Cruise ships go green with plants
Fran Golden, Special to USA TODAY
On every ship you can view water but it’s only on a select few where you can stop and smell the roses, or at least enjoy the presence of real living flowers and plants. Cruise companies, working with horticultural experts, have developed methods to keep all sorts of green stuff alive at sea – even grass and trees.
Take a walk in the park on these cruise lines.
Crystal: A self-contained, freestanding “living wall” at sea debuted on the Crystal Symphony last year. The vertical garden is planted with a variety of indoor plants configured to mimic a world map. The greenery is located in an al fresco area of the Trident Grill on Deck 11 of the luxury ship. Upkeep is by the ship’s team of onboard florists. The plants stay intact because their root structures are anchored in two to four inches of soil, according to the line. The Crystal Serenity will see four “living walls” and additional greenery installed during a refurbishment in November.
Celebrity: Those who love the smell of fresh-cut grass can experience it at sea on Celebrity’s Solstice-class ships. All five ships have a half-acre of lawn on the top deck, aptly named the Lawn Club. Here passengers play bocce ball and croquet, hit balls in a small putting green, walk barefoot and have picnics, all in a park-like setting with the added benefit of ocean views. On some of the ships you can rent a private cabana with a lawn view. Gardeners tend the grass – a mixture of warm-season Bermuda grass and perennial ryegrass conducive to cooler temperatures. Mowers and trimmers are part of the ships’ onboard equipment as are sprinklers and hoses. The grass grows in a specially concocted clay mixture.
Royal Caribbean: The open-air, football field-sized zone known as Central Park on the world’s largest ships, Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, is lined with some 12,000 plants and 56 trees, all alive. The tropical garden is maintained by a shipboard landscaping team: the gardeners are available to chat with passengers and lead plant-focused tours. Everything from the trees to the blooming flowers are planted in boxes – thousands of them – that fit together like a giant jigsaw puzzle with drainage and an Israeli-developed irrigation system underneath. Towering planters are tended via catwalks, and lots of pruning is required (the trees are restricted in height due to safety regulations).
Viking River Cruises: Passengers in Europe on one of this river line’s modern “longships” can head up to the herb garden on the sun deck to admire thyme and rosemary and other herbs growing in planters. The herbs are put to practical use in shipboard cuisine, the garden tended by kitchen staff. The greenery is an added bonus as you slowly cruise past scenery that includes castles, forests and other sights on the Rhine, Danube and other riverways.
Fran Golden is the Experience Cruise expert blogger and a contributing editor of Porthole Magazine. She is the co-author of Frommer’s Alaska Cruises and Ports of Call.
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