Seabourn

We’re not cruise people — we’d rather have a week in one town than six hours — and Seabourn is the line that changed our minds. The Seabourn Odyssey has 255 suites, no water slides, and no children aboard; the ship isn’t set up for them. One rainy afternoon we climbed into the jacuzzi on deck and sat there letting the rain fall on us, and within minutes a server appeared with a bottle of bubbly. We made enough noise laughing and singing that other passengers started getting in too.

They ask what you drink at check-in, so our fridge was stocked with IPA for Chris and wine for me. Thomas Keller wrote part of the menu, and you can taste which nights are his. It is a formal ship, though. One evening was jackets-for-men, and Chris, who does not own one, got turned away at the door — so we ordered room service and ate on our balcony instead. Do that once even when nobody turns you away. Restaurant 2, the small tasting-plate room, we never got into at all; it was booked solid the whole week.

Our sailing ran seven days from Athens to Venice, by way of Mystras, the best-preserved Byzantine city in Greece, and Olympia, where the Olympic flame is still kindled every four years. Every evening on board turned into a race to claim the best spot for the sunset, negroni in hand.