity Cruises has its Molecular Bar and Carnival has the Alchemy Bar, which tend to work fresh herbs, along with gels, infusions, foams and atomized sprays into their offerings.
Norwegian Cruise Line recently expanded its partnership with Gabriel Orta of Miami-based Bar Lab Cocktails.
These trendy bars can be a real addition to a cruise ship’s overall appeal. While guests from top metro areas may be able to sample molecular cocktails at home, many passengers might never encounter them except on a ship.
The Bacardi-sponsored competition is a popular one with cruise ship drink slingers. There’s a $5,000 cash prize, and the winner moves on to compete in the Bombay Sapphire Most Imaginative Bartender contest in Las Vegas this week.
Kutt is looking forward to seeing Las Vegas. Her plans for the Bacardi prize money include getting a tattoo representing her winning drink. “I don’t know where,” she said.
If the sudden absence of pillow chocolates, umbrella drinks and endless horizons leaves you hollow, you might have Post-Cruise Funk (PCF), an affliction that’s affected nearly 100 percent of cruisers, according to a well-cited study I just invented.
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a few of those words must be therapeutic. “I found if I take lots of fun photos while on the cruise, I can stave off some of the depression by reviewing and organizing them into a book,” writes member Tudy. She and her husband periodically host “cruise evenings,” during which they peruse photos, share stories and laugh. Check out our tips for taking better onboard photos.
As with photos, reframing the at-sea narrative — remember that woman with the Royal Caribbean tattoo? — can be like reliving the experience. When you reminisce by way of review, you’re doing thousands of readers a service through your insights, tips and tricks. Heal yourself by writing a cruise review.
If you’re pining over the loss of cruise food — the availability, the variety, the fanfare — there are antidotes. Drool over epicurean content in Cruise Critic’s cruise food section , recreate at-sea meals with readers’ favorite recipes, or chew on some useful member advice in the Cruise Foodies forum. For example, member MissMap keeps all the nighttime pillow chocolates from her cruise and deposits them in a desk drawer at work: “So if I’m having a stressful day at work,” she writes, “I savor one and take a moment to remember the latest great cruise vacation.” Or borrow cruising’s culinary nomenclature, like member Econom405, who admits to referring to the first post-cruise family dinner she cooks as the “chef’s regional specialty.”
For many passengers, that first slurp of sailaway daiquiri marks the official start to a cruise. If you drink to remember, there might be nothing easier than recreating your favorite cruise cocktail at home.
Chronic PCF sufferers argue there is but one cure to the vicious cycle: the pre-emptive booking. The recommended approach is to plop down on your next cruise while onboard. Many lines offer attractive perks — discounts, reduced deposits, onboard credit — for doing so. The fine print is key here. If you’re serious about this treatment, peruse our in-depth piece on booking onboard.
Until sandals touch lido deck, talking about a cruise is what makes it real. Shameless ship’s horn tooting aside, there is no better place to chat with fellow passengers about upcoming itineraries than a Cruise Critic Roll Call. You can swap tips, set up pre-cruise or onboard events or book a group tour if you think your virtual relationships can make the transition to the real world. Meet your fellow passengers here.
No looming embarkation to boost morale? There are thousands of Cruise Critic members enduring the same pain. Their recourse: the virtual cruise experience. Check out the “live from…” logs endlessly spawned on the Cruise Critic message boards. Here’s but oneprime example, which has been read by thousands of PCF sufferers. Cruise Critic editors also regularly report from wherever cruise ships travel, posting photo-heavy vignettes on the Lido Deck Blog and hosting weekly live chats.
Take enough cruises, and you’ll start to discover the secrets the cruise lines don’t tell you. Use your developing expertise to help a friend or family member plan his next cruise. While helping new cruisers is rewarding in and of itself, you just might find a bathrobe, luggage tag and chocolate melting cake mix gift wrapped with your name on it.
There’s no denying it: Most cruisers prefer the company of towel animals to their significant others. Ogle this menagerie of towel creatures, or get your hands linty by learning the time-honored craft.
The next best thing to being there: Install a porthole in your bedroom, and paint the glass with a seascape, like reader Richard S. Alternatively, Member Dodget1964 brings home the breakfast room service menus and hangs them on the bedroom door. “I keep thinking the room service attendant will show up,” she writes. Better still, pass on your love of cruising to your child by filling his nursery with cruise ship accouterments.
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