World Yacht Cruise

The hopeless romantic in me decided that a love-induced meal aboard the luxury World Yacht Cruise along the Hudson River would satisfy Mrs H’s craving for all things luvvy duvvy.

During the shopping trip in the afternoon, I needed to buy a white shirt and black tie to even allow me entry on board. Our initial search found us wandering around Macy’s, but at $95 for a decent set-up I was not convinced. Eventually we found a great store along 5th Avenue which decked me out for only $40. Thankfully dinner jackets were optional, as I had absolutely no intention of ever acquiring one of those… ;)

We got back to the hotel at around 6:30pm, which allowed us a couple of hours to get ready – or so we thought… I just happened to pull out the ticket and it stated that the boarding time was 7:00pm! We had half an hour to get ready!!! What followed was something akin to a Benny Hill sketch, with both of us running around the room in various states of undress, desperately clambering for exclusive rights to the ironing board.

We rushed outside and hurriedly hailed a yellow cab. $3 later; with five minutes to spare, we were at Pier 81. Imagine our relief / annoyance when we were told that boarding commenced at 7:00pm but the boat wouldn’t set sail until 8:00pm!! We were ushered to our table and the drinks were ordered…


The menu was primarily seafood dishes and not exactly the kind of thing we were used to back in the UK. However, we did manage to find a chicken dish that sounded quite edible. Whilst servings were nouvelle cuisine in style they were all undeniably delicious.

Light background music played whilst we looked out of the window at the beautiful glow of a million illuminated windows emanating from a mass of skyscrapers. The whole atmosphere was enduring and the staff had me totally convinced that, for just this one singular evening, we weren’t tourists but rich New Yorkers.

We were extremely fortunate to be part of this cruise on September 11th as it bestowed upon us the ultimate view of New York’s annual remembrance to the victims of 9/11. For one night only at Ground Zero, two beams of electric blue light project into the night sky creating a ghostly image of the twin towers. This really is something that you need to see for yourself to truly appreciate its stunning majesty. Being on the water, we had a totally unobstructed view which evoked a rather sombre feeling within us but we were both extremely honoured to have been part of these memorable and emotional scenes. Please forgive the poor image below - sadly my camera is nowhere near up to the job of capturing night shots with any degree of success :(


On a lighter note, to round the trip off, the boat was briefly docked beside a floodlit Statue of Liberty for plentiful photo opportunities.

With excellent food, service and views, this trip comes highly recommended for anyone visiting New York. We just felt extra lucky that we timed this night to coincide with the 9/11 lights. Wonderful…