One is an accomplished travel photographer, the other a gifted writer. Their splendid collaboration celebrates cruises even as travelers are banned from venturing onto ships.
If timing is everything, Dennis Cox and Clark Norton fell a bit short.
But their finished coffee table book, Cruising the World: From Gondolas to Megaships (Ann Arbor: Photo Explorer Productions), vividly depicts “37 varieties of cruise vessels representing 77 countries on all seven continents.” In 208 pages, they present 535 photographs documenting passages on “ocean- and sea-going, river, lake, and canal boats around the world.”
Experienced travelers know that cruise-based trips are among the most efficient and economical ways to see a region. But in 2020, pleasure cruises were all but halted by April. In his blog, Norton recounts the travails of an around-the-world trip already in progress when the restrictions took hold. The MSC Magnifica started its itinerary in January. By March, captain and crew found scheduled ports-of-call strictly off limits. Passengers who finally left the ship in late April stepped onto solid ground and a much different way of life than they left behind a few months earlier.
Glowing forecasts about the cruise industry greeted us in early 2020. Forbes published State of the Cruise Industry: Smooth Sailing Into the 2020’s following a decade of record growth. The article stated worldwide direct and indirect cruise revenues had topped $150 billion and supported nearly 1.2 million jobs with a payroll of $50 billion. Then came COVID-19.
By March 14, the Centers for Disease Control had issued a No Sail Order for all ships based in the United States — an order that was later extended to at least September 30.
The report counts 99 outbreaks aboard 123 U.S. cruise ships. The document extending the cruise ban says the CDC documented “2,973 COVID-19 or COVID-like illness cases on cruise ships, in addition to 34 deaths.”
When will the ban be lifted? According to CDC Director Robert R. Redfield, not until “cruise ship operators shall develop, implement, and operationalize, an appropriate, actionable, and robust plan to prevent, mitigate, and respond to the spread of COVID-19 among crew onboard cruise ships.”
In the meantime, we have tentative reservations for 2021 sailings — and this coffee table book.
You’ll see pictures of the behemoth ships the industry has offered in recent years. You know the type: 20 restaurants, 30 bars, water slides, hundreds of balconies, thousands of passengers and crew. But Cox’s lens also will transport you to Kerala in South India, where house boats often rent a few spare cabins to passengers. Or to Venice, where cruise ships are blamed for the degradation of the environment, but iconic gondolas still traverse the canals, pleasing tourists from the four corners of the globe.
Amid the pandemic — and after it ceases to ravage the travel industry — remember that smaller cruise ships provide access to ports the megaships must bypass. It remains my wish to explore the spectacular coast of Croatia on one of these small vessels. The risky buffet lines and huge seating areas that create COVID-related problems simply don’t exist on most small ships.
On page 91, you’ll see the Grande Mariner docked at Michigan’s Mackinac Island. Only about 100 travelers board these ships, but they navigate the Great Lakes as well as the scenic St. Lawrence Seaway. Not a bad way to spend two weeks.
Cox and Norton also devote quite a few pages to River Cruises, another major departure from the ocean-going giants. You’ll dock near Vienna and in the heart of Budapest, as well as lesser-know ports such as Bratislava, Slovakia. These trips enable visits to fascinating world capitals without the need to book expensive accommodations and schlep baggage in and out of trains. An afternoon on deck watching the Wachau Valley in Austria pass before you (p. 125) is an afternoon to be cherished for a lifetime.
It is a book in which the pictures tell most of the story. Cox and Norton have been collaborating on projects since their high school days, when they first became friends.
“Our collaboration has worked out well since my photography skills are about on a par with his writing abilities,” says Norton in a blog post. “In other words, if he sticks to camera work and I stick to words, we do OK.”
They did more than OK with this wonderful book. It will ease the pain of many would-be cruise travelers until the cabins and open waters are open once again for full exploration.
With that in mind, perhaps the timing of this book’s release wasn’t so bad after all!