On Your Next Cruise, Put Down That Cocktail and Head to Class

Trans-Atlantic Fashion Week will be held July 28 to August 4, and will feature talks by Stephen Jones, a British hat-maker; Stuart Weitzman, an American shoe designer; the fashion historian and journalist Colin McDowell; and Pat Cleveland, one of the original “supermodels.”

The Queen Mary 2 sailing from Southampton, England to New York City recently held a genealogy-themed trip featuring biotech experts and ancestry specialists, and its Jan. 3, 2019, trans-Atlantic crossing will feature a screening of the TV series “Instinct,” followed by a Q A with the actor Alan Cumming.

Crystal Cruises’ shipboard enrichment program, Creative Learning Institute, offers lessons on topics from ballroom dancing to maritime history. Depending on the sailing, you may also find classes in floral design, wellness seminars hosted by experts from the Cleveland Clinic, and a series focused in digital filmmaking that includes lessons on shooting and editing.

Enjoy a college course, on vacation

Beginning in 2019, Lindblad Expeditions will add onboard lectures from college professors on topics like science and history on select itineraries. The new series is the result of a partnership with One Day University, which organizes public lectures by college teachers across the country.

In 2019, four Lindblad cruises, including trips to South Georgia and the Falkland Islands, Alaska’s Inside Passage and Patagonia, will each carry a pair of professors from Harvard, Columbia and Yale, among other universities, who will lecture and socialize with guests during the trip.

The lecturers were chosen, according to the company, not for their expertise in the destinations, but for their ability to deliver engaging talks on topics including the life of Abraham Lincoln, the human brain and immigration in America.

But for all its newfound depth, vacationers need not worry — shipboard intellectual fodder is still balanced by diversion.

“We’re giving people something to do that’s not sitting by the pool and is mentally engaging,” said Doug Jones, owner of Sixth Star, an agency that programs enrichment courses for cruise lines. He looks for engaging speakers who can present a topic in 45 minutes and then make themselves available for follow up throughout the cruise. “It’s not like a college lecture.”