Monday, March 21, 2011

Luxury yacht charter like experience in Asia with Orion


As Asian incomes are rising, demand for luxury travel in Asia from Asians, particularly Chinese and Indians is also rising. For those who have enough money and time there are more options now to explore Asia, with 5-star luxury.

Orion Expedition Cruises with its second ship in its fleet, Orion II, will be an new luxurious option. MV Orion and MV Orion II are private yacht-like expedition cruise ships. Orion II is 88 meters long and is built by Cantieri Navale Ferrari of Italy and it actually spent some years as a private superyacht.  Now it will offer an experience between a luxury super yacht charter and a mass cruiser to its guests.

This is not your typical cruiser experience. With a purpose built vessel designed to access the inaccessible with 5-star luxury, guests travel with up to 100 others in 50 ocean view suites, 215 to 218 feet each.

Cruise destinations are the Russian Far East's Ring of Fire; Inland Sea of Japan; Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia; Borneo; New Zealand and sub-Antarctic islands that so few can visit; Papua New Guinea's ancient and primitive cultures; the grand frontier of Australia's Kimberley region and the Antarctic Continent.

A 10 night Russian Far East expedition or a 10 night Borneo voyage from Singapore will cost around 10,500 SGD per person. Orion II will be making 3 stops in Singapore for its expedition to Thailand, Borneo and Bali.



Andrew Evans reviews Orion experience in gadling.com:

"Perhaps most important is that the Orion experience is intimate. While the cruise ship industry is trending towards behemoth floating cities (population 6,000) the MV Orion carried only 75 passengers (during my expedition) along with a crew of 75 (not such a bad ratio). Over the course of two weeks I had the chance to get to know every single passenger on board and what's more, we all liked each other.

Indeed, it's not where you travel, but who you travel with that matters. The two weeks I spent on the MV Orion were blessedly asshole-free. In fact, my fellow shipmates were all really cool people--not the rich and famous or the kind of spoiled, pretentious passport-boaster you find flying first class--just passionate, smart travelers chasing their wanderlust down under. Enamored birdwatchers were in search of the rare species, retirees were living out their lifelong dreams, a honeymooning couple was being unconventional, map nerds like me kept checking the library's atlas against our personal GPS, and everyone showed an authentic lust for life. (It helped that most of my fellow travelers were Aussies--who are just born cool.)

Source: Expedition Review: On Board the MV Orion"

Singapore will be starting point for some expenditures while it will be the final destination in some others. For example Gulf of Siam explorer will depart from Singapore to Bangkok on October 10th 2011 and from Bangkok to Singapore on December 22nd 2011. It will visit Tioman Island, Kuala Terengganu, Ko Samui, Ang Tong Marine Park and Ko Kut on its way.

3 comments:

  1. Wow! You have provided a lovely image. Many yachts are used exclusively by their private owners. Others are operated all year round as charter businesses and a large number are privately owned but available for charter part time. Thanks a lot...

    Luxury Yacht Charter

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  2. Really amazing.First i would like to say thanks for providing the great information.This company offers us a variety of luxury yachts for charter that will definitely meet any kind of expectations .
    Luxury holiday in Asia

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  3. Dear Anja Vaccaro,

    This Ariara Island is beautiful. If you want to submit an article on it, I will be happy to publish it in this blog.

    ReplyDelete